From the Swedish Railway Museum's website:
This summer (2022), the Swedish Railway Museum will be partnering with mining company LKAB to operate historic ore trains on “Malmbanan”, the Swedish Iron Ore Line. There were several sources of inspiration for this project: Since the Swedish Transport Administration is installing a new ERTMS signalling system, we wanted to run actual ore trains with the museum’s locomotives one last time. We also want to celebrate the 120-year anniversary of the northern section of the ore line and, finally, the event will coincide with the Kiruna Festival.
Insight: The entire length of the “Malmbanan” is north of the Arctic Circle. Consequently, during the longest days of the year, the sun never sets.
During the lightest hours of the midnight sun, two historic ore trains will run along the Kiruna–Vassijaure route. We are running these trains at night because trackwork is taking place in the morning on the northern side of the Iron Ore Line, and because traffic is minimal this late at night.
It’s impossible not to step on board these trains and be awed by the stunning nature in this mountainous region. We encourage anyone who has an interest to experience this unique midnight event. And we want to show that our historic locomotives can do what they were once built to do – haul iron ore at full wagon weight.
Ore train with steam locomotive SJ R 976:
This steam locomotive was built to pull the ore trains on the most demanding section, from Abisko Östra to Riksgränsen at the Norwegian border, so these locomotives became the most robust ever built for Swedish railway service. Although the R-class locomotive is incredibly strong, it’s also designed to go slowly when transporting heavy loads.
SJ R 976 will pull modern ore wagons from LKAB together with coupler wagons, since the ore wagons use an automatic coupler and the steam locomotive a screw coupler. The planned wagon weight is 1,400 tonnes – exactly what the R locomotives are built to pull.
The train, called 50976, operates as a freight train. Timetable:
• From the Kiruna ore rail yard: 23.55 (5 min. before midnight) on Saturday night, 2 July. The train will run from Sjöbangården and pass through Kiruna Station on its way to Vassijaure.
• Torneträsk, 02.28-03.25: Here, we’ll stop for a water or coal refill if needed.
• Abisko Östra, 05.08-06.38: Stop for water, coal, change of personnel.
• Vassijaure, 08.42: Arrival.
Statens Järnvägar (State Railways: "SJ") R 976, 0-10-0 (Nydqvist & Holm AB (NOHAB) / Trollhättan 903 / 1909)
In 1907, SJ ordered five powerful steam locomotives to pull the ore trains on the Abisko Östra-Riksgränsen route, where Norwegian locomotives took over. The locomotives were then able to haul ore trains of 1400 tons.
The locomotive became Sweden's strongest coal locomotive, but no more were built after the Malmbanan was electrified between Kiruna and Riksgränsen as early as 1915. The locomotive was then used in freight trains on the Norra Stambanan. The last service was in the lime trains between Rättvik and Falun 1961-1962. R 976 was saved by the Järnvägsmuseum and is now in running order. The locomotive is in Gävle, and is used occasionally, when a really strong and impressive steam locomotive is needed.
Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Additional insights are available, in several languages, including English:
Järnvägsmuseet (Swedish Railway Museum) (English): https://www.jarnvagsmuseet.se/en/trains ... n-ore-line
SJ R 976 (Swedish): https://digitaltmuseum.se/021018038517/ ... r-sj-r-976
Additional special, steam-powered excursions are planned for 2022:
Järnvägsmuseet (Swedish Railway Museum) (Swedish): https://www.jarnvagsmuseet.se/tagresor/aktuella-resor
A Swedish-language flyer for this series of excursions planned for summer, 2022 has been attached.
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Under the Midnight Sun Summer 2022 RyPN.jpg [ 519.21 KiB | Viewed 2921 times ] |
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SJ R 976 Ingvar Fogelberg.jpg [ 91.82 KiB | Viewed 2921 times ] |