Japan Railway & Transport Review 31 • June 2002 39

Origin of 3'6" Gauge

Feature

Copyright © 2002 EJRCF. All rights reserved.

Development of Norwegian Railways1854–2002

Roar Stenersen

Norway is well known for its fjords andspectacular scenery but its railways arelittle known by the outside world. Itscenery is seldom ideal for railwayconst ruct ion and the very smal lpopulation of just 1.4 million in 1850with virtually no industry meant that therewas no pressing need to construct arailway network, unlike in some otherEuropean countries.Construction of the first railway (67.5 km)started in 1851 between Christiania (nowOslo) and Eidsvold; the standard-gauge linewas financed and built by the British underthe supervision of the great engineer RobertStephenson (1803–59) and all thelocomotives were built in his shops inNewcastle. The Norwegian Trunk Railwayas it was called was opened on 1 September1854. However, the Norwegian parliamentwas unhappy with foreign ownership anddecided in 1857 that all future lines shouldbe built and operated by the state.To finance the various lines then underconsideration, a local delegates wouldpresent a proposal for a railway toparliament based on surveys regardingpotential traffic and promises from localcitizens and towns to assist with financing.Usually, parliament would debate theproposal and vote for building the line asa state railway. People with stock in theinitial proposal never saw any return on

their investment but at least they got thegot the railway!In 1858, the Norwegian engineer CarlAbraham Pihl (1825–97) was appointedChief Engineer with responsibility for futurerailway construction, a post he held untilthe formation of Norwegian State Railwaysin 1883 when he became Director ofexisting and future construction. Pihlpioneered in construction of light railwaysin Norway and chose the 3'6" gauge forlines that did not connect with standard-gauge Swedish lines. His first 3'6" lineopened in 1862 and was worked by three0-4-2 tank engines built by RobertStephenson in 1860.Pihl had trained in Britain underStephenson among others, and was afriend of prominent British dignitaries inrailway circles like Sir Douglas CharlesFox (1810–74), the Duke of Sutherland(1828–92), John Fowler (1817–98) and C.F. Beyer (1813–76) who respected himhighly as an engineer.Narrow gauge lines were built in SouthAfrica, New Zealand, Queensland inAustralia and several Canadian provincesafter Fox of London pointed out Pihl’ssuccesses in Norway.At home, Pihl vigourously pushed his 3'6"narrow gauge and most lines built untilthe mid-1880s were 3'6" gauge. Pihl soonabandoned Robert Stephenson & Co. as

locomotive suppliers and after a brief flirtwith Avonside in the mid 1860s, he turnedto Beyer Peacock. Beyer Peacockdelivered the first two of its famous 2-4-0tank engines to Norway in 1866. Thesame type was built for several laterrailways the best know of which isundoubtedly the unique fleet on the Isleof Man. Two of these locomotives arepreserved. One at the Norwegian RailwayMuseum at Hamar and one in StavangerStation, although this one is built underlicence by Motala in Sweden. The firstpassenger carriages and freight wagonswere imported from Britain but were builtdomestically from the late 1860s.In 1879, Baldwin of Philadelphia enteredthe scene when that company delivered thefirst 4-6-0 tender engines to Norway. Theywere standard gauge machines built forworking on two lines connecting Norwayand Sweden. Between 1884 and 1900Baldwin delivered several 2-6-0 and 4-4-0tender engines for the narrow-gauge lines.The last shipment from Baldwin came in1917 and 1919 in the shape of five differentstandard gauge types. As a rule Norwegianra i lways bought Amer ican-bui l tlocomotives only when they needed themin a hurry, or when European builderscouldn’t keep up wi th demand.Unfortunately, none of these Baldwinengines has survived to the present day.

Norwegian Trunk Railway Engine No.1 built by Robert Stephenson & Co. in 1851.This photograph dates from 1865 after minor modifications were made.

(Norwegian Railway Museum)

Engine No. 21 ALF was built by Beyer Peacock in 1870 and is preserved by theNorwegian Railway Museum at Hamar. (Norwegian Railway Museum)

Origin of 3'6" Gauge

Japan Railway & Transport Review 31 • June 200240 Copyright © 2002 EJRCF. All rights reserved.

The decision to build narrow-gauge linessoon proved a mistake. Althoughunforeseen in the 1850s, a national railwaynetwork was taking shape with the resultthat many stations got mixed-gauge layouts,resulting in costly transhipment of freighttransfers. Narrow gauge reached its peakin 1896 with 1055 km but was doomed assoon as the decision was taken to build theBergen Line to standard gauge in 1898. TheBergen–Voss Line was regauged in 1904,the same year that the route-km of standardgauge overtook narrow gauge. All narrow-gauge lines were converted to standardgauge leaving only the Setesdal Line in thesouth after 1949. It was finally closed in1962 but some 8 km have been preservedwith four of the original locomotives.Two standard gauge and nine narrowgauge private railways were built between1892 and 1911 Two of the narrow gaugelines were 750 mm gauge, one was metergauge, and the rest were 3'6". Part of the750 mm Urskog–Høland Railway and theentire length of the meter-gaugeThamshavn Railway (the world’s oldesthigh-voltage AC line) are preserved.The standard gauge Rjukan Railway isfamous for its role in the transport of theheavy water (deuterium-enriched water)during WWII and is currently being setup as a preserved line along with its twosurviving railway ferries.

Norwegian State Railways(NSB) in 21st Century

The first major Norwegian line opened inthe 20th century was the Bergen Line(1909). In terms of state expenditure, it isstill unequaled to this date because it costthe equivalent of one year gross nationalincome in its time.Two Norwegian works were alreadybuilding steam locomotives before theBergen Line was finished—Thunes in Osloand Hamar Iron Foundry. In the steam agethese two domestic builders shared theNorwegian market between them. After

1927 when Hamar Iron Foundry failed,Thune went on building locomotives forthe NSB and others until 1973.The years from 1900 to 1938 saw thecompletion of many Norwegian mainlines. The next main line after the BergenLine was the Dovre Line (Dombås–Trondheim) opened in 1921 followed bythe 100-km scenic branch to Åndalsnesin 1924, and the South Coast main line toKristiansand in 1938. Several branch linesof lesser importance was also built in thisperiod. The standard gauge main linefrom Kristiansand to Stavanger wasfinished during WWII and the narrow-gauge Røros Line was converted tostandard gauge. The only major postwarconstruction was the completion of theNorthern main line to Bodø in 1962, thesame year that the last surviving narrow-gauge NSB Setesdal Line was closed.Norway has almost no domestic coalreserves except at Spitzbergen where coalhas been mined on an irregular basissince 1903. As a result, economic fuelconsumption by railways has alwaysbeen important. The first two-cylinderVon Borries compound locos wereintroduced in the early 1890s and theClass 19a 2-8-0 built between 1902 and1910 for the Ofoten Railway in Narvikwas the largest two cylinder compoundever to run in the country.Superheating was introduced from 1908,and in 1910 SLM Wintherthur deliveredthree Class 26a 4-8-0 four-cylindersuperheated simple locos to the BergenLine, the first really modern Norwegiansteam locomotives. They were soonfollowed by the Class 30a 4-6-0s in 1914and Class 31 heavy 4-8-0s in 1915. Allwere four-cylinder simple locos, but newengines of all three classes were built asfour cylinder compounds from 1919 tobecome the standard Norwegian steamlocomotive. One example of each classis preserved today. The final developmentof the Norwegian steam loco was theimpressive four-cylinder compound Class

49 of which only seven were builtbetween 1935 and 1941. They wererecord breaking for their day with a ratedoutput of 2600 hp at 60 km/h with anengine weight of 99 tonnes. One (No.470) is preserved in the NorwegianRailway Museum at Hamar.During WWII, 42 German Class 57s and74 Class 52s entered service in Norway.The Class 57s had all been scrapped by1955, but several of the Class 52s continuedworking until the end of Norwegian steamin 1970. Two of the Norwegian 52s stillsurvive—one (No. 5865) at Bressinghamin England, and one (No. 2770) inStavanger. The latter was restored toworking order in 1997.In Norway—as in many countries—thelast steam workings were light and simpleengines fiund on rural branch lines. TheClass 21 2-6-0 lingered on until theautumn of 1970. Two went to England;No. 376 is on the Kent & East Sussex andNo. 377 is at Bressingham. There arethree others in Norway but none arecurrently in working order.

Electrification and Conversionto Diesel

As mentioned, Norway has very limitedcoal reserves, but abundance of waterfallsmade electrification using hydroelectricpower the obvious way forward. The firstprivate railway to be electrified was themeter-gauge Thamshavn Railway in 1908,followed by the Rjukan Railway in 1911.The first part of NSB to be electrified wasthe Oslo–Drammen Line in 1922. It wasoriginally powered by 22 Class El1 andtwo Class El2 electric locomotives withsome of the latter working until 1973. Twoof the El1’s are preserved.The Ofoten Line was built for hauling ironore from Sweden to Narvik in 1902. Thisheavy-duty railway was electrified in 1923.Two other lines from Oslo were electrifiedbefore WWII and two new classes ofelectric locomotives were introduced. One

Japan Railway & Transport Review 31 • June 2002 41Copyright © 2002 EJRCF. All rights reserved.

example of each of these classes (classesEl5 and El8) are preserved in workingorder. Ful l -scale e lect r i f icat ioncommenced after WWII and the lastmajor project was the Dovre Linecompleted in 1970.In 2002 the Norwegian national networkis 4021 km of which 2456 km is electrified.The class of locomotives replacing steamon the non-electrified lines was thelegendary Co-Co diesel electric Class Di3from General Motors. These werelicence built by the NOHAB companyof Sweden to many European countries,and 35 of them was delivered to Norwaybetween 1954 and 1969. The SiemensClass Di6 that should have replaced themin 1997 failed, and was returned to thebuilder.Two unrebuilt examples of the Class Di3are preserved in Norway—No. 602 from1954 and No. 616 from 1958.The Norwegian Railway Museum atHamar has a large collected of preservedrolling stock and there are six preservedrailways with three more trying to getrunning. The Norwegian Railway Clubhandles main line steam and historicelectric operations, while another groupin Narvik runs special steam excursionson the Ofoten Line to Kiruna. Dieselpreservation nationwide is taken care ofby the GM-Group which is a fully licensedmain line operator.

Norwegian Railways Today

As in most western countries, NSBexperienced a steady decline from the

early 1960s with branch line closures andfalling traffic. A huge modernizationbacklog made the Norwegian railwaysystem a paradise for railway fans.Wooden carriages were still in serviceuntil the mid 1980s, locomotives had anaverage age of about 40 years and therewere single-track main lines everywhere.Single track is still the norm except forabout 125 km around Oslo, butequipment modernization has caught up.Construction in recent years include anew high-speed 66-km long railwaybetween Oslo, Oslo Airport Gardermoenand Eidsvoll, opened on 27 September1998 (see JRTR 19, pp. 26–27). This lineruns parallel to the first NorwegianRailway of 1854. Just out of Oslo thisline enters a 14-km long tunnel namedRomeriksporten, and problems withwater-draining in this bore caused a oneyear delay in opening it. For the AirportExpress service the new Class 71 EMU’swas built by ABB of Norway. Thesethree-coach sets has one powered bogieunder each coach. Sixteen sets of thistype was built, which later has beenfollowed by two externally similar typesof EMU’s for medium- and long-distanceruns, both of theese types (classes 73 and73b) are four-coach sets equipped with

tilting gear. Maximum speed for all theseclasses was 210 km/h, but problems withcracking axles caused the speed to bereduced to 160 km/h. This speed limitwill remain until new running gear isinstalled on all three types.In 2000 18 new diesel DMUs wasdelivered by Bombardier. They are abeefed-up version of their two-car Talentdesign, but have tilting gear. These setsare now used on long distance runs, andhave been received with mixed emotionsby the travelling public. Railway rollingstock is no longer made domestically.The future for Norwegian railways seemsto be privatisation and deregulation.Already the freight division of the NSB hasbeen reshaped under the name CargoNet,and passenger service will go private thissummer. New railway construction isunderway from Oslo and westwards tohelp out the heavily congested Oslo—Drammen Line. This new double trackrailway will be a relief line bypassing thesuburban areas, and therefore will be builtalmost completely underground. �

The NSB Class 49 four-cylinder compound was a true super-power locomotive. Thisexample (No. 470) is preserved in static condition at the Norwegian RailwayMuseum. (Krupp, Norwegian Railway Museum Collection)

Class El1 2015 with butterfly snowplow when brand new in 1922.(Norwegian Railway Museum)

Roar Stenersen

Mr Stenersen is Curator of Engineering at the Norwegian Railway Museum. He started to work for

railway preservation at the age of 14 in 1969. He worked for various construction companies, and

was Chairman of Urskog–Høland Railway 1985–1993.