Lessebo – Målerås railway line

Lessebo – Målerås
Route number :	KLJ
Route length:	30 km
Gauge :	600 mm ( narrow gauge )
Maximum slope :	29  ‰
Minimum radius :	120 m
Top speed:	20 km / h
Legend Transition to Kust till kust-banan 30th Lessebo 23 Ekeberga 14th Kosta 7th Ideholm 0 Målerås S. Transition to the Nybro - Sävsjöström railway line

The Lessebo – Målerås railway was a narrow-gauge railway in Sweden . It had a track width of 600 millimeters.

Kosta – Lessebo line

In the early 1880s, the Kosta glassworks in Småland investigated the possibilities of improving the transport routes to the production facilities. The then director of the glassworks, Axel Hummel, took up the idea of ​​the light rail system developed by Decauville with fixed and transportable track sections with gauges of 400 to 600 mm, which he carried on to the Swedish Kostasystem with the smallest gauge of 600 mm (about two Swedish feet ) customary in Sweden developed. This is where the name tvåfotabana comes from .

With this gauge, Hummel built a 16-kilometer line between the glassworks and Lessebo train station on the Karlskrona – Växjö standard gauge line that was already in existence at the time . The route was built without a license , as it essentially ran on its own property and only carried freight for its own use. According to the system criteria, the route was constructed in a simplified form. This resulted in curve radii of 120 meters as well as incline sections with 25 - 28.5 to 33.3 per thousand. The rails on the 600 mm wide railway line weighed nine kilograms per meter . The line opened on July 1, 1888.

After a short time it became clear that in addition to the internal freight traffic in the region, there was an interest in general freight and passenger traffic. Therefore, on March 19, 1889, a license for the line was applied for. It was found that the simplified construction of the route was not sufficient to obtain a permit for public use. The following requirements were made for this: Locomotives with at least three or four axles to improve cornering, freight wagons with bogies with a bogie distance of at least four meters, whereby the wheelbase was not allowed to exceed two meters. The highest gradient was only allowed to be 29 per thousand and all wooden bridges had to be replaced by iron bridges.

After meeting these criteria, the railway line called Kosta – Lessebo Järnväg (KLJ) was opened to general traffic on August 20, 1891. The measurements showed that the greatest gradient was 28.5 per thousand and the minimum radius of the route was 120 meters. Only the access to the Lessebo train station, where there was a track triangle , had a radius of 90 meters, with switches this was allowed to be 60 meters. The maximum speed on the route was 20 km / h.

In total, the following vehicles were procured:

Steam locomotives

number	Surname	design type	Wheel alignment	Manufacturer	Fabr.-No./ year of construction	Special
1	KOSTA		B 'B 2	Decauville Ainé (France)	58 1888	Retired in 1939
2	A. MALLET	Tank locomotive	B 'B n4vt	Munktells Mekaniska Verkstad , Eskilstuna	27 1891	1901 renamed LESSEBO , 1948 to Munkedals Jv., 1954 to Museum Tomteboda, today with ÖSlJ
3	MÅLERÅS	Tank locomotive	B 'B	Orenstein & Koppel , Berlin	611 1901	1948 at Aspabruk No. 6, retired in 1951
4th	PYSEN	Tank locomotive	B t	Decauville Ainé (France)	60 1888	Bought in 1908 and classified as locomotive 4, delivered to Kalmar in 1931, retired in 1951

Diesel railcars / diesel locomotives

number	Wheel alignment	Manufacturer	Fabr.-No./ year of construction	Special
1	1 B 1 t	Motala Verkstad , Motala	148 1894	1938 conversion to motor locomotive; 1938 from Nättraby – Alnaryd – Älmaboda Jv., 1948 to Ohs bruk
4th		Hässleholm MV	? 1925	originally railcar 10, converted to motor locomotive 4 in 1946

There were also 14 two-axle freight cars from Decauville Ainé and a bogie passenger car from Belgian production.

Kosta – Målerås route

Arrival of a train from Kosta in Lessebo, around 1905

In the following years, Axel Hummel tried to expand the route. A concession for an extension from Kosta to Oskarshamn was rejected. Hummel therefore applied for a further permit for the extension from Kosta to Målerås, a station on the Nybro - Sävsjöström line . S. Engström had prepared the drawings and the calculation. According to this, the maximum gradient should be 25 per thousand, the minimum radius of curvature should be 150 meters and the rails should weigh nine kilograms per meter. The cost of the 13.4 kilometer route was estimated at 124 561 crowns .

The concession was granted on December 31, 1895, subject to the requirement to procure another steam locomotive and a passenger car. Construction work did not begin until 1898, and the new line was opened to traffic on April 1, 1898. The locomotive was delivered by Orenstein & Koppel in Berlin in 1901.

Kosta Järnvägsaktiebolag / Kosta Nya Järnvägsaktiebolag

The Kosta Järnvägsaktiebolag was a Swedish corporation . It was founded on May 13, 1897 with the aim of operating the Kosta – Lessebo railway line in public operation and building and operating the Kosta – Målerås section. Its first managing director was Alex Hummel. On April 2, 1898 and May 13, 1898, Hummel transferred the licenses for routes Kosta – Lessebo and Kosta – Målerås of Kosta Järnvägsaktiebolag . The entire route with a length of 30 kilometers was named Kosta Järnväg . The identification of the vehicles from the original KLJ was retained. Further attempts by Hummel to extend the route to Oskarshamn failed. While the traffic on the Kosta – Lessebo section was satisfactory, it fell short of expectations between Kosta and Målerås.

In 1905 Kosta Järnvägsaktiebolag was converted into Kosta Nya Järnvägsaktiebolag . CG Fogelberg became the new managing director. This change had no impact on rail operations.

attitude

The section between Kosta and Målerås threw annual losses , while between Kosta and Lessebo profits were made. In 1900 the railway carried 22,600 passengers. Until the First World War , the volume remained relatively stable with around 20,000 passengers, so that in 1907 five percent and in 1918 six percent dividends could be paid out. Between the world wars, this path was reached by severe economic crises. The freight volume fell by two thirds as many goods were transported by car. Passenger traffic halved. The company also procured a diesel railcar , which, however, was unable to save the line from being closed .

Against this background, the company applied to the king in May 1925 to cease operations and dismantle the tracks for the 14-kilometer-long Kosta – Målerås line. However, the hiring was not approved. The company then reduced traffic to a minimum so as not to violate the license conditions. It was not until 1931 that the traffic on the losing section was stopped, on October 31, 1931 all traffic was shut down and in 1934 the track systems were dismantled.

At the same time, an application for the suspension of passenger traffic on the Kosta – Lessebo section was made, which was granted. Passenger traffic ended on this route on October 31, 1931. From this point on, the company again carried the original name Kosta – Lessebo Järnväg (KLJ). After a further decline in freight traffic, it was stopped on May 1, 1948. In the same year the remaining tracks were removed.

The locomotive No. 2 LESSEBO and the passenger cars KLJ 102 (C) and KLJ 103 (BCo) are preserved in a museum at Östra Södermanlands Järnväg . In Lessebo, an old bridge was faithfully renovated as part of the construction of a hiking trail .

literature

• Svenska Järnvägsföreningens 50-år , 1926,
• Kosta Järnväg (Linjen Lessebo-Kosta-Målerås, Hummels jernvägsbyrå och Kostasystemet) by Lennart Welander, publisher Museiföreningen Östra Södermanlands Järnväg, Borås, Centraltryckeriet AB, 1988.
• Kosta-Jernvägssystemet - Facsimile print of the original edition from 1891 by Hummels Jernvägsbyrå, Stockholm. Stockholm, Esselte, 1968.

Web links

• Historical description of the railway line at Historiskt om Svenska Järnvägar (swed.)
• Description of the railway on the side of the Östra Södermanlands Järnväg
• Per Englund: Decauvillesystemet - från Paris till mörkaste Småland. (PDF; 211 kB) KUNGLIGA TEKNISKA HÖGSKOLAN, Avdelningen för teknik- och vetenskapshistoria, May 27, 2009, archived from the original ; Retrieved April 25, 2019 (Swedish). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ partly from locomotive statistics pospichal.net
2. ↑ Lokstatistik pospichal.net
3. ↑ Description of the route on the Målerås website (Swedish) ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ ”Broar till fd Kosta Lessebo järnväg”, Ekeberga socks - bidrag 178 875 kr. In: lansstyrelsen.se. Länsstyrelsen i Kronobergs län, archived from the original on April 18, 2013 ; Retrieved April 2, 2018 (Swedish).