Nesttun – Os railway line

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Nesttun – Os
Map from 1907
Map from 1907
Route length: 26.3 km
Gauge : 750 mm ( narrow gauge )
Top speed: 25 km / h
Legend
   
 Vossebanen from Bergen
   
 0.00 Nesttun (1872) 31.4 moh.
   
 after Arna
   
 Skjold 52.0 moh.
   
 4.30 Rådal (1894) 42.0 moh.
   
 6.60 Stend (1894) 60.0 moh.
   
 Solbakken 53.0 moh.
   
 8.60 Fana 53.0 moh.
   
 9.90 Hamre (1894) 54.0 moh.
   
 Kismul 64.0 moh.
   
 15.10 Calender silk (1894) 75.5 moh.
   
 18.30 Søfteland (1894) 56.0 moh.
   
 23.30 Ulven (1894) 43.0 moh.
   
 25.30 Kuven (1894) 22.5 moh.
   
 26.30 Osøyro (1894) 3.0 moh.

The nesttun-os line (Norwegian Nesttun-Osbanen ) was a narrow-gauge railway between Nesttun , now part of Bergen , and Osøyro in the municipality Bjørnafjorden in Fylke Vestland in Norway .

It was opened as the first private railway in Norway on June 1, 1894. The line was built to connect Os with the Vossebane in passenger and freight traffic to Bergen and Voss . On September 2, 1935, the line was the first Norwegian railway line to be closed.

Only short sections of the railway and a few stations survived. A large part of the former railway line is used as a cycle path , which makes it impossible to revive the Nesttun – Os line as a museum railway . A section of track is located at Stend station, which has remained unchanged. A diesel locomotive and a passenger car were set up there to commemorate the route. The station building itself has been restored and is used as a museum.

history

Proposals to build a railway from Nesttun to Os were first made in connection with the planning of the Vossebane from Bergen to Voss. Initial plans were for a slightly longer route via Os, Samnanger , Norheimsund and Granvin . At that time it was necessary for the municipalities to contribute 20% of the cost of the railway construction. In 1874 the community of Os was encouraged to buy shares for 8,000 kroner . This was rejected by the local council and eventually the Vossebane was built over Dale . 1884 in Fana , a committee established to investigate the possibility of building a branch line from Nesttun to Fana. Neither the municipality nor the state were willing to give grants for the route and so the plans were rejected again in 1885. At the same time, the doctor Daniel Schumann Krüger developed an initiative to promote the possibility of building a connection from Nesttun to Osøren (now Osøyro). At the time, it was common practice for secondary lines to build the line along existing roads and to use slow locomotives. Krüger initially proposed such a solution, but later decided to support conventional railway construction.

In 1884 the construction of the line from Os to Nesttun was estimated at 885,000 crowns plus land purchase costs. Public meetings were held and a planning committee was formed in 1885. The following year, an application was made to the state for a grant of 3,000 crowns for preparatory work. The railway was to be built under private management. However, the committee wanted to receive government funding. The government at the time favored the construction of railroad lines, but the line was a low priority among the many proposed projects. In 1888 a state engineer examined the planned route and recommended that the line be built via Rådal . In addition, Fanahammeren and Stend were viewed as traffic hubs at that time . Following this, shares were issued for 50,000 crowns. This was not enough to finance the railway.

Instead of increasing capital, Kruger tried to reduce costs. He suggested reducing the minimum curve radius from 100 to 50 meters and using only 600 millimeters instead of the track width of 1067 millimeters as on the Vossebane. This enabled the railway to make tighter turns and negotiate obstacles and hills, eliminating the need to build cuttings and tunnels.

Engineer Nicolay Nicolaysen Sontum began planning the route in 1889, and estimated the cost to be 500,000 crowns. After the press in Bergen reported about the construction of the railway, the measures received support from shipowners Fredrik Georg Gade and Johan A. Mowinckel , as did those of MP Wollert Konow . The application for a concession was made on March 15, 1890, in which Gade and Mowinckel guaranteed the necessary capital. As a result, the route from Nesttun to Os was the first railway in Norway to be built without government subsidies. The construction contract with Sontum was signed on March 29th.

The concession was granted on February 2, 1891 and had a term of 40 years from the date the line was commissioned. The delay was partly due to a debate in the Norwegian Parliament over the gauge of the line. The sale of shares began on March 3, 1891. The largest shares were acquired by Gade (20%), Mowinckel (10%), the municipality of Os (5%) and Krüger (2%). The community used the entire budget for the year to buy shares and with additional borrowed money that had to be repaid in 40 years. In addition, the railway received free land from many landowners.

The narrow-gauge railway that was built was 750 mm, the smallest gauge ever built for public transport in Norway. The smallest curve radius was 50 meters. This combination makes it possible to avoid all tunnels. The longest bridge was eight meters long. The gauge meant that all goods had to be reloaded at Nesttun station and the train only had a maximum speed of 25 km / h. The railway was of great importance to the community of Os. They made day trips to the city of Bergen possible. The train journey lasted only two hours and was much faster and cheaper than a trip by steamboat .

The boilers crack in one of the mallet locomotives

The first steam locomotive with the name Rotten was delivered by Decauville in Paris. The other steam locomotives used were of the Mallet type , which were built by La Métallurgique in Tubize in Belgium . They were given the names Bjørnen , Ulven and Os .

Eight passenger cars for the route came from Oldbury in England and seven were supplied by Skabo jernbanevognfabrik in Oslo.

Despite a boom caused by the First World War , the railway then lost business shares to road traffic, which was faster and more convenient. On September 2, 1935, it was the first Norwegian railway line to be shut down. In the following year, most of the route was dismantled.

Current condition

The old Os train station on the former Nesttun – Os railway line .

The embankment still exists in many places , although the rails were removed in 1936. In 1980, most of the embankment in Bergen was converted into a hiking and cycling path and later paved. The 12.7 km long route from Nesttun to Kismul has been developed as a footpath. The section from Selsvik to Ytre Sandvika was expanded as a cycle path in 2002 and extended one kilometer past Kismul in 2008. There is a plan for the remaining section after Kalandseid, a lack of money has prevented the expansion. The route is accessible, but the path is overgrown and partly swampy.

From Kalandseid to Søfteland, the route runs alongside the European route E39 . In the south of Kalandseid, the path leads through private agricultural land towards Røykenes. In Os, the section from Tømmernes to Søfteland is paved. About one kilometer from Storestraumen south of Søfteland has been converted into a gravel path. On this section is the two meter long Bergstø Bridge, on which the rails still lie.

A railway museum has been set up in Stend station. It is the only station that has been preserved in its original construction. In the 1980s the building had become dilapidated. From 1987 the repairs by the Osbanens Venner railway association began . There is a small collection of items from the railway era, including old pictures and tools from the former workshop. A trolley from 1925 and a combined 3rd class / post car from 1894 are set up on a 70-meter-long section of track . It consists of two half frames welded together and mounted on bogies bought from Poland . It is the smallest bogie wagon in Norway. The station has a water crane and a diesel locomotive from 1967. This construction locomotive was used in Fana and later in Bergen for the construction of sewers and was handed over to the museum in 1995. It has a track width of 750 millimeters, but nothing to do with the vehicles on the former route.

Os train station has been preserved and belongs to the municipality. It is planned to restore it to its condition in 1894. For lack of money, it was only painted in the original colors. The plan is to lay a short section of track. The former workshop contains a sewer pumping station and has been externally renovated. The depot was built with decorative pillars but was not built until the 1930s. In the 1990s these pillars were removed again. The cultural association of Os has the rights to use the building, which is owned by the municipality. It is planned to set up a center for art there. To this end, a glass facade would be built towards the fjord and art workshops and studios would be set up.

The train station in Ulven has also been preserved and modernized. It is privately owned. All railway buildings in Kalandseidet except one privately owned house were demolished. The Hamre station area has been converted into a bus station. The train station in Fana is still standing, but it has been made unrecognizable through renovation and modernization and serves as a private residence. Radal train station is also a private residence.

Two passenger cars are kept in the Norsk Jernbane Museum in Hamar after they were used on the Urskog – Hølandsbanen from 1935 to 1960. They are used in the Tertitten museum train that runs on the museum grounds and were renovated in 1994/95. The parish of Os owns a dismantled car body from an Oldbury car from 1894. A car body built by Skabo in 1907 is in a garden in Kismul and still has some original benches.

Part of the route is now used as a pedestrian and bicycle path. In 2011, the area of ​​Skjoldskiftet and Odins veg in Bergen was closed due to construction work on the new light rail .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BYEN Vor første private Lokalbane , Bergens Tidende of June 16, 1994, p. 48.
  2. ^ Per Ivar Tautra, Fremskrittet som åpnet bygdene. Nesttun-Osbanen - en attraksjon som ble borte , Norsk jernbaneklubb 1996, ISBN 82-90286-16-3 ( history )
  3. ↑ Tautra (1996), p. 10
  4. ↑ Tautra (1996), pp. 10-11
  5. ↑ a b Tautra (1996), p. 11
  6. ↑ a b Tautra (1996), p. 13
  7. ↑ Tautra (1996), p. 14
  8. ↑ Tautra (1996), p. 15
  9. ↑ Tautra (1996), p. 16
  10. ↑ a b Sykkeltur på Osbanen by Terje Melheim ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ a b c d e Osbanens Venner. Traseen. osbanen.no, accessed on August 26, 2019 (Norwegian).
  12. ↑ Osbanens Venner. Nyhende-arkiv. In: osbanen.no. Retrieved August 26, 2019 (Norwegian).
  13. ↑ Osbanens Venner. Om Stend stasjon. In: osbanen.no. Retrieved August 26, 2019 (Norwegian).

literature

  • Aspenberg, Nils Carl, Glemte spor - History of the Norwegian branch lines, 1994, Baneforlaget, Oslo, ISBN 82-91448-00-0 (Norwegian)
  • Tautra, Per Ivar, Nesttun – Osbanen , 1996, Norsk Jernbaneklubb, ISBN 82-90286-16-3 (Norwegian)
  • Norsk Jernbaneklubb, Banedate '94 , 1994 (Norwegian)

Web links

Commons : Nesttun – Osbanen  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files