European Railroad Discussion > Massive Electrics in the Snow - Big Time Railroading

125 miles above the Arctic Circle, stretching from Kiruna, Sweden to Narvik, Norway is a high capacity iron ore line that rivals any North American railway.  Trains consist of two Bombardier built electrics and 68 110 ton iron ore hoppers.  12 to 14 trains a day, each way though mountains, high plateaus with tunnels and snow-sheds.  The trains are owned by LKAB, the Swedish steel giant and run on rails owned by the state..

My cabin, not far from the Norwegian/Swedish border, gives me a view of every train...

Sven Molson

LKAB 123 Vassijaure, Sweden
LKAB 106 Straumnes Station, Norway
LKAB 110 Vassijaure, Sweden



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/19 09:51 by SvenMolson.

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Excellent, I was there just over 10 years ago, phenomenal railway.

LKAB 115 Kiruna, Sweden
LKAB 118 Torne Trask, Sweden
LKAB 118 Vassijaure, Sweden

The welcome mat is always out, hope you will come up and see us..

Sven Molson
 

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Tac for the pictures.  My son and I were there in June 2012.  It's a very interesting operation in a very interesting location.  Gerry

Excellent photos of an awesome railroad operation.
Thanks for your posting.
ALLEN

plans are to run longer and heavier trains in the near future.The  LKAB company has been in contact with cp rail  and see how they run their trains on heavy grades etc. The  run from bjørnfjell to  narvik is around 2 percent and many curves which is hard on the rails. I think they are going up to 140 pound rail and more ballast to bring trains up to 10000 ton trains. train lenghts are now 68 cars All siding have been lenghtened to 3000 feet, so they  can probably run up to 80 or 90 cars.

ozzie korsnes
trondheim norway

Interesting - I've been wondering when/how they'll lengthen the trains. I'm thinking at 80-90 cars they'll need to start using DPUs?

1-12016 Wrote:
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> plans are to run longer and heavier trains in the
> near future.The  LKAB company has been in contact
> with cp rail  and see how they run their trains
> on heavy grades etc. The  run from bjørnfjell
> to  narvik is around 2 percent and many curves
> which is hard on the rails. I think they are going
> up to 140 pound rail and more ballast to bring
> trains up to 10000 ton trains. train lenghts are
> now 68 cars All siding have been lenghtened to
> 3000 feet, so they  can probably run up to 80 or
> 90 cars.
>
> ozzie korsnes
> trondheim norway

Not necessarily. Its downhill from kiruna to bjørnfjell and then its a ruling 1.2 tø 2 percent downhill to the seaport of narvik.