Sulitjelmabanen

 Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap

Finneid / Sjønstå – Fagerli
Sjønstå
Maffei locomotive No. 4366 named TYR (1950)
Route length:	35.70 km
Gauge :	750 mm, from 1915: 1067 mm
Legend 0.00 Sjønstå (1892-1956), and 1936: Skjønstå 67.21 °  N , 15.71 °  O 0.00 Finneid (1956) 67.25 °  N , 15.44 °  E Tveråmo (1923) Grønnlifjell tunnel (2811 m) 9.10 Solvik (1956) Hårskolten tunnel (2425 m) Sjønståfjell tunnel (2827 m) 15.80 Ågifjellet (1956) 16.40 Tveråmo (1923) old Stokkviknakken tunnel (1892) new Stokkviknakken tunnel (1962, 568 m) 21.20 Fjell / Vandstations (1892), from 1957: Sjønstådalen 10.4 Fossen (1892) 13.1 Hellarmo (1893) 67.17 °  N , 15.89 °  O 26.10 Hellarmo holdeplass (1915) Grønlid (1915–1957), from 1957: Rupsi 33.40 Furulund (1915–1957), from 1957: Sulitjelma 34.40 Langvatnet (Charlotta) (1950) Sandnes (1915–1957), from 1957: Lomi Fagerli (1915-1950) 67.12 °  N , 16.1 °  O

Sulitjelmabanen was a narrow-gauge railway line in the Norwegian Fylke Nordland . The line was opened between Sjønstå and Fossen in 1892 and extended to Hellarmo in 1893 and to Fagerli in 1915. It began in 1956 in Finneid on the Nordlandsbanen ( German  Nordlandsbahn ) near Fauske . The route was 35.7 km long. In 1972 the line was closed.

history

Railway station in Sjønstådalen

On February 27, 1887, Alfred Hasselbom found ore for the first time in the Langvandsdalen region and submitted it for investigation. It was pyrite and copper found.

Nils Persson from Helsingborg , who carried out the first investigations, recognized the possibilities and founded the first mining company. For this mine operation, an agreement was reached regarding the removal of the ore, as only mountain paths existed. With four landowners on the north side of Sjønståelven an agreement was reached on August 12, 1888 about the possible construction of a cable car or a railway.

Persson consulted with mine engineer Frederick Vatter and the cable car manufacturer Julius Pohlig from Cologne , with the result that a railway to a port and a transshipment facility should be built.

Sjønstå – Fossen railway line

Persson's mining company in Langvandsdalen was taken over on January 8, 1889 by Skånska Superfosfat- och Svafvelsyrefabriksaktiebolag (Fosfaten) in Helsingborg. The new owners applied for a concession to build and operate a railway between the lakes on February 26th . A government grant for the construction of 100,000 crowns was requested, which would have been a quarter of the planned construction costs.

On April 17, 1890, the Departementet for de offentlige arbeider informed the society that it would not support the grant application. The company replied on July 13 that without a grant it had no interest in a public concession and would build the railway line at its own expense and according to its own needs for the transport of ore and material between Sjønstå and Hamnen . After this decision, on January 10, 1891, the company was separated from the Swedish parent company as Aktiebolaget Sulitelma Gruber with a share capital of two million crowns. In a report from April 1, 1891, Ole W. Lund from Christiania was commissioned with the construction of the railway and a corresponding contract was signed on April 2 in Helsingborg.

Engineer Guttormsen started with Anton Markus Gunhildsrud and Iver Haakonsen Gravem as foremen with twelve workers on May 4th with the construction of the railway in Sjønstå, at the end of May 100 and by the end of the year around 200 workers were already employed.

In the course of construction there were deviations from the planned route. At the beginning the river should be crossed at Fjellheim. The route should continue on the south side of the river to the Hamnen , where the transfer from the railroad to boats should take place. Hamnen was a port on Glefsa, which was supposed to have the same height as Langvatnet due to a dam at the outlet of the Dråvika.

An old sketch dated September 12, 1890 shows the planned route and an agreement with Jens Christensen and Ole Olsen Fjeld, who signed the land cessions for the retention of the river on behalf of his father Andreas Olsen. The land went to the mining company for free. Jens Christensen later applied for compensation for the forest on the south side of the river in connection with the contract for the planned railway.

The plan for restraint at the end of Dråvika was abandoned by Persson in the early summer of 1891. He followed the path on the north side of the river to behind the waterfall and to its exit from the Langvatnet. There a threshold into the river was built from large stones and a quay was built in Hellarmobukta ( German : Hellarmo Bay). This achieved a stable higher water level in the river.

In the middle of June 1892 the first Loke locomotive was delivered, on September 15th the inspection of the railway took place and on October 15th it was put into operation with pomp og practice .

Continue to Hellarmo

Railway line at Furulund

Director Corneliussen from the administration in Helsingborg suggested that the line be extended to Hellarmo before the line was finished. He saw problems with reloading in Fossen. On October 6, 1892, the construction of the Fossen – Hellarmo – Furulund – Fagerlid line was approved by telegram. Ole W. Lund had already drawn up the corresponding plans beforehand. On October 13, 1892 - two days before the finished section of the route was put into operation - Lund estimated that the continuation to Hellarmo on September 30, 1893 could be completed if the work were to be continued continuously. The construction costs were estimated at 77,500 crowns. If work did not begin immediately and next spring, the construction costs would amount to 86,000 kroner and the route would not be available until July 31, 1894. This led to the decision to start construction immediately.

After agreements with the landowners about the provision of the required land, partly with expropriation , the line was built and on August 29, 1893 the first train arrived in Hellarmo. A short time later, the railway received its first passenger car. The railway management in the person of the section engineer Gunnerus inspected the railway line in October. During this inspection, some deficiencies emerged, which were written down by the legal adviser of the mining company RMB Schjølberg from Bodø . Multiple sources say the scheduled service opened on June 26th with no evidence found. Gunnerus said after the visit that when the railroad was checked, it appeared to be in full operation.

The concession to operate the railway line "for its own use" was granted to the mining company by Royal Decree of September 7, 1894.

Extension to Fagerli

In 1911 the mining company made the decision to extend the route further to Fagerli. The preparatory work and the reconstruction of the line between Hellarmo and Sjønstå began in December 1912. This included rock protection in the area of ​​Hellarmo and Fossen as well as at Dråvika. The 72-meter-long tunnel through the Stokkviknakken was also started.

The work was carried out by Grøndahl og Kjørholt from Trondheim . Later a new route followed from curve 12 via Osbakk to Fagerli. On this occasion, the track width on the old line was widened from 750 mm to 1067 mm (thus 3.5 Norwegian feet ). A new train station was built in Sjønstå. The official opening of the Sjønstå – Fagerli line was on July 15, 1915.

Extension to Finneid

In 1935 an extension of the railway was proposed again, which should lead to Finneid. A railway committee was elected to take over the further work. The work of the committee ceased during World War II and resumed in 1945. A referendum in Sulitjelma in 1946 decided that the railway line had to be built on a road.

As a result, the railway line between Sandnes and Fagerli was dismantled in 1950. The Storting decided on May 28, 1952 to extend the Sulitjelmabanen to Finneid with 14 votes against. Opponents voted for a proposal to build a road between Sulitjelma and Finneid. Work on extending the route to Finneid began in 1953. In 1956, the Grønlifjell (March 23), Hårskolten (May 30) and Sjønståfjell (June 11) tunnels were broken through. The first train to Finneid ran on December 12 and the first scheduled train between Lomi (Sandnes) and Finneid on December 20, 1956. The line was officially opened on July 14, 1957.

Work on a new tunnel through Stokkviknakken began in May 1961 and could be used from November 30, 1962.

Shutdown

The restructuring of the railroad into a road was submitted to the Storting ten years later and approved. Preparatory work began on July 2, 1971, and the line was closed on July 22, 1972. The road was worked on for another three years; it was finished in 1975.

Museum train

In 2003, AS Sulitjelmabanen, an association was founded with the aim of building a museum railway . In 2015 the line from Sandnes to Fagerli should start operating. For this purpose, three passenger cars and the Loke locomotive should be made operational by this time .

Web links

Commons : Sulitjelmabanen  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Map of the mine area. November 11, 1897, accessed March 6, 2014 (Norwegian). 
• Stasjonsdatabasen (norw.)
• Litt historie and noen arstall omkring Sulitjelmabanen. Sulitjelma historielag, accessed March 6, 2014 (Norwegian). 
• Lok Odin (MaK 500039/1960) on the Sulitjelmabanen
• Åpningen Av Sulitjelmabanen 1957. Del 1. (film). In: youtube.com. Retrieved March 6, 2014 . 
• Åpningen Av Sulitjelmabanen 1957. Del 2. (film). In: youtube.com. Retrieved March 6, 2014 . 
• Veg til Sulitjelma. (Movie). In: youtube.com. Statens vegvesen , accessed March 6, 2014 (Norwegian). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sverres side: Sulitjelma (Norwegian). Retrieved January 7, 2016 .