Upsala-Lenna Jernväg

Uppsala-Länna-Faringe (Upsala-Lenna Jernväg, ULJ)
Legend 0 Uppsala Ö Uppsala Hamn (Fyris River) Bridge 43 m 2 Fyrislund 4 Årsta Bridge (66 m) 7 Skölsta 11 Bärby 12 Gunsta 14 Funbo 15 Marielund 16 Lövstahagen 17 Selknä 20 Löt 21 Lenna (Länna) Länna Bruk 26 Almunge 29 Moga Faringe-Gimo line 33 Faringe

Upsala-Lenna Jernväg (ULJ) (literally: Upsala-Lenna Railway) is a 32.6 km (20.3 mi) long 891 mm (2 ft 11 ¹⁄₁₀ in) (3 Swedish feet) narrow-gauge heritage railway in Uppsala County, Sweden. 891 mm (2 ft 11 ¹⁄₁₀ in) is the most common narrow-gauge in the country, but has only been used in Sweden and in a mine in the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The railroad, run by the SRJmf society, is one of a few remaining lines of a greater network of narrow-gauge railroad lines in the area called Stockholm-Roslagens Järnvägar (SRJ).

Roslagen network 1925. Dark red lines are still in existence
Lövstabruk Hargshamn Norrvällen Gimo Ramhäll Dannemora 114 Uppsala Östra 94 Lenna 81 Faringe Hallstavik 57 Rimbo Norrtälje 44 Kårsta Österskär Roslags Näsby Näsby Park Svalnäs Eddavägen Djursholms Ösby Mörby Långängstorp Stocksund Stocksundsbron 0 Stockholms östra -1 Engelbrektsplan

History

The railway between Uppsala and Lenna (Länna) was opened in 1876 and was the first of all 891 mm railways in the region. It was built to serve the ironworks at Länna with a connection to the standard gauge railroad network. Two years later the Dannemora-Harg Railroad (DHJ), also 891 mm, started to operate in the north of the county. That railway was built to connect the mines in Dannemora with the harbor at Hargshamn. In 1884, ULJ was linked with the coast by the Lenna-Norrtelje Railroad (LNJ). The following year that line was connected through Rimbo with Stockholm by the Stockholm-Rimbo Railroad (SRJ).

Marielund railway station in 2006.

SRJ acquired LNJ in 1905 and ULJ in 1908. In 1909, the company's name was changed to Stockholm-Roslagens Railroad, which enabled it to keep its signature (SRJ); Roslagen is the historical name of the coastal district north of Stockholm. SRJ was also involved in the building of a new line northwards from Rimbo which was finished in Hallstavik in 1915. In 1920, DHJ (then a subsidiary of SRJ) was connected with the rest of the system by the Faringe-Gimo line.

As of 1895, the line from Stockholm (including branch lines) were electrified. This project was finished in 1949 when Rimbo-Norrtälje was electrified. After World War II, most railways started to decline. SRJ/DHJ was nationalized in 1951, and eight years later the network was absorbed in the Swedish National Railways (SJ). During the early 1950s, all three freight only branch lines to DHJ (to Lövstabruk, Ramhäll and Fagervik by Lake Vällen) were closed. In 1960, passenger traffic ceased on the Dannemora-Harg and Faringe-Gimo lines as well as all the traffic from Stockholm Östra Station to Engelbrektsplan in the centre of Stockholm. The latter was a city line with regular tram tracks, and for this reason freight trains never ran there, and steam engines only rarely. Six years later, in 1966, the commuter line Stocksund-Långängstorp was closed. That line was initially built with standard gauge, but was converted in 1934 to narrow-gauge, 891 mm, for practical reasons. In 1966, passenger traffic closed on the line Uppsala-Rimbo-Hallstavik, and in 1969, only twenty years after its electrification, the line Rimbo-Norrtälje was closed. The same year, freight traffic closed south of Rimbo.

However, freight traffic was still quite busy on some parts of the network. The Dannemora mines still exported iron ore through Hargshamn, and freight trains with transporter wagons took freight to and from the paper mill at Hallstavik via Uppsala-Rimbo. For this reason, the national railway board decided to convert the former DHJ into standard gauge. The conversion was completed in 1970. At the same time, all traffic was closed on the line Faringe-Gimo.

SRJ 28 Stortysken at Lenna Station (in Länna) in June 2005. This is the last of a series of three of the biggest steam locomotives ever built for 891 mm rail gauge.

In 1972, the Greater Stockholm Transport Authority (SL) took over the remaining lines with passenger traffic, i.e. the lines south of Rimbo. SL closed the branch line Djursholms Ösby-Eddavägen in 1976, and in 1981, the former railroad junction at Rimbo lost all its railways when the Kårsta-Rimbo line was closed, making the village of Kårsta with some 200 inhabitants the new northern terminus.

SRJmf Society

The SRJmf society was formed in 1968 with the main purpose of saving rolling stock from the SRJ/DHJ network for excursion traffic. Initially, the society was based in Stockholm, but as SJ in the early 1970s started to construct the new standard gauge line from Hargshamn to Hallstavik, the society realized that the Uppsala-Rimbo-Hallstavik line would no longer be used for freight traffic, providing the society the opportunity to start traffic on the scenic line close to Uppsala.

With the aid of the Municipality of Uppsala, traffic started on Sundays in the summer of 1974 when freight trains did not run. Three years later the Hargshamn-Hallstavik line was opened and all traffic ceased on the Uppsala-Rimbo-Hallstavik line. The society could then take over the line Uppsala-Länna-Faringe, with the City of Uppsala as owner of the track and with the former junction Faringe serving as the headquarter with workshop facilities. The tracks between Faringe and Rimbo were removed in 1978.

Current traffic

Presently traffic is run Sundays in June to early September, expanded to four days a week in July; a great number of school excursions and other charters are run in late may and throughout the year.

A typical Sunday sees two steam-hauled trains and one motorcar train, augmented by veteran buses transiting to Fjällnora open air baths.

Weekdays mostly resemble Sundays; one of the steam hauled trains might be replaced by a diesels. However there is usually an early extra connection to Faringe and the Thun's outlet store.

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  BLJ 5 Thor at Uppsala Ö in June 2006

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  BLJ 4 Långshyttan at Uppsala Ö in September 2006

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  Tp 3515 leaving Faringe

• 

  Motorcars arriving at Marielund

See also

• Roslagsbanan
• List of heritage railways

References

• Roslagsbanan 100 år, AB Storstockholms lokaltrafiks järnvägar, Malmö : Stenvall, 1985. ISBN 91-7266-087-2

External links

• Upsala-Lenna Jernväg Official website
• ULJ Fordonsförteckning List of rolling stock
• ULJ Time table of 2011
• Stockholm-Roslagens Järnvägar