European Railroad Discussion > Norway: Ruston British Loco?

Yes, there is definitely rust on this Ruston loco, but what is it? Any information on this loco would be much appreciated. Nothing like it seems to exist to my knowledge in Nordic.

I tumbled to this find late one day in Mo i Rana, Norway when it was getting dark, pouring rain much of the time with the famous Norwegian wind behind my back. Thank god for a warm Volvo!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/13/14 09:56 by McKey.

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Here in Canada, Ruston was and is a supplier of underground mining equipment, including mine trains. I've seen a variety of Ruston narrow guage mining locomotives, often preserved in parks near underground mines.

The locomotive in your images could be from the surface trackage of a mine. The locomotive perhaps appeared in an equipment catalogue along side the underground equipment.

The Ruston you came across has been in use since 1955 if I@m not mistaken. This one has been used at the Iron works and iron mines of Mo i Rana in northern Norway.
Here are a few link to some pictures
http://digitaltmuseum.no/things/ruston-diesellokomotiv-med-tog-p-norsk/NJB/JMF042799/gallery

http://digitaltmuseum.no/things/ruston-diesellokomotiv-med-tog-p-norsk/NJB/JMF042802

Thank you eminence_grise and tskram! I was really starting to fear that it would be very hard indeed to dig some information on this interesting little locomotive. I think this will now help to dig deeper to subject.

Being manufactured by _mining_ company in Canada explains why the under structure looks like it does and the basic appearance is for Nordic operation very "minelike". OK, I agree some of the features are directly from the switchers of the time period too.

The linked pictures give out the general location where the locomotive is used. My understanding is that the mine is higher in the mountains (correct me if I'm wrong, this might be just the recent development). This tiny switcher looks to have been used at the harbor where the hematite iron ore powder was offloaded to ships for exports.

The location is city of Mo i Rana some 250 kilometers southeast from Narvik. It is maybe just a coincidence that the mine was initially established here. The high Norwegian mountains (along with Swedish, Finnish and Russian mountains of the same latitude) are rich with minerals, so the mine could had been in many other places too. I was visiting Mo i Rana early summer this year, took a lot of pictures, and will share these with all of you with some time. Despite the weather being awful and light fading away many interesting things were captured to digital film during those few hours.

Next in pictures are two shots of the current railroad bridge span to the underground iron ore loading point across the river. This is less than one kilometer long spur from main line. Mine looks unusually hard to access despite being clearly visible on Google Maps / Apple Maps. But maybe some of you have better luck with weather than I did. Just remember to take a raft with you to cross the river ;)

4-5) The bridge.

6) Another Rana Gruber area museum loco. This looks like a Swedish class Hg to me. I wonder what the Norwegian classification might be if any.

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Ruston is a British company (based near Leeds?) which exports mining equipment around the world. At one time, they made larger shunting locomotives for standard guage use.

Ruston seems to have a large share of the mining tramway equipment market even to this day. Miners I know point out that some of the mine tramway equipment is quite old, and Ruston may no longer be in business.

Ruston was a heavy enginnering company which made oil engines, gas turbines and locomotives for industrial applications. Parts of the business are now owned by MAN and Siemens. They were based in Lincoln and Newton le Willows, not sure what manufacturing capabilities remain in Britain.

The picture is of a BR class 07 built by Ruston and Hornsby for shunting Southampton Docks and today employed by the owners of the former Eastleigh loco works



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/14 09:40 by 86235.

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The NSB classification of these C electric shunters was El 10 -- but this is not a "true" NSB locomotive. It is one of three purchased new by NJ [ Norsk Jernvaerk ], all of which were leased to the NSB until the NJ was completed; it then returned to its owner and operated there until the cessation of rail service. El 10's were also purchased and operated by other non-NSB users -- TGOJ, for example.

Best regards, SZ

Edited to add: That 1 on the cab side is the NJ road number; it was also named "Lars", which can also be faintly seen there.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/14 09:35 by Steinzeit.

Hi Steinzeit, this is great news! And many thanks for the history of the loco!

The other day discussing with my railfan friend Ilkka we realized that together we have pictures of all Norwegian electric locos from El11 all the way to El18 and CE119 and German class 185. It seems like the figure was wrong: the El10 has now been found too :D

Steinzeit Wrote:
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> The NSB classification of these C electric
> shunters was El 10 -- but this is not a "true" NSB
> locomotive. It is one of three purchased new by
> NJ [ Norsk Jernvaerk ], all of which were leased
> to the NSB until the NJ was completed; it then
> returned to its owner and operated there until the
> cessation of rail service. El 10's were also
> purchased and operated by other non-NSB users --
> TGOJ, for example.
>
> Best regards, SZ

Thank you eminence_grise and Nick for clarifying more about the background of the Rust-on-diesel!

There is also one Ruston at the Thamshavnbanen, Norways first electric railroad, south of Trondheim. They had two delivered in 1952 and one is still in operations as far as I know.


http://www.oi.no/historie/thamshavnbanen/?id=423
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thamshavn_Line

Thanks! This is on mine and several other peoples bucket list, from the already existing pictures and reading history of the railway it looks like this might well be worth couple of days visit.

Here is some other equipment from Tramhavnsbanen. Some are old, some are brand new but old lookin...

tskram Wrote:
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> There is also one Ruston at the Thamshavnbanen,
> Norways first electric railroad, south of
> Trondheim. They had two delivered in 1952 and one
> is still in operations as far as I know.
>
>
> http://www.oi.no/historie/thamshavnbanen/?id=423
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thamshavn_Line

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I wonder which manufacturers logo is at the hood of the mine loco in the first picture?

McKey Wrote:
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> I wonder which manufacturers logo is at the hood
> of the mine loco in the first picture?

Jenbacher Werke [ of Austria ]

THAT is interesting! Thank you again!

Steinzeit Wrote:
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> McKey Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I wonder which manufacturers logo is at the
> hood
> > of the mine loco in the first picture?
>
> Jenbacher Werke [ of Austria ]

Hopping to Austria, I wonder if this loco has the same symbol on its builders plate...;)

Picture from Jenbach, a highly interesting railroading place even today! The works today is called GE Jenbacher.

> Steinzeit Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> > Jenbacher Werke [ of Austria ]

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