Dunderlandsbanen

 Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap

Storforshei – Gullsmedvik
Route length:	23.7 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend Nordlandsbanen from Dunderland (from 1945) Rana pit tunnel loading system 66.41 °  N , 14.71 °  O Ranelva (bridge since 1983, 260 m) 66.41 °  N , 14.71 °  O Brannflata malmstasjon 66.4 °  N , 14.71 °  O 535.49 Ørtfjell (1945-1959) 534.63 Abzw. Ørtfjell (1983) 66.4 °  N , 14.7 °  O Stupforsen (400 m) 66.39 °  N , 14.65 °  O 527.35 Grønfjelldal (1942-1974) 66.38 °  N , 14.63 °  O Grønfjellåga 66.37 °  N , 14.59 °  O Storforsen (350 m) 66.4 °  N , 14.51 °  E (Start of Dunderlandsbanen) Storforshei pit tunnel loading system 66.4 °  N , 14.51 °  E Ranelva 66.4 °  N , 14.51 °  E Storforshei junction 522.88 Storforshei (1942) 66.4 °  N , 14.51 °  E Småneslitunnel (198 m) 66.4 °  N , 14.45 °  O Gomeatunnel (156 m) 66.4 °  N , 14.44 °  O Illhulliatunnel (1700 m) 66.39 °  N , 14.4 °  O 512.65 Skonseng (1942) 66.36 °  N , 14.35 °  O Kalvhaugentunnel (125 m) 66.35 °  N , 14.35 °  O Pure Fosse tunnel (616 m) 66.34 °  N , 14.34 °  O Trolldalen tunnel (174 m) 66.34 °  N , 14.33 °  O 506.51 Mjølalia (1942) 66.34 °  N , 14.31 °  O Tverråga (about 60 m) 66.32 °  N , 14.18 °  O Tverrånes (end of Dunderlandsbanen) Nordlandsbanen to Mo i Rana (from 1942) 500.85 Gullsmedvik (1942) 66.33 °  N , 14.14 °  E

From a historical point of view, Dunderlandsbanen is the 22 kilometer long railway line between Gullsmedvik in Mo i Rana and Storforshei in Rana , Norway . The line has been part of the Nordlandsbane since 1942 .

background

The line was built by the Dunderland Iron Ore Company to bring the iron ore discovered by Nils Persson from their mine on Storforshei to the port of Gullsmedvik and sell it to the Edison Ore-Milling Company . Construction of the line began in 1902 and construction was completed two years later. However, operations did not start until 1906. There were many operational difficulties in the mine and production was stopped several times for years.

With the German occupation of Norway in 1940, the Wehrmacht and Organization Todt began building the Nordland Railway. For this purpose, Dunderlandsbanen was upgraded and connected to the main line on May 15, 1942. After the war, the Norges Statsbaner carried out extensive line improvements on the line in order to meet modern standards.

Routing

Dunderlandsbanen was a single-track, standard-gauge line between Gullsmedvik and Storforshei. It began at the port at Gullsmedvik in Mo i Rana and ran through the Dunderlandsdal until it reached the Rana mine near Storforshei. She followed the south bank of the Ranelva . After their integration into the Nordlandbahn, the sections to Gullsmedvik and Storfoshei became branch lines.

The route began at Gullsmedvik, 500.85 kilometers from Oslo Central Station. She crossed the Tverråga River after 740 meters and the Plura stream. After the route has been converted by NSB, the route leads through several tunnels. The 174-meter-long Trolldalen tunnel is followed by the 616-meter-long Reinfossentunnel and the 125-meter-long Kalvhaugen tunnel. At kilometer 515.65, the route reaches the 1,760 meter long Illhullia tunnel, which is followed by the 156 meter long Gomea tunnel and the 198 meter long Smånesli tunnel before reaching the ore mine at Storforshei.

history

The ore mining in Rana began in 1799 near Ormlia. Ole Tobias Olsen discovered iron ore on his farm in North Dunderland in 1879, for which he had a mining claim registered. Olsen had been working on the plans for the Nordlandsbanen north of Trondheim since 1872 . In 1891 he petitioned the government for his mine to be classified as a "source of national wealth" and for the Dunderlandsdalen railway to be built to bring the ore to the port of Mo. He received a grant to carry out technical investigations for this railway line.

A Swedish investor took the initiative to build the line to Dunderlandsdalen as a private railway. Olsen was against it and wanted a state railway instead. As a member of the regional government of Nordland, he collected votes in favor of calling on parliament to build a state-run, 47-kilometer-long railway line from Mo through Dunderlandsdalen. As an alternative, the regional government asked a private railway to which the state had unrestricted rights. This route was to be built in such a way that it would become part of the Nordlandsbane when it reached Rana.

With regard to the planned rights in the private alternative, Olsen advocated building the railway in 1896. The application was supported by the local council on the condition that the line would be built with Norwegian capital, under Norwegian construction management and by Norwegian workers. The regional government recommended this variant, although it had requested that the line be operated as a state railway. However, a concession was refused by the state.

During the 1880s, the Swedish industrialist Nils Persson and his engineer Alfred Hasselbom found large ore deposits in Dunderlandsdal. Persson secured the mining rights and bought land to build a railroad and a loading facility at the port at Gullsmedvik. He sold land and rights for £ 199,000 to the Edison Ore – Milling Company , which founded the Dunderland Iron Ore Company (DIOC) subsidiary in 1902 to build and operate mines and plants.

Based on mining law, DIOC built a railway line to connect the mine with the port facilities. Construction began in 1902. The greatest challenge was to produce a cutting tool that could be used to build a 40-meter-long tunnel. Two thousand people were involved in the construction. The track construction was completed in 1904. Deliveries from the mine could already begin. The official handover by the construction company took place on November 1st, 1904. Scheduled operations did not begin until 1906.

However, the separation method used was not efficient. By 1908 only 87,500 tons could be exported, compared to the planning of 750,000 tons. DIOC therefore closed operations including the railway. The company was refinanced in 1913 to continue production. But the commissioning of the new separation technology was delayed by the First World War . In 1919 there was a shortage of coal and the recession from 1920 to 1922 caused another delay, so that production only resumed afterwards. Another stop followed in 1931 and resumed in 1937. British investors bought DIOC in 1938, but because of the high proportion of phosphorus in the ore, only German foundries were interested in buying the ore. After Germany declared war on the United Kingdom on September 3, 1939, production was stopped again.

Integration into the NSB route network

With the occupation of Norway in World War II, the construction of the Nordlandsbane, which had reached Mosjøen by then , was assigned to the Wehrmacht. This commissioned the Todt organization with the further execution, which was awarded to German and Austrian construction companies. These largely deployed prisoners of war as workers. Nordlandsbanen was opened between Mosjøen and Mo i Rana on February 28, 1942. Originally it was planned that the line would end in Storforshei . In January 1942 it was decided that the route with the polar orbit should continue north.

Dunderlandsbanen was undersized for the NSB standard, so that the entire route had to be revised. The most urgent project was to replace the wooden bridges with either steel bridges or dams. These sections were at Tverrånes, Avakåsa, Plura, Illhullia and Gomea. Since the route was very prone to landslides, the NSB were forced to lay parts of the route in tunnels. Originally there were 45 curves with a radius of less than 300 meters that were expanded.

NSB began the rehabilitation of the Dunderlandsbane on May 15, 1942. The sections from Guldsmedvik to Tverånes and from Bjørnhei to Storforshei were not integrated into the Nordlandsbane. On April 12, 1943, traffic between Mo i Rana and Nevernes, consisting of the three-kilometer section from Mo to Tverånes, the Dunderlandsbane from Tverånes to Bjørnhei and the 4.4 kilometer section from Bjørnhei to Nevernes, was opened. At the time, the line had a permissible axle load of twelve tons and a permissible top speed of 40 km / h between Mo and Bjørnhei and 20 km / h to Nevernes.

Dunderlandsbanen was bought by the state for 2.5 million Norwegian kroner in 1947. The construction work on the line was of poor quality, resulting in low train speeds. NSB was therefore forced to repeat large parts of the work carried out by the Germans after the war. By 1959, NSB had used 45.7 million kronor to modernize the section from Mo to Storforshei.

Current ore traffic

In 1983 the underground Rana mine was opened up. Since then, ore trains have been running from there to the port in Gullsmedvik.

See also

• Steam locomotives of the Norwegian railway company Dunderlandsbanen

literature

• Thor Bjerke: Banedata '94 . Ed .: Norsk Jernbaneklubb. Oslo 1994, ISBN 82-90286-15-5 (Norwegian).
• Arvid Elligsve: Nordlandsbane's war history . Ed .: Norwegian State Railways. Oslo 1995 (Norwegian).
• Reidar Ryssdal: Fra Hans Nielsen Hauge til Norges største industrial park: historien om Norsk jernverk . Ed .: Mo industripark. Mo i Rana 1996, urn : nbn: no-nb_digibok_2008040100072 (Norwegian, digitized version only for Internet users with an IP from Norway).
• Erling Svanberg: Langs vei og lei i Nordland: Samferdsel i Nordland gjennom 3000 år . Ed .: Nordland County Municipality. 1990, ISBN 82-7416-021-5 , urn : nbn: no-nb_digibok_2010110308003 (Norwegian, digitized version only for Internet users with an IP from Norway).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bjerke: 92
2. ↑ Bjerke: 101
3. ↑ Bjerke: 100
4. ↑ Bjerke: 102
5. ↑ Ryssdal: 3
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Svanberg: 136
7. ^ Svanberg: 131
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Ryssdal: 4
9. ↑ ^{a b} Svanberg: 359
10. ↑ ^{a b} Bjerke: 93
11. ↑ Ryssdal: 5
12. ↑ Ellingsve: 28
13. ↑ Ellingsve: 32
14. ↑ ^{a b} Ellingsve: 37
15. ↑ Bjerke: 104
16. ↑ Ellingsve: 39
17. ↑ Njål Svingheim: Dunderlandsbanen 100 år. November 1, 2004. jernbaneverket.no, October 27, 2004, accessed November 21, 2013 (Norwegian).