User:ACo2c/sandbox/Trafikaktiebolaget Grängesberg–Oxelösunds Järnvägar

Trafikaktiebolaget Grängesberg–Oxelösunds Järnvägar (TGOJ) was a Swedish private railway. It was owned for many years by the similarly named Trafikaktiebolaget Grängesberg–Oxelösund (TGO), later known as Grängesbergsbolaget or simply Gränges.

Background

Constituent railways

Köping–Hults Järnväg (KHJ)

The railway between Köping and Örebro over Frövi is the result of one of the first plans for a Swedish railway network. In 1845, Adolf Eugène von Rosen, a Swede who had made a fortune in railway stocks at the London Stock Exchange, was given a permission to build railways from Gävle via Stockholm and Södermanland to Gothenburg and Ystad on the condition that the detailed plans had to be finished by 1847. The project failed after von Rosen had lost most of his capital in a bubble burst in 1846, but he continued to make plans with the help of British financers. Together with John Rennie he proposed a railway from Stockholm to Gothenburg over Uppsala, Västerås, Köping and Örebro. The main benefit of the new route was that the central part could be built first, to connect with steamers on the lakes of Mälaren and Vänern. The suggested endpoint at lake Vänern was at Hult, possibly because an early proponent of the railway owned industries in nearby Bäckhammar.

The "Royal Swedish company for a railway between Köping and Hult" was formed in 1852 and was granted economical support from the state, provided the railway was completed before 1855. Most of the capital was nevertheless British, as were six of the twelve members of the board of directors, which included the swindler John Sadleir.

A certain Georg Burke was contracted to oversee the construction, which was to begin in 1852, but he made small efforts to start the work and rarely visited Sweden. He often failed to pay his employees, so that the railway company had to do so instead, and in March 1854 he declared that he would only pay if the company allowed him to slow down the work, which was seriously delayed already. The contract was cancelled later that year. Some months later the British financers stopped sending money to Sweden; what they did send was engineers, sometimes of questionable competence, whose salaries had to be paid by the Swedish board members. Sadleir, who had been selling forged shares in the railway, finally committed suicide on 17 February 1856 and left the company in complete disarray.

Despite the problems, regular traffic started from Örebro to Dylta on 5 June 1856 and from Dylta to Arboga on 26 August 1857. By then, the Swedish State Railways were building their own line between Stockholm and Gothenburg under directions from Nils Ericson, who wanted a more direct route via Katrineholm and Hallsberg; it was clear that KHJ would never be part of this line, although the company attempted twice to sell their railway to the Swedish government. The railway from Örebro to Hult was no longer needed, as various state-owned lines were serving the same area, but a local railway was later built along parts of the proposed route. The financial resources were now exhausted, and the line from Arboga to Köping had to be built by a nominally separate company, although it was operated by and later merged into KHJ. Stockholm–Västerås–Bergslagens Järnväg (SWB) opened between Köping and Västerås in 1875, and the two companies started cooperating closely. Stockholm was reached the year after. However, KHJ continued to have financial problems until taken over by TGO.

Frövi–Ludvika Järnväg (FLJ)

A connecting railway from Frövi to Lindesberg was suggested already in 1853, and Claes Adelsköld surveyed a route from Frövi to Ludvika in the late 1850s. The area had rich natural resources, most notably iron, but all freight had to be carried by road to either Frövi or Strömsholm Canal. There had been various projects for canals or horse-drawn railways from Lindesberg, and the opening of KHJ had spurred improvements on the road leading to Frövi, but a railway would allow the iron to be taken directly to the harbour in Arboga. Several attempts were made to secure a loan from the state to help the project, with the remaining part funded by British interests, but the results were not encouraging: the government always recommended against such a loan, and King Charles XV warned the railway proponents to "beware of the Englishmen".

In 1869 two employees at the British Embassy in Stockholm applied to build a railway from Frövi to Ludvika without financial support from the state, and permission was finally given, but only after they had promised to extend the line to Falun once it had started to make a profit. The permit was soon made over to a British-registered company, The Swedish Central Railway Co., Ltd. Construction of the railway was contracted to the firm of Wythes & Longridge and began at midsummer 1870. The company made itself unpopular by demanding to get land, wood products and ballast free of charge from the landowners and municipalities along the line, as well as royalty payments on all iron shipped from the area during the next ten years. Relations with the workers were also tense, leading to a strike and some violence. The first section of the line was opened in November 1871 and the last one in September 1873. The alignment was "unfavourable", with many curves and gradients to avoid cuttings.

In 1871 the Swedish Central Railway applied to build the promised extension to Falun, but the application was denied. Another company, Bergslagernas Järnvägar (BJ), had received permission to build a railway from Gothenburg to Falun, including a section parallel with the Swedish Central Railway from Ställdalen to Ludvika and an onward line from Ludvika to Falun. Attempts at cooperation between the companies failed, possibly because their respective owners were competing with each other in several fields of business. The railway was renamed to Frövi–Ludvika Järnväg in 1875. It suffered economical problems in the 1870s, but the situation improved in the 1880s.

Oxelösund–Flen–Västmanlands Järnväg (OFWJ)

A railway from lake Mälaren to Oxelösund was suggested several times in the 1860s, but there were doubts about its economical viability. The line would connect Eskilstuna and Nyköping to the Western Mainline at Flen, while also enabling exports from Bergslagen over Oxelösund, where it was possible to create a good harbour. Some plans were for a narrow-gauge railway, to keep the cost down, but interest from German and British financers meant that the plans changed to standard gauge. The line had two branches, separating at Rekarne north of Eskilstuna: one to Valskog station on KHJ, the other to Kolbäck on the SWB line between Västerås and Köping. Both OFWJ and SWB wanted to build a line from Kolbäck to Ramnäs station on another branch of SWB; OFWJ hoped that the traffic from industries in Surahammar and Hallstahammar would be routed over Oxelösund, but SWB won that struggle.

The company was formed in December 1872. The towns and municipalities along the route were very interested in the project, but most of the shares were bought by British financers also involved in the Swedish Central Railway. Both the railway and the harbour at Oxelösund were inaugurated in 1877, and a first test shipment of iron ore via Oxelösund was made the year after. The main export during the first years was however wood products, as it was too difficult to transport iron on the small sailing ships that visited the harbour, and regular steamship routes had not been established yet. Despite this, OFWJ was seen as a potentially very useful route for iron, particularly to Germany, and the Köln-Mindener Eisenbahn approached the company to suggest cooperation in transporting iron from Sweden to Germany and coal in the opposite direction.

OFWJ was badly hit by the economical problems in the late 1870s and early 1880s. The company had large loans from creditors represented by Stockholms Handelsbank and Skandinaviska kreditaktiebolaget, who were worried that they would loose the capital and decided to take control over the railway. Bankruptcy was believed by be imminent, and shares nominally worth 100 Swedish crowns were valued at only 50 öre. To save the company the owners promised to work to increase the iron ore transports via Oxelösund, an event that would eventually lead to the formation of Trafikaktiebolaget Grängesberg–Oxelösund. In 1884 KHJ agreed that freight wagons from FLJ and OFWJ could run over all three railways without transshipment, and traffic increased drastically, so that the iron had to be transported in separate trains on OFWJ from 1887 rather than in the ordinary freight trains.

Minor railways

A number of short side lines to mines and industries in Bergslagen were built by separate companies but operated by FLJ and later TGOJ. Storå–Guldsmedshyttans Järnväg was built in 1873, electrified in 1961 and lifted in 1992; the industry at Guldsmedshyttan owned a number of freight wagons, which were registered with TGOJ. Bånghammar–Klotens Järnväg, opened in 1875 and closed in 1934, also had some rolling stock of its own, including the first bogie carriages in Sweden. A line from Silverhöjden to Högfors was opened in 1903 and extended to Mossgruvan in 1919. Much of the track was lifted in 1936 but replaced in 1949 and electrified in 1956; the last part was lifted for the second time in 1987. The last of these railways, Storå–Stråssa Järnväg, was opened in 1915 and nominally closed in 1935, but traffic continued and the line was electrified in 1959.

A one-kilometre track between Skogstorp station on OFWJ and lake Hjälmaren was nominally also a separate company. The state-owned line from Eskilstuna to Nybybruk was operated by TGOJ from 1936 and purchased in 1968.

Trafikaktiebolaget Grängesberg–Oxelösund (TGO)

The largest industry in the area served by FLJ was originally the one at Kloten, owned by a Mr. Heijkenskjöld. After his death the estate was sold first to Carl Fredrik Liljevalch Jr. and eventually to Klotens Aktiebolag, a company formed in 1876 by the owners of FLJ. With OFWJ there now existed three companies with the same majority owners and active in the same area, and most shares in them were transferred in 1877 to a holding company named the Swedish Association. The economic downturn in the late 1870s caused problems to the new company, which had a rather limited financial capital. Further problems began when OFWJ came near bankruptcy in the early 1880s, as the Swedish Association might loose both the invested capital and the influence over this important railway. In June 1882 Liljevalch met Ernest Cassel, who represented the firm Bischoffsheim & Goldschmidt, and they agreed that the situation was best solved by attempting to increase the mining in the area and the iron ore traffic on the railways. The iron in the Grängesberg area was rich in phosphorus and not very valuable at the time, but Cassel had realized that the new Gilchrist–Thomas process would make it more useful. In 1883 Cassel, Liljevalch and others formed the mining company Grängesbergs Gruvaktiebolag, closely associated with Kloten AB. The iron export increased considerably, and the crisis for OFWJ ended in the late 1880s.

The Swedish Association did not control the KHJ line from Frövi to Valskog, and KHJ were not very interested in carrying traffic to Oxelösund instead of the harbour in Köping. Their location meant that they could set a high price for transporting the iron ore. To avoid these fees the Swedish Association considered building lines from Lindesberg to Valskog or to Nora – the latter route would have given a connection over Nora–Karlskoga Järnväg to lake Vänern. Permission to build the line to Valskog was granted in 1894; the Swedish Association did not have sufficient financial resources to actually build it, but news of the decision caused a sharp drop in the price of KHJ shares, and the company quickly agreed to change their pricing. The Swedish Association started buying shares in KHJ, becoming the majority owner by 1895.

A closer cooperation between the railways and the mining company was seen as desirable. A new company, Trafikaktiebolaget Grängesberg–Oxelösund, was formed in Sweden in 1896 and purchased most shares in KHJ, FLJ, OFWJ and Grängesbergs Gruvaktiebolag. TGO became the main owner of the mines at Grängesberg. The company was sometimes referred to as Grängesbergsbolaget, and changed its name to Gränges AB in in 1971. In 1903 TGO purchased Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag and Aktiebolaget Gällivare Malmfält from the Swedish state; half of the shares in the companies were sold back in 1907, the other half in 1957. Over the years they also acquired steel mills both in Bergslagen and near Eskilstuna, factories in different parts of Sweden, a shipping line, and a part of the Liberian mining company LAMCO.

History

Merging the railways

TGO wanted to merge the railway companies they owned, as there was no benefit in having three separate organizations. As a first step they leased the FLJ line and rolling stock from the Swedish Central Railway Co. Ltd for £33,500 per year, beginning in 1900. KHJ was still heavily in debt, and to get rid of these the line from Frövi to Köping was sold to a new company, Örebro–Köpings Järnväg (ÖKJ), and subsequently leased to TGO. The line from Örebro to Frövi was sold to the Swedish State Railways (SJ), and SJ also paid for a track from Röjen station on FLJ to Vanneboda on ÖKJ, enabling the iron ore trains to bypass Frövi, where they had been causing congestion. A lease of OFWJ was not possible at the time, but planning and administration for all three railways were centralized to Eskilstuna in 1900, with a regional office in Kopparberg; the new organization was informally referred to as Trafikaktiebolaget Grängesberg–Oxelösunds Järnvägar, "the railways of TGO". Each railway had its own staff and rolling stock until the 1930s. The Swedish Central Railway Co. Ltd was eventually liquidated in 1925 after transferring all its property to TGO, but such a complete takeover was not possible in the case of the other companies, as some minority owners continued to oppose a formal merger until the 1960s.

Beginning in 1929 passenger fares and freight costs were calculated as if the railways were one unit, and from 1931 the distribution of incomes and costs between the companies was fixed rather than following the actual results. The name Trafikaktiebolaget Grängesberg–Oxelösunds Järnvägar became official the same year, and the acronym TGOJ started appearing on rolling stock. From the 1930s it was no longer necessary to change locomotives for through trains in Vanneboda and Valskog.

Threat of nationalization

Since the 1850s the policy in Sweden had been that the most important railways should be state-owned, while other lines should be built by private companies. There were a large number of private railways, but many of them suffered economical problems in the period following the First World War. The first response was suggestions that railways should be merged into larger companies, as done in the United Kingdom – one 1923 proposal had TGOJ, SWB and some minor lines forming a company serving most of the Mälaren Valley – but this failed to materialize.

In the 1930s the discussion turned to a complete nationalization of the Swedish railway network, and a 1936 report by the Royal Railway Board indicated that large savings could be made if all railways were integrated into the Swedish State Railways (SJ). The report contained detailed plans for lowering the costs, for example by abandoning FLJ north of Ställdalen, where it ran in parallel with another line. TGOJ was, however, one of few companies to oppose the conclusions: the railway was an integrated part of TGO, and this was more important than any savings that could result from mergers or nationalization. Instead they started improving the railway with the goal to give it the same standard as SJ lines.

The Riksdag voted for nationalization in 1939, but made an exception for railways that mostly served the needs of a single customer, such as TGOJ and a few other companies in central Sweden. Nearly all private companies chose to sell their railways to the state in the following decade, despite there being no actual legislation to enforce the decision.

The exception for TGOJ caused some problems, necessitating closer cooperation with SJ. SWB was nationalized and electrified in 1945, leaving ÖKJ as a 46-kilometre (29 mi) private-owned, non-electrified section on the otherwise state-owned and electrified route between Stockholm and Örebro. The year after ÖKJ and SJ agreed that the line was to be electrified; SJ would provide electricity, locomotives and train crews for all trains between Köping and Frövi, except the iron ore trains. Eleven TGOJ employees were transferred to SJ as a result of the agreement. Negotiations about further coordination continued, and a second agreement was reached in February 1950, coming into force in 1951. According to this, the timetable should be made and fares and freight prices calculated as if TGOJ had been a state-owned line; these issues had been used as arguments for nationalization in the 1930s. Freight wagons (except those for ore) were to be used interchangeably, TGOJ staff received the same salaries and benefits as if they had been employed by SJ, and the railway was to be electrified as quickly as possible.

Electrification and CTC

Electrification of the TGOJ lines had been considered since 1915, but no decision was reached for many years. The line between Köping and Frövi was electrified by SJ staff from Nässjö as a result of the 1946 agreement, using the same 15 kV 16.7 Hz electrification system as SJ, and the first electric train ran on 7 June 1947. The 1951 agreement meant that the remaining lines had to be electrified, and work began in June 1952. The iron ore trains were hauled by electric locomotives south of Eskilstuna from 5 December 1953, lowering the travel time on that section from 4 hours to 2 hours and 20 minutes. The remaining part of OFWJ was electrified in February 1954, and the change-over between steam and electric traction was moved to Vanneboda in September. The electrification reached Grängesberg on 19 December 1955 and Ludvika on 3 June 1956; there now remained some minor lines, such as the ones to Stråssa and Guldsmedshyttan, electrified in 1959 and 1962 respectively. The cost for the project was originally estimated to be 45 million Swedish crowns, but increased to 69 million, including 27 million for rolling stock.

On 13 January 1956 an iron ore train hauled by an Ma-class electric locomotive collided with a railbus in Ställdalen, having failed to stop in time due to the breaking systems of the locomotive and the freight wagons being disconnected from each other. 20 people, most of them schoolchildren, were killed.

In the 1950s TGO became involved in the Liberian-American-Swedish Mining Company (LAMCO), and TGOJ staff contributed to the project with their knowledge about railway operations. Some rolling stock that had become redundant after electrification was sent to Liberia, and TGOJ also bought and modified four old SJ railbuses for use by LAMCO.

While the electrification project was ongoing TGOJ also began planning for centralized traffic control (CTC). The first plan was to control Harsjön station remotely; this station was a passing loop far from any populated place, and the staff disliked working there. However, this grew into a much more ambitious project for CTC on the entire network. After study visits in Germany and the United States TGOJ decided to use the system recently built by Siemens & Halske AG for the line between Nuremberg and Regensburg, and an order was placed in 1954. The traffic control centre was built in Skogstorp, south of Eskilstuna. The first section, between Nyköping and Skogstorp, was remotely controlled from 1 June 1958; the CTC installation was essentially completed in 1963, but Eskilstuna was not remotely controlled until 1968, and some junctions with SJ only received CTC in 1975. The SJ line between Ställdalen and Ludvika (once built by Bergslagernas Järnvägar) was equipped with CTC in 1984, controlled by TGOJ from Skogstorp, but with signals and other equipment of standard SJ types.

The CTC system of TGOJ was different from (and in some ways inferior to) the SJ standard, which was only established some years after TGOJ placed their order. The system used 100 Hz alternating current track circuits, later changed to 92 or 108 Hz to avoid interference from the Rc class locomotives used by SJ. Distant signals were either integrated into or placed directly below the preceding main signals. The automatic block signals originally showed a clear aspect in both directions if the line was unoccupied. Some signal aspects were also non-standard, notably the danger aspect with two red lights used in some situations.

The were also other improvements during this period. The harbour in Oxelösund was modernized and expanded in 1965, and the maximum weight of the ore trains was increased from 1,800 to 2,400 tonnes (1,800 to 2,400 long tons; 2,000 to 2,600 short tons) in 1962, and later to 2,700 tonnes (2,700 long tons; 3,000 short tons). Between 1959 and 1965 the amount of iron ore transported annually increased from circa 2 to 4 million tonnes (2,000,000 to 3,900,000 long tons; 2,200,000 to 4,400,000 short tons).

Changing ownership

The Swedish mining industry declined in the 1970s. Gränges AB suffered from competition from new mines in Canada, Brazil and Liberia and from an increased use of recycled steel, turning the profits of previous years into significant losses. The other Swedish companies in the sector – Stora Kopparberg, NJA and Statsföretag – were also impacted, and in 1978 this resulted in a merger of the steelworks in Luleå, Domnarvet and Oxelösund into Svenskt Stål AB (SSAB). Gränges AB transferred much of its assets to the the new company (in which it held 25 % of the shares), including the railway; the remaining parts of the old Gränges empire were eventually sold to Electrolux. The harbour in Oxelösund was spun off into a separate company owned by SSAB and the municipality.

References

Category:Defunct railway companies of Sweden