Tidaholm – Åsarp railway line

Tidaholm – Åsarp
former train station in Tidaholm
Route number :	TJ
Route length:	32 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope :	16  ‰
Minimum radius :	300 m
Top speed:	40 km / h
Legend Tidaholms bruk 23.9 Tidaholm Tidaholm rangerbangård (1906 provisional terminus) Tidaholm – Svensbro to Svensbro railway line (Narrow gauge) 22.9 Marbotorp (1942-1984) 20.9 Baltak 19.0 Madängsholm 17.3 Suntakstan 15.6 Suntak 13.9 Åhägne 11.4 Folkabo 9.6 Hångsdala 7.8 Hundstorp 5.4 Kälvene 3.1 Vartofta gård Railway line Nässjö – Falköping from Jönköping 0 Vartofta (formerly personal stop) Railway line Nässjö – Falköping to Falköping Falköping – Landeryd railway from Falköping 4.4 Smula 8.0 Åsarp Falköping – Landeryd railway line to Landeryd

The Tidaholm – Åsarp railway was a standard gauge railway in Sweden . It was built in two sections: between Tidaholm and Vartofta as a new building in standard gauge and between Vartofta and Åsarp as a re - gauged section of the Ulricehamn – Vartofta Järnvägsaktiebolag (UWJ) 891 mm ( narrow gauge ) railway line Ulartricoftan – Vartricofta .

prehistory

Already in June 1876 Tidaholm was opened up by the railway. At that time the narrow-gauge railway line Svensbro – Tidaholm ( gauge 891 mm) was put into operation by the Hjo – Stentorp Järnväg (HSJ). The background to this was the transport to the Vulcan match factory , which opened in 1868 , which until then had been carried out with horse-drawn vehicles to the station in Stenstorp on the Västra stambana . With the opening of the Stenstorp – Hjo railway through the Hjo – Stentorp Järnväg in 1873, the nearest station for goods was in Fridenes . After the expansion in 1876, the goods in the match factory could be loaded directly onto freight wagons. However, in Stenstorp the goods had to be reloaded onto standard-gauge freight wagons, so a more cost-effective solution was sought.

In Tidaholm there was still an important branch of the economy that used the railroad for transportation. In Tidaholms bruk , a company founded in 1799 and converted into a company in 1890, the construction of cars, mainly trucks and buses , began in 1903 . However, this company had economic problems in 1933 and stopped manufacturing vehicles in 1934.

Tidaholms Järnvägsaktiebolag

At the turn of the century, the managing director of Vulcans tändsticksfabrik Hans Gustafsson suggested the construction of a standard gauge railway line from Tidaholm to Vartofta on the historic Södra stambanan from Malmö via Nässjö to Falköping . He was supported by the brothers Johan and Alfred von Essen. Arvid Blomberg was entrusted with the preparation of plans and cost estimates. He estimated the construction at 1,020,000 crowns , which were covered by a government bond and a share capital of 550,000 crowns.

Section Tidaholm – Vartofta

The concession to build the line was granted on July 1, 1904. On September 15th the Tidaholms Järnvägsaktiebolag was constituted . Alfred von Essen became the company's first chairman.

Arvid Blomberg was appointed site manager, construction work began on October 10, 1904 and on August 14, 1905, the laying of the first rails began. On November 8, 1906, Governor Fabian de Geer was able to open the 24-kilometer section between Tidahom and Vartofta for public transport. Rails with a weight of 31.5 kilograms per meter were used for the construction .

Section Vartofta – Åsarp

The Ulricehamn – Vartofta line of Ulricehamns Järnväg was sold in 1903 for 710,000 kroner to Västra Centralbanan (VCJ), which planned the construction of the Falköping – Ulricehamn – Landeryd line. The line was to be included in the new construction of the Landeryd – Falköping railway line and the existing line was to be converted to standard gauge on the same subgrade . For this reason the train service was stopped. The last narrow-gauge train ran between Ulricehamn and Åsarp on August 20, 1906, and the last between Åsarp and Vartofta on February 16, 1907.

The line from Falköping to Landeryd was put into operation on December 21, 1906. The narrow-gauge section between Åsarp and Vartofta, which was operated until 1907, was taken over by Tidaholms Järnväg for 300,000 kroner after the conversion to standard gauge . The concession was transferred and then the TJ resumed operations on the eight-kilometer route on October 28, 1907. The total distance of the TJ was now 32 kilometers, the total costs for the construction including the section Åsarp – Vartofta amounted to 1.667 million crowns. For the match factory in Tidaholm, there was no costly reloading.

After just a few years, the TJ found that the Åsarp – Vartofta section could not be operated profitably. Therefore, the closure of this line was requested and on November 16, 1918 operations were stopped. The tracks were dismantled and the land was sold for around 500,000 crowns.

vehicles

Even before the line opened, two steam locomotives were procured for 37,960 crowns, others followed later, new or used.

number	Surname	design type	Wheel alignment	Manufacturer	Fabr.-No./ year of construction	Special
1	VULCAN	Tank locomotive	1 C t	Nydqvist och Holm , Trollhättan	801 1906	1939 to SJ , there L10 1587, 1947 SJ S12 1585, scrapped in Östersund in 1960
2	TIDAHOLM	Tank locomotive	1 C t	Nydqvist och Holm, Trollhättan	802 1906	1939 to SJ, there L10 1588, 1947 SJ S12 1586, scrapped in Östersund in 1960
4th	HELLIDEN	Tank locomotive	B t	Nydqvist och Holm, Trollhättan	968 1911	1939 to SJ Å5 1623, 1945 to Stora Kopparberg , Älvkarleö 3, scrapped in 1952
5		Tank locomotive	B 1 t	Nydqvist och Holm, Trollhättan	254 1887	built as SJ Pb 369, acquired by SJ in 1919, sold to Frövifors in 1925, parked in 1930, scrapped in 1936
6th		Tender locomotive	C 2	Motala Verkstad , Motala	173 1897	built as SJ Kd 519, renumbered as SJ Kd2 519 in 1902, scrapped in 1931 by SJ to TJ, 1938

Two two-axle and two four-axle passenger cars with a total of 176 seats were procured for passenger traffic, and eight open and 13 covered two-axle freight cars with a load capacity of 227 tons were procured for goods transport.

Immediately after the opening, only a provisional terminus in Tidaholm, about one kilometer from the HSJ station, could be approached. This was located at the Vamman freight yard, where the freight shed was used as a station building. This is where the railroad's two-tier locomotive shed was built. The reason for this was that it was not until the end of 1906 that an agreement could be reached with the HSJ on shared use of the existing train station. Then the trains drove to the final station. Over the years, the fleet has been supplemented by another two-axle passenger car in addition to the steam locomotives mentioned.

In order to rationalize passenger traffic, a four-axle diesel-electric multiple unit was purchased in 1925 and one of the four-axle bogie passenger cars was passed on to Ostkustbanan (OKB).

Joint management

The next few years brought few changes, but also lower profits. In order to optimize processes, TJ and HSJ decided to jointly manage the two railway companies. This was introduced in 1929 and lasted until the nationalization of the TJ in 1939.

nationalization

As the TJ's economic situation deteriorated in the early 1930s, the administration sought to persuade the state to buy the railroad. In view of the risk of the company's bankruptcy , the Swedish state took over the TJ through Statens Järnvägar on July 17, 1939, with the general nationalization of the railways in Sweden . The vehicles passed to the new owner and continued operation was ensured.

Hiring and dismantling

Due to the decline in passenger traffic, this was stopped on September 27, 1970. With effect from January 1, 1989, all freight traffic followed, the last train left on January 26. In 1995 the railway was dismantled.

Web links

• Description of Tidaholm Järnväg (swed.)
• Tidaholm – Vartofta – Åsarp. Bandel 443. In: banvakt.se. Retrieved February 1, 2015 (Swedish). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ City map Tidaholm near Runeberg
2. ↑ The abbreviation UWJ has its origin in the old Swedish spelling Wantofta
3. ↑ Matchstick production Tidaholm
4. ↑ partly according to jernbanen.dk (Danish)