European Railroad Discussion > Sweden: Into the Sundown

It seems like there is an interesting episode of missing financial support going on in Sweden...this has happened for last 5 years or so: 
Northern mainline of Sweden spans from Stockholm (or some intermediate station if you like) towards Boden 950 kilometers away North, Boden being a junction on Malmbana. Northernmost section of Northern mainline is now found to be in such a bad shape that speeds of 160 km/h / 99 mph for passenger trains and 90 km/h / 55 mph have been slashed to 70 km/h / 43 mph. Rail are in an immediate need for replacement. This is the one section that never was improved as section South of Umeå got a toally new higher speed rail line. There have been several accidents due to cracking rails and lots of economical loss when all traffic has been stopped for a week or so after the accidents in difficult terrain. By this I mean there are no service roads anywhere nearby, sometimes rails going through wilderness for tens of kilometers. But this also makes the line very scenic.

Below some of my pictures, I happened to catch a Green Cargo mixed freight driving from Arvidsjaur to Boden one evening, the train running the opposite direction into sundown. At the point is something very typical for Sweden and Norway: ASEA built Rc locomotive, hundreds of which were built until 1990s. (Amtrak Aem7 are closely related to Rcs). Rc is a true multipurpose locomotive created to withstand harsh Northern climatic conditions with ease. But it also needs an inspection after each days work, something newer locos like TRAXXes or Vectron do not need. Green Cargo today owns mostly Rc4 locomotives, next class to be retired now after Rc1 and Rc2 are all gone (from them). 

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As the GC Rc4 #1288 with mixed return freight drew nearer, I tried some panning pictures, but with less than optimal results.

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One more...

Let's hope the line will be completely rebuilt to heavy duty as there are triple Rc headed steel slab trains on this sections too, several times per day.

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John, Nice images in the evening calm.  Gerry

Thanks Gerry!

Last photo looks like a Marklin model! [Don't know how to 'do' an Umlaut].

Fascinated by the thought of a 10-car mixed freight, on an electrified railroad! Is this train doing local work along its route? And interesting that in these days of Intermodal traffic, there are boxcars on this train.

McKey, your posts are always interesting!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/15 23:38 by JGFuller.

Yep, it definitely looks like model :)    Is there a ¨ sign next to enter on your keyboard? I can work on unusual letters with this and other forms around it. Basically you need to push the form button first and then a to create an ä. (For me this is much easier working with Nordic key board, but moving to say Czech Republic subjects or discussing with people from there I always need these special letter addition modules) 

LIke you say it is amazing to run such a short freight on national network! This time it might have something to do with stresses to rails or not. Many Swedish trains like our friend Nick has pointed out earlier are unusually short. Not all though, even here there are some triple headed steel slab trains (not long, just heavy) and intermodal expresses (long and fast, not heavy). Maybe I should return to these later, as this thread is getting quite long already? 

This looks to me like a paper load for Central Europe. At some point later in Sweden these paper roll / toilet paper / fiber cars will be formed to much bigger train, but this is where it all starts. Strangely enough this kind of cars are still manufactured in the intermodal era...I think Aae just bough thousands more for this year.  

& Thank You for compliments! I do actually a lot of background searching while enjoying the railroading outside, thinking this makes subject more interesting, so it is good to hear this is appreciated. :) 

JGFuller Wrote:
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> Last photo looks like a Marklin model! .
>
> Fascinated by the thought of a 10-car mixed
> freight, on an electrified railroad! Is this train
> doing local work along its route? And interesting
> that in these days of Intermodal traffic, there
> are boxcars on this train.
>
> McKey, your posts are always interesting!

Here are three pictures from the collection of wood industry cars, I tried to pick some different types, but these are quite typical for Northern Sweden too. You might notice that today most freight cars are actually Pan European. They can run just about anywhere on the 1435 normal gauge rails, and return safely where they belong / where they are next needed.
1) Aae owned class Chabbins in Piteå, Northern Sweden (just off 30 kilometer spur where above pictures were taken)
2) Transwaggon owned class Laais, a typical two part freight car 
3) Many of the cars have either sliding doors or the top of the cars comes off one way or another all together. Imagine how much easier and faster this kind of cars is to load and unload than the traditional one!

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