Munkedals övre – Munkedals hamn railway line

Munkedals övre – Munkedals hamn

Munkedal train station

Route length:

5.6 km

600, 1435 mm

	0.0	Munkedals övre (formerly Pers.-Halt)
		Örekilsälven
		Munkedalsälven
		Göteborg – Strömstad railway from Strömstad

		Munkedal
	3.1	Munkedals nedre
		Åtorp

		Railway line Gothenburg – Strömstad to Gothenburg
	5.6	Munkedals hamn

The Munkedals övre – Munkedals hamn railway was a narrow-gauge railway in Sweden . It had a track width of 600 mm. The entire line was converted to standard gauge between 1952 and 1955 . In the 1970s it was closed between Munkedals nedre and Munkedals hamn. The connection to Munkedals övre was then threaded into Munkedal station on the Gothenburg – Strömstad railway line . The section to the port was provided with a third track on which museum trains with a gauge of 600 mm run.

history

In the past, the rivers in the region were the transport routes for small industrial companies. Coming from Kärnsjön in the north-west, Örekilsälven was the energy supplier for saws and mills. In 1667, Borgmästarbruket and Torps herrgård and other interested parties founded the first sawmill company along the river in Uddevalla . The aim was the joint export of sawn timber. The loading point for shipping was in Åtorps sunning below the so-called Sunninge curve of the later Munkedals Jernväg . The two partners Borgmästarbruket and Torp herrgård were bought by Munkedals AB in 1918, and the sawmill operation ended in the 1920s.

The eastern Munkedalsälven has been used as a transport route by the predecessor of the Munkedal paper mill (Munkedals pappersbruk) since the late 1700s. At the waterfall below Munkedals herrgård was the ironworks, the buildings of which are still in existence today are called the old hut . The smelter's economic conditions were poor and its operations ceased in the 1860s. After flow measurements made simply with empty bottles, Munkedals AB was founded in 1871 and built a paper mill by the waterfall. This was expanded to include a paper mill. The products were loaded onto ships for export at the Saltkällan loading bay. A salt works was built on this site and there was enough space for a market and a harbor for the sailing ships. The stacking rights were granted earlier by Queen Lovisa Ulrika . After the great fire of Uddevalla in 1806, there were plans to move the Stapelstadt to Saltkällan and name it after the Queen in Ulricestad.

Munkedals AB's first transport system to the port in Saltkällan consisted of horse-drawn vehicles with specially built wagons for paper bales. In order to increase the transport capacity, a steam locomotive was soon procured, which was given the name Mares . There were problems with the machine from the start. The roads were too bad for the heavy machine, and at a community meeting they asked for it to be banned as it frightened the horses. According to tradition, the use of mares ended when they ran over the toes of the dispatcher Carlander.

Railway construction

During this time the administration of Munkedals AB started planning a new transport system and bought a plot of land in Skree, west of Örekil. A modern deep-water port was built here. Since the railway Gothenburg Stromstad was later (1903 Uddevalla C Stromstad and 1907 Gothenburg Uddevalla C-C), was not a direct route to Gothenburg available.

Therefore an application was made for a concession for a narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of 600 mm between the port and the hut with a length of 5.6 kilometers. This concession has been approved. The company also purchased a new steamship, the MUNKEDAL steamer . With this one took up the regular traffic to Gothenburg. The first steam train from Munkedal to the port ran on July 12, 1895. However, the official inauguration did not take place until December of the same year. From the beginning, passengers were transported and together with the steamboat they had contact with the big city. The first vehicle fleet consisted of the steam locomotive I, built in Motala in 1895, the MJ I passenger car, built in Södertälje Verkstäder in 1895 and a number of freight cars.

Locomotives
number	design type	Wheel alignment	Manufacturer	No. / year of construction	Whereabouts
I.	Tank locomotive	1 'B 1' t	Motala Verkstad , Motala	154 1895	retired 1955
II	Tank locomotive	1 'B 1' t	Motala Verkstad, Motala	332 1904	retired 1955
3	Tank locomotive	D t	Borsig , Berlin	10477 1919	Brigadelok (DHFB 2705), bought in 1925 from Nydqvist & Holm , Trollhättan , commonly referred to as Tysken , in 1940 from LH Sandström Maskinaffär, Månsarp
4th	Diesel locomotive		Sala Mekaniska Verkstad		Use as a shunting engine in the port
5	Tank locomotive	1 'C 1' t	Orenstein & Koppel , Berlin	7767 1914	1940 from Stafsjö Järnväg in Kolmården , there SJ no.3, with 16.5 tons the largest locomotive on the railway, retired in 1955
6th	Tank locomotive	B 'B n4vt	Munktells Mekaniska Verkstad , Eskilstuna	27 1891	Acquired from Kosta-Lessebo Järnväg in 1948 , KLJ No. 2 there; 1954 at Museum Tomteboda, today with ÖSlJ

After the railway line between Strömstad and Uddevalla went into operation in 1903, the narrow-gauge railway carried mail to the port, where it took over the steamship to Lysekil. This mail service lasted until 1913, when the Smedberg – Lysekil railway went into operation. In 1935, in order to cope with the increased tourist traffic, two passenger cars were purchased from the disused Anneberg-Ormaryds Järnväg in Småland .

After the Second World War, the importation of oil began, partly for personal use and partly for sale. Oil tanks and a pumping station were built in the port. Another locomotive had to be procured to transport oil trains from the port to the Munkedal SJ station. For this, the Mallet locomotive KLJ No. 2 was bought by Kosta-Lessebo Järnväg in 1948 .

Re-gauging

The transshipment from narrow gauge to standard gauge in Munkedals nedre was very labor-intensive with 10 to 15 employees and became unprofitable in the late 1940s. So it was decided to convert the route to standard gauge. The renovation began in 1952 and lasted until 1955. Freight traffic was now carried out with a new diesel locomotive, identical in construction to the V3 from Germany used by the SJ since 1951 . The passengers were transported with a used Hilding Carlssons Mekaniska Verkstad Type Y railcar . The narrow-gauge locomotives were scrapped with a few exceptions. Locomotive No. 6, the former KLJ 2, was preserved.

The cars were handed over to Östra Södermanlands Järnväg in Mariefred . The standard gauge line between Munkedals nedre and the port was discontinued in the early 1970s, while the rest of the line up to the paper mill is operated by the SJ in freight traffic .

The diesel locomotive was taken over by the SJ in 1965, and at the same time the operation of the industrial site was transferred to the state railway.

Munkedals Jernvägsklubb

In 1983 the Munkedals Jernvägsklubb was founded. The aim was to open a museum on the discontinued section of the standard gauge line. The museum association has been operating it under the name Munkedals Jernväg since 1985 . The association has installed an additional rail on the line to operate historical 600 mm trains from the steam locomotive era. Historical vehicles were also procured. Substantial investments have been made over the years, particularly in buildings, including the construction of the engine shed and station buildings.

In 1984 the association began to restore the historic Varp train station on the Bohusbana. When operations began, the number of vehicles was two steam locomotives, three diesel locomotives and five wagons. In 1994, a diesel locomotive made by Åsbrink was added by swapping with Skara-Lundsbrunns Järnvägar . The machine was built in Malmö in 1952 and serves as a reserve locomotive for the steam trains. It was in use at the Håverud-Åsensbruk paper mill, which belongs to the Munkedals group, until the 1970s.

In 2005 the old reloading point and the train station in Munkedals nedre were brought back into operation. A railway history exhibition has been set up in the former goods shed. Since then, the entire route between Munkedals hamn and Munkedals nedre has been used.

Individual evidence

Web links

[1] Locomotive statistics Pospichal

[2] Delivery list Motala Verkstad

[3] Delivery list Motala Verkstad

[4] Munktell's delivery list