Western Railroad Discussion > Milwaukeesque Electrics in Video

IORE Electrics at Stromnes Station, Norway...  One has to admit, these would look good in orange & black.

Sven, the Yukon Yeti

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Good Stuff Yeti! Anything else hauled on this line other than the taconite?

KC

Green Diamond...  General cargo but using small electrics and 12-15 cars.  Four passenger trains a day...

You either have really big trains or tiny ones like the attached.

Sven aka Yukon Yeti

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Nice video!!

Super! Now stay away from those snow banks...

KC

Thanks for posting.  We in North America don't often get to see heavy haul operations from outside the region.

Here's a PDF document in english from ABB about the IORE (Kiruna) electric locomotives and the iron mining operation.

http://www09.abb.com/global/scot/scot326.nsf/veritydisplay/b53e94802c75e541c125789a00290729/$file/Railvolution02-11-Traction-transformer-Kiruna.pdf

Note the picture in the article (page 5 in the PDF file) showing an IORE locomotive under construction along side a NJTransit ALP46 at the Adtranz/Bombarider Kassel, Germany plant.

daniel

 

John McKey has posted lots of info about this railway in the International Forum in Trainorders. He even produced an E-book that was available for free a while back. It included some great photos!
If you do not read other forums on TO, you are missing out on some great photos and information.

 

Will MacKenzie
Dundas, ON

Congratulations, Yeti, on Video of the Day. As soon as I saw your post yesterday I watched this video several times. Most impressive. I agree -- the IOREs would have looked grerat in orange and black. Handling a heavy train on the loops at Vendome...it would have been something to behold. Thanks again for acquainting many on this side of the pond with this impressive operation.

thehighwayman Wrote:
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> John McKey has posted lots of info about this
> railway in the International Forum in Trainorders.
> He even produced an E-book that was available for
> free a while back. It included some great photos!
> If you do not read other forums on TO, you are
> missing out on some great photos and information.

I mentioned John McKey's posts about this line and the IOREs in the Yeti's earlier post of the same day, with his still images of the operation. Completely agree that they are well worth a read; I posted links to several of his posts with some impressive images to go along with those the Yeti has shared with us.
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3725991,3726132#msg-3726132

Thanks again, Yeti, for this trip to the arctic climes and a reminder of what could have been....

MC
Columbia, Missouri
 

O boy - sure sounds like "grinding traction motors" to me!

Very nice and no graffitti!  Maybe the spray paint cans freeze up in Norway?

Great trip report from up North YukonYeti! It took me a while to find the thread from this board instead of European Railroads board ;) 

Many thanks for numerous current snowy views from many places on Malmbana!

Can you estimate how many IORE trains would you estimate were operating at the time between Kiruna and Narvik? Figure should be somewhere around 13+-5 . But the current slump for 62% grade iron pricing might mean that threre are either more or less trains running (depending on how LKAB has decided to handle the falling income).

Ddi you see any bathtub looking gondolas anywhere on your trip? These should be somewhere around and I'm qurious about their current usage.

I might rerun the "Running with IOREs" series on European board on trainorders but here are some facts on these IORE pulled trains:
- Locomotives are owned by LKAB and operated by MTAB, staffing coming from Green Cargo of Sweden (until May this year, when MTAB will take over driving these beasts too).
- Each trains has two IORE locomotives at front with 68 magnetite (not hematite) pellet hoppers trailing.
- Each consist weigts either 8900 / 9300 metric tons / 9810 / 10'300 US short tons so they are by far heaviest in the whole Europe, Russia included.
- Train axle weight is most of the time 30 metric tons, but it is creeping up towards 32,5 tons through a series of experiments.
- ~13 trains run from Kiruna to Narvik each day and there are about 5-10 others from other mines from other parts of Malmbana mostly to Luleå harbor
- Malmbana is a line with continuous upgrades to keep up with the demand for more capacity.
- Kiruna (shown in many pictures) has the largest underground mine in the World. It has been mines since 1890s.
- Line has been a scene of severe fighting during WW2 , mostly British and Norwegians against Germans

Here is one picture of the bathtub gons being emptied in Narvik a year ago.
 

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