Flekkefjordbanen

Egersund – Flekkefjord
Flekkefjordbanen with Lundevatnet .
Route length:	17.14 km
Gauge :	1067 mm from May 1, 1944: 1435 mm
Legend Jærbanen from Stavanger Eie pens (1930) Eideåna 75.82 Egersund gamle (1878–1952) 74.71 525.56 Egersund (1944) 11.1 moh. 523.66 Slettebø (1904) 515.99 Klungland (1904) Bjørkenes (approx. 300 m) 511.29 Helleland (1904) (formerly personal stop) Rinnan (about 300 m) 508.14 Orrestad (1912) 498.15 Ualand (1904) 491.09 Heskestad (1904) Mehei (about 300 m) Drangsdalen (approx. 4,000 m) 477.24 Moi (1904) 58.4 m moh. 472.76 Tronvik (1926) Heståsen (3,150 m) Sira (300 m) 468.63 0.0 Sira (1943) 72.7 m moh. Sørlandsbanen to Kristiansand 0.93 Bakkekleivi (1943) 1.94 Sirnesmoen (1944) 2.88 Sirnes (1904) Foråsen (approx. 550 m) Midgaren (approx. 750 m) Ravnejuvet (1 174 m) 6.61 Regevik (1926) 8.58 Flikkeid (1904) Flikkeid (about 850 m) 9.63 Lavoll (1935) Lafjell (about 300 m) 11.43 Solandsveien (1933) 12.20 Straumlandsveien (1951) Løgan Logaåsen 14.00 Loga (1904) 15.09 Selura (1926) Årenes (about 350 m) Oath of urgency Trolldalen (approx. 500 m) 17.14 Flekkefjord (1904)

The Flekkefjordbane ( German  Flekkefjordbahn ) is a Norwegian railway line from Sira to Flekkefjord . It is 17 km long and has 13 tunnels. Originally the Flekkefjordbane was an extension of the Jærbane from Egersund to Flekkefjord.

history

The construction of the line began in 1897. It was a narrow-gauge railway with 1067 mm gauge executed. The first scheduled train ran on October 1, 1904 from Flekkefjord to Egersund gamle.

When the line opened in 1904, the old station in Egersund was not directly on the main line between Stavanger and Sira. The branch was made in Eia pens. At that time there was no train station there, only an occupied junction. Therefore, the trains coming from Stavanger had to enter the terminus. To continue to Flekkefjord, the trains had to be pushed back to Eia pens and were able to continue from there. The same procedure applied to trains going the other way. Eia pens was manned by a railway attendant. With the route reconstruction in 1944 and the construction of the new train station in Egersund, these sawing trips were no longer necessary.

The topography is particularly difficult in the section between Flekkefjord and Sirnes. The route has a gradient of up to 19 ‰, and of 14.3 km, 5.4 km (38%) run in tunnels. The Ravnejuvet Tunnel, which at 1,174 m is the longest on the line, was also the longest tunnel in Norway for two years until the completion of the Gravhal Tunnel on the Bergen Railway and was built by hand.

At the beginning the line had two train stations, Flekkefjord and Sirnes. The Flikkeid stop was upgraded to a train station in 1912. All buildings along the route were designed by Paul Due . The station building in Flekkefjord was demolished in 1967, the one in Sirnes in 1977 and the one in Flikkeid in 1988.

Connection to Sørlandsbane

In 1940 work began to connect the Flekkefjordbanen with the Sørlandsbane . From Sirnes to Sira the route had to be re-routed. At the same time, the railway was converted to standard gauge . From 1941 to 1944, trains operated with both gauges, the trains between Flekkefjord and Egersund ran in narrow gauge. The construction trains between Flekkefjord and Sira ran in standard gauge. From May 1, 1944, the Flekkefjordbane was a branch line of the Sørlandsbane and was only used in standard gauge.

In 1946, the old railway line between Sirnes and Moi was put into use as a road route for the main road between Kristiansand and Stavanger, replacing the route via Tronåsen and the Bakke Bridge over the Sira River from 1844.

In 1990 the daily operation of the railway was stopped. Since 1990 the railway has been used partly for tourist purposes, e.g. B. for draisine rides .

Vehicle use

Helleland train station

In the time when the line was narrow gauge, the trains ran with steam locomotives. When the line was rebuilt, only the track bed between Sira and Flekkefjord was widened for the standard-gauge tracks, but the existing tunnel cross-sections remained. This had consequences for the use of locomotives.

From 1941, Strømmens Værksted built a particularly light vehicle for passenger transport for routes with a light superstructure. This was referred to as Cmo type 7 , from 1942 as Cmdo type 7a and from 1956 as Bmdo type 87a and called NSB Type 87 in the numbering plan from 1956 . Due to their small external dimensions, these trains could easily run in the restricted clearance profile . However, their economic lifespan ended between 1969 and 1981, they were shut down and scrapped.

Replacement vehicles that fit the clearance profile were found in Sweden . The vehicles of the local railcar series Y6 became redundant due to line closures, so that in 1981 the railcars Y7 1136 (built in 1957), Y7 1202 and 1205 (both built in 1958) were taken over by NSB as BM 89 01 to 03. Y7 1166 and 1182 (both built in 1958) followed in 1986 as BM 89 04 and 05.

When passenger traffic was discontinued, the vehicles became superfluous and the vehicles were handed over to the Dal – Västra Värmlands Järnväg museum railway and other museum railways.

Web links

• Museum Society Flekkefjordbanens venner (norw.)
• Pictures from the railway line

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} junction to Egersund gamle (norw.)
2. ^ V. Stavanger district (149 km) . In: Christian Blangstrup (Ed.): Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon . 2nd Edition. tape 18 : Nordlandsbaad – Perleøerne . JH Schultz Forlag, Copenhagen 1924, p. 125 (Danish, runeberg.org - " [...] Flekkefjordbanen mellem Egersund og Flekkefjord (72.8 km), aabnet 1904, begge smalsporede (1.067 m) [...] ").
3. ↑ Flekkefjorbanen in standard gauge (norw.)
4. ↑ Replacement of the BM 87 by BM 89 (norw.). Archived from the original on March 6, 2013 ; accessed on October 28, 2017 . 
5. ↑ List of the series BM 89 (norw.)