Swedish State Railways, SJ

Train Speed

Before 1907, the maximum speed allowed on the Swedish railways was 85 km/h (53 mph) during summers and 75 km/h in (47 mph) winters, however, from 1907 the maximum speed was 90 km/h (56 mph) all year round. In 1946 some stretches were allowed a maximum speed of 120 km/h (75 mph) and in 1948 130 km/h (81 mph). From 1985, train sets pulled by Rc3 and Rc6 class locomotives on the Western Main Line are allowed a maximum speed of 160 km/h (99 mph). ATC was installed on the entire Western Main Line in 1989 and thereby adapted to fast express trains. In 1990, the SJ concept for fast express trains, Train X 2000, was introduced with a speed of 200 km/h (124 mph).

Railway Carriage Comfort Classes

Initially, there were three classes of railway carriage comfort. The first class corresponded to the highest degree of comfort while the third class was the simplest, usually with wooden benches. The second class was an intermediate form of the two others. The image shows the interior of a Swedish third-class railway carriage around 1900. Painting by Oscar Stenvall (1856-1916). Image: Wikipedia. In the 1900s, there was an equalization of the comfort in the three different classes of comfort and the number of travelers in first calls was less than in the other classes. In the 1900s, the difference between the different classes was foremost the space for each passenger. A first class railway compartment had 4 seats, a second class compartment six, and a third class eight. Besides, not every line had first class carriages. In 1956, the third class was abolished.

Types of Trains

During the first decades of railways, locomotives were the major cost for the railway companies. The train speed was initially very low and to improve the profit many carriages were coupled together in the same train set. That increased the profit at a low cost. In the beginning, there were no specific passenger trains or goods trains, passenger carriages, and goods wagons were mixed in the same train set. However, when the railways expanded the number of passengers increased as did the goods. The passengers wanted a fast ride while the goods demanded larger heavier loads. These two demands were incompatible. Therefore, the trains were separated into fast trains carrying passengers, passenger trains, and slower trains carrying heavy cargo, goods trains. The goods wagons are hauled by one or more locomotives. Depending on the country, goods trains are also called freight trains or cargo trains. A passenger train includes passenger-carrying vehicles and can often be very long and fast. Passenger carriages are also called coaches, or cars depending on the country. Passenger trains travel between stations or depots, where passengers may board and disembark. In most cases, passenger trains operate on a fixed schedule and have superior track occupancy rights over freight trains. The oversight of a passenger train is the responsibility of the conductor, who is sometimes assisted by other crew members such as service attendants or porters. A passenger train might also carry express goods or light cargo. These trains stopped at most train stations. In Swedish these types of passenger trains were nicknamed “mjölktåg” (milk trains). Fast trains did only stop at major stations and were called “snälltåg” (express trains). The faster express trains were very popular and you had to buy a supplementary ticket to have a ride with a “snälltåg”, so-called “snälltågsbiljett”. These express trains were introduced in Sweden in 1862 on the Western Main Line between Stockholm and Gothenburg.

The railway Carriages

There are many different types of carriages depending on use. A passenger car (passenger wagon in the US, passenger carriage, or passenger coach in the UK) is an item of railway rolling stock that is designed to carry passengers. The term passenger car can also be associated with a sleeping car, a baggage car, a dining car, or a railway post office. Freight cars (US) or goods wagons (UK) are items of railway rolling stock designed to carry goods. The early passenger carriages were shorter than today’s carriages and until the end of the 1800s constructed of wood. The interior was divided into separate compartments with an outer door to each compartment, so-called side-door compartments. This wasn’t very practical since passengers couldn’t reach other compartments from inside. Later, a passageway was introduced in the carriages, placed on one side of the interior of the carriage, with doors located at the ends of the carriage. The image shows an SJ second-class railway compartment, 1930s. Image: Järnvägsmuseet, ID: JvmKDAF04728. Generally, the comfort was very simple in the early passenger carriages. Lightning was obtained from candles or oil lamps and there was no heating, which was troublesome during cold Swedish winters. By the time, the length and weight of the carriages increased. In the 1920s, the length of Swedish carriages varied between 18 and 22 meters (59 to 72 ft) on standard gauge tracks. In the 1800s most carriages have 2 or 3 axles but in the 1900s most carriages were delivered with bogies (two axles per bogie). A bogie in the UK, or a railroad truck, or wheel truck in the US, is a structure underneath a railway vehicle to which axles (and, hence, wheels) are attached through bearings. Bogies were producing a more comfortable ride for passengers and made it possible to construct longer carriages, up to 27,50 meters (90 ft). The first passenger carriages used by SJ were built in Germany in 1856, however, soon Swedish companies began producing railway carriages. The image shows a Swedish third-class passenger railway carriage in 1917. The carriage was manufactured in 1917 for Kalmar - Berga Järnväg, KBJ. Image: Kalmar Läns Museum, ID: KLMF.Kalmar00002Mc. The sleeping carriage or sleeper is a railway passenger car that can accommodate all passengers in beds of one kind or another, primarily to make nighttime travel more comfortable. SJ introduced sleeping carriages in 1886 and each sleeping compartment usually has two or three beds. This type of sleeping carriages are known as couchette carriages with bench-configuration seating during the day and double- or triple-level bunk-beds at night. Each sleeping compartment is accessed from the side corridor of the carriage. A dining car (USA) or a restaurant carriage (UK), also a diner, is a railway passenger carriage that serves meals in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant. It is distinct from other railway food service cars that do not duplicate the full-service restaurant experience, such as buffet cars, carriages in which one purchases food from a walk-up counter to be consumed either within the car or elsewhere in the train. Dining cars are a normal part of long-distance trains. The first restaurant carriage in Sweden was introduced in 1894 on the Uppsala-Gävle Railway. Elegance is one of the main words used to describe the concept of dining on a train at this time. The image shows the interior of a Swedish restaurant carriage at the beginning of the 1900s. Image: Järnvägsmuseet, ID: JvmKBDM02331. Goods wagons, goods carriages, or freight wagons (freight cars, USA), are unpowered railway vehicles that are used for the transportation of cargo. There are a large variety of wagon types in use to handle different types of goods. At the beginning of the railway era, the vast majority of goods wagons were four-wheeled vehicles of simple construction. These were almost exclusively small covered wagons, open wagons with side-boards, and flat wagons with or without stakes. The covered wagons usually had sliding doors. These goods wagons are nicknamed “godsfinka” in Swedish. Over time, an increasing number of specialized wagons were developed for the transport of goods such as iron ore, timber, oil, etc. Initially, goods trains still ran at top speeds of only about 30 km/h (20 mph). However, the introduction of through brakes using air pipes from the 1920s enabled higher speeds to be safely achieved. The image shows an SJ goods wagon (“godsfinka”) from the first decades of the 1900s. Image: Järnvägsmuseet, ID: JvmKDAJ0230. Carriages and wagons hauled by a locomotive are coupled together forming a train. They are coupled using standardized couplers. In Sweden, usually, 13 carriages are coupled together to make a train. Others: At the beginning of railways, smoking was allowed in all passenger carriages. However, later special smoking compartments (smokers) were introduced. From trains, operating in the Scandinavian northern climate, it was necessary to have heated passenger carriages in winter. There were different solutions for this; iron stoves in each carriage or steam from the locomotive distributed to each carriage in pipes. From 1871, there were special steam wagons (Swe: ångfinka) producing hot steam distributed to the carriages. However, once the railway lines were electrified, the heating was done electrically. Initially, toilets were very primitive, merely a hole in the floor which deposited the human waste onto the railway tracks. There were signs in the toilets stating “refrain from using the toilet while the train is at a railway station”. Later special holding tanks were introduced. In the 1800s, long-distance trains made longer stops so that the passengers could get off the train and dine at the train station restaurant. Later special restaurant carriages were coupled to the trains so the passengers could dine aboard. In Sweden, these railway diners were introduced in the 1890s. In the 1900s, also café or buffet carriages became common as well as ambulatory service in the passenger carriages. In 1872 SJ introduced passenger carriages with passages between the carriages.

Railway Stations

During the great expansion of the Swedish railways, 1850-1950, many railway stations were being built. The station houses were usually magnificent buildings, located centrally in towns. Many stations were also placed in the countryside where towns grew up around the station. The Stationmasters competed to have a neat station with tidy waiting rooms and nice flowerbeds outdoors. The Stationmaster is the person in charge of a railway station. In the US the role is commonly termed Station Agent. The Swedish term is “stationsinspektor” or short “Stins”. The first railway station built in Sweden was the Fryksta station neal Kil in Värmland which was built in 1852 by the Fryksta - Clara Elfs railway. Railway stations were built along the railway lines and each station comprised premises for the station personnel and a waiting room for the passengers. Major railway stations had also a restaurant. Larger railway stations were also equipped with accommodations for the personnel at the station. Safety on the railway line passing the station was watched over by the station personnel. At a major railway station, besides the station house, there usually was a goods warehouse, a railway yard (switchyard (US)), signal box (tower (US)), and of course platforms. A railway junction (Swe: järnvägsknut) ) is a place at which two or more rail routes converge or diverge. This implies a physical connection between the tracks of the different routes. A station that lies on or near a railway junction is called a junction station. In Sweden, if there are several railway stations in a place, the primary station usually is called the Central Station, i.e. part of the proper name for the railway station. The Swedish term is “Centralstation”, abbreviated Central or C, for example, Stockholm C. The image shows the Railway Station in Götene, VGJ, a small town in Västergötland. Image: Västergötlands museum, ID: 1M16-B145254:598. A railway stop (Swe: hållplats) is an unattended stop along a railway line where passengers can embark or disembark a train. A railway stop has no station house or switches but usually a shelter, a platform, and a semaphore. The semaphore was used to signal to the engine driver that you wanted to embark on the train and he stopped the train at the platform. This was foremost used for local or regional trains. A loading area (Swe: lastplats) is a place along a railway line where goods are loaded or unloaded. A place where goods trains are coupled or decoupled is called a railway yard or railroad yard (Swe: rangerbangård) and is a complex series of railroad tracks for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading, railway cars and locomotives. These rail yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or unused locomotives stored off the mainline so that they do not obstruct the flow of traffic. Railway carriages are moved around by specially designed yard switchers, a type of locomotive. The motive power depot (railway depot) is the place where locomotives are usually housed, repaired, and maintained when not being used. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine sheds" or, for short, just sheds. The Swedish term is “lokstall”. Note, in American English, the term depot is used to refer to passenger stations or goods (freight) facilities and not to vehicle maintenance facilities. The image shows the engine shed (“lokstall”) in Katrineholm, Sweden, circa 1905. Image: Järnvägsmuseet.

Trackman Cottages

A platelayer (UK) or trackman (USA) is a railway employee whose job is to inspect and maintain the permanent way of a railway installation. The Swedish term is “banvakt” which means “track tender”. Therefore I will use the US term trackman in this article. The Swedish railways employed a large number of trackmen whose responsibility was to supervise and maintain a designated part of the railway line. Not only the tracks were supervised by trackmen but also the embankment and the strip of land on both sides of the embankment. The trackmen were obliged to inspect their respective part of the railway line at least once a day. This was performed either by foot or on an inspection trolley (Swe: dressin). Each trackman was assigned a specific stretch of the line and each stretch covered between 2.5 km (1.6 mi) and 10 km (6 mi) or more. Each trackman was working from an assigned railway trackman cottage (Swe: banvaktsstuga) located on their respective part of the railway line. These cottages weren’t big but usually large enough to accommodate the trackman and his family. The trackman was also responsible for the maintenance of his cottage. The trackman cottages usually had two rooms and a kitchen, and the trackmen often kept a cow, a pig, and a few chickens, and a garden where they were growing vegetables and potatoes, etc. The wages weren’t big either but they had a house to live in and it was a secure and rather free occupation. Most railway crossings were supervised by a gatekeeper and if there was a crossing nearby a trackman cottage, the wife of the trackman could earn some extra money for the family as a gatekeeper (Swe: grindvakt). The image shows a trackman cottage in Wästra Hästbo (X). The trackman is on his inspection trolley (Swe: dressin). Photo: Josef Eriksson. Image: Länsmuseet Gävleborg, ID: XLM.Torsåker1129. The Swedish trackman cottages along the railway lines were built from a standardized blueprint but the design has been different in different decades. The first cottages being constructed from the 1850s were rather small, about 2,4 x 3 meters (8 x 10 ft.). The entrance was on the gable facing the track. The next design of the cottages was introduced in 1862. These cottages were larger and had an extra room. Yet another cottage design was introduced in 1872 and this model was even larger and had 2 further rooms and an entrance hall. The gable was facing the track but the entrance was now on the long side. Attached to the trackman cottage was a cattle shed with room for one or two cows, a calf, and a pig or two. There was also a shed for the tools needed by the trackman to maintain the tracks. The system of having trackmen supervising the tracks was finally abolished around 1960.

Related Links

• Railway History, part-1 • Railway Occupations and Uniforms • Swedish State Railways - Locomotives • Iron Ore Line • Railway History - Images • Maps of the Swedish Railway System • History of Swedish Log Driving

Source References

• Staten, järnvägarna och den regionala utvecklingen i Sverige 1840–1890, Agaton Sten, 2015, Umeå Universitet. • Den glade rallaren? Norrbottniska rallares syn på sina arbets- och levnadsvillkor, Per-Jonas Pihl 2016, Luleå Tekniska Universitet. • Boken “En rallares levnadsminnen”, av Samuel Magnusson Svanbäck; nedtecknade av Herbert Malmback, 1931. • Boken: “Banbrytare. Äventyr och upplevelser under ett 100-årigt järnvägsbyggande i Sverige”. Manne Briandt. Kristianstad 1959. • Sveriges järnvägars historia, Populär Historia, 13 september 2006 av Niklas Ingmarsson, publicerad i Populär Historia 7-8/2006 . • Rallarna i Sverige banade väg för industrialismen, av Mats Utbult, publicerad i Populär historia 11/2009. • Wikipedia • Järnvägsmuseet (Railway Museum in Gävle, Sweden) Top of page

Different Timezones in Sweden

Before 1879, Sweden had different times or timezones. It could differ as much as 45 minutes between the easternmost and the westernmost parts (Haparanda / Strömstad) of Sweden. The difference in time between Stockholm and Gothenburg was 24 minutes. This caused problems with timetables when the railways expanded during the second half of the 1800s. On 1 January 1879, a standard time zone was introduced for the entire of Sweden. Swedish standard time was set accordingly to the meridian halfway between Stockholm on the east coast and Göteborg on the west coast. Electrification of the Swedish Railway System In 1890, the Boxholms AB company began using an electrified narrow-gauge industry line between the different buildings at the steelworks. The line was called Lönna Line (Lönnabanan) and was in use until 1966. The first electrified railway line for passenger transport was a suburban railway line in northern Stockholm, Djursholmsbanan (Djursholm Line) later called Roslagsbanan. Initially, it ran between Djursholm north of Stockholm and Stockholm city center. This commuter line was electrified in 1895 and was one of the first electrified railway lines in Europe. The line was later extended northward. A steam- powered tram (streetcar) was used in Södermalm District of Stockholm in 1887. In 1901, a major introduction of electrified trams occurred in Sweden. The first electrified railway line ran by the Swedish State Railways (SJ) was initiated in 1915, the Iron Ore Line (Swe: Malmbanan) in the northernmost part of Sweden. The first electrified section of the line was Kiruna–Riksgränsen. The entire Iron Ore Line, Luleå - Riksgränsen, was electrified in 1923. The next railway line to be electrified was the Western Main Line, Stockholm - Gothenburg, which was entirely electrified on 15 May 1926. The electrification of the Southern Main Line was ready in 1932/1933. The major period of electrification, when the remaining main lines were electrified, took place in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1942, you were able to travel from Trelleborg on the southernmost tip of Sweden to Riksgränsen in North Sweden by electric trains, a distance of 2,022 km (1,256 mi). This was then the longest connected electrified railway line in Europe.

Nationalization of Swedish Private Railways

Under the 1854 Parliament Act, the Swedish main lines shall be constructed by the state, the government, and the branch lines by private interests. About two-thirds of the railway network, counted in the number of kilometers, was thereby owned by private companies. Gradually, many of the branch lines were nationalized; the first private railway line that was nationalized was the Hallsberg-Motala- Mjölby Line after it had become insolvent in 1879. In Norrland, the northern half of Sweden, some shorter private lines were nationalized in connection to the opening of the northern main lines, including their branch lines down to the cost. In 1890, the railway line between Luleå and Gällivare in North Sweden was nationalized, mainly due to defense political reasons. When the Inland Line was constructed, the southern part of the line was acquired by purchasing private railway lines, i.e. the route between Kristinehamn and Sveg. Under the Parliament Act of 1895, five private railway lines in southern Sweden on the route Gothenburg and Malmö on the west coast were nationalized. Between 1927 and 1931, several private railway lines became insolvent and pleaded to the government to purchase these lines to avoid a close-down of the lines. About 23 railway lines were taken over by the government between 1920 and 1940. A major takeover occurred in 1933 when the railways Uppsala- Gävle (UGJ) and the then current Ostkustbanan (OKB) on the route Gävle-Sundsvall-Härnösand, were nationalized. In 1933, there was a proposal in the parliament to nationalize the entire railway network in Sweden. In 1938, after a study that resulted in a report, a government bill was put forward in the parliament regarding the nationalization of the private lines, and the Act was passed on 17 May 1938 with a vast majority of the votes. The Act was effective as of January 1939. The nationalization was implemented through voluntary agreements with the private railway companies and the government purchased these companies’ shares between 1940-1952.