Swedish Inspiration

With narrow gauge railways in scarce supply in Denmark it's an obvious choise to visit the great neighbour Sweden that has a much broader selection of railways in different gauges. As I'm engaged in building a red wooden building I also wanted to study how windows are built into simple industrial type wooden structures. Off I went with a group of enthusiastic friends.

Loco 21 on the 600 mm gauge Östra Södermanlands Järnväg west of Stockholm shunting in front of the workshops. The loco has been regauged from 750 mm and extensively rebuilt since arriving from Ukraine.

The 4 day tour took me to railways with gauges varying from 1435 mm over 1093, 1067, 891 to 600 mm. Most of it pure heritage stuff, but we managed a few visits to standard gauge installations relevant to the professional side of my railway life.

Diesel loco 'Ohsan' visiting the Östra Södermanslands Järnväg from the Ohs Bruk heritage line. Originally built as a steam loco (Motala Verkstad 148/1894) it was rebuilt into a diesel loco by Kalmar Verkstad (36/1937) and stil going strong. Near Hedlandet halt.

A lovely train of four wheel closed vans on Mariefred Station, Östra Södermanlands Järnväg, 600 mm gauge. Didn't I once see a blurry image of two closed vans from Nystrup Gravel? I think so...

White framed window in red wooden building. Just how the windows in my building for Nystrup Gravel will be fitted.

While it was the 600 mm lines we visited that provided the most applicable inspiration, many of the other lines in larger gauges were also full of atmosphere and lovely sights all surrounded by plenty of trees. 

An absolutely gorgeous railcar in shiny black in front of a standard Swedish railbus and trailer on Marielind Station on the 891 mm gauge Uppsala-Faringe heritage line. The line having a respectable length of 33 km. and a very good track standard.

With Sweden being a neighbouring country, with a long shared history with Denmark and a language easy to understand, it's no surprise that it's a country I really like to visit. Danes and Swedes have a lot of things in common, although we (as neighbours tend to) often focus on the differences.

Humor brings together people. Here is a handle on the small motor trolley 'The Comet' on Östra Södermanlands Järnväg. The bottom position says 'Stop' the next up position is 'Running' and the upper position simply 'Panic'!

Having reached Denmark again I'm trying to find time to fit window frames in my relief building, I will probably not get far, as I'm getting ready for a week in Berlin and the railway exhibition InnoTrans 2022 (nothing to do with heritage railways or modelling, but part of my job in a railway construction company).