European Railroad Discussion > Narvik, Norway By Day: Kaunis Iron Edition

My slogan for Narvik is "Come for the LKAB iron ore trains, stay for the Kaunis Iron iron ore trains." Something about the newness and different-ness of the Kaunis Iron trains made them my favorite. I only saw three Kaunis Iron trains (two loads, one empty) versus six LKAB trains (two loads, four empties). And the Kaunis Iron trains are 36 cars long versus 68 for the LKAB trains. Also of note is that LKAB exports pelletized iron ore while Kaunis Iron exports 'raw' ore (grey powder). The Kaunis Iron ore cars are what I call the Kiruna bathtub cars that TO member 'Sven' has shown previously.

1. The first Kaunis Iron train of the day arrives in Narvik at 1:08 PM with loaded cars. Railcare is a locomotive lessor. Not sure if they also provide rail operations. The locomotives are a model known as Traxx, fairly common across Europe but with many, many operators and paint schemes.

2. Almost three hours later a second Kaunis Iron load curves into Narvik.

3. The locomotives might be solid black but are clean and classy.

---

---

---

4. The only Kaunis Iron empty of the day departs Narvik at 4:25 PM, presumbly the empty of the load that arrived at 1:08 PM. There is no locomotive number on the nose of this locomotive (maybe only on the other end?). This photo gives a better view of the knobby-wheel-things involved in dumping these ore cars. I hoped to see the empty of the other loaded train but I did not see it as of 8 PM, perhaps I missed it during dinner.

---

Very interesting, though i have to say i much prefer the LCAB locos, a much more interesting C-C design than the Bombardier B-B TRAXX. The TRAXX and the Siemens Vectrons are very common in mainland Europe but quite uninteresting B-B designs in my humble opinion. Stadler have some nice looking C-C locos also, both in electric and electro-diesel dual power designs.. 

NMlurker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My slogan for Narvik is "Come for the LKAB iron
> ore trains, stay for the Kaunis Iron iron ore
> trains." Something about the newness and
> different-ness of the Kaunis Iron trains made them
> my favorite. I only saw three Kaunis Iron trains
> (two loads, one empty) versus six LKAB trains (two
> loads, four empties). And the Kaunis Iron trains
> are 36 cars long versus 68 for the LKAB trains.
> Also of note is that LKAB exports pelletized iron
> ore while Kaunis Iron exports 'raw' ore (grey
> powder). The Kaunis Iron ore cars are what I call
> the Kiruna bathtub cars that TO member 'Sven' has
> shown previously.
>
> 1. The first Kaunis Iron train of the day arrives
> in Narvik at 1:08 PM with loaded cars. Railcare is
> a locomotive lessor. Not sure if they also provide
> rail operations. The locomotives are a model known
> as Traxx, fairly common across Europe but with
> many, many operators and paint schemes.
>
> 2. Almost three hours later a second Kaunis Iron
> load curves into Narvik.
>
> 3. The locomotives might be solid black but are
> clean and classy.

Former SBB Cargo locomotives.