Locomotive museum Grangesberg English version

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Created 090910
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This museum welcome the visitors with a very large parking place. This is because that here the former employees could park their cars. I am sure that people at the service unit had their parking places here. Then we, the museum visitors, had to walk over the old railway in order to come to the little yellow welcome house. Here there was an summer working student who took care of the fee money. Sorry to say he didn't know so much of the museum. But he was very kind and tried to answer our questions. They had no books and only gave me the introduction paper, translated, you can see here. Most of the visitors of course just look at the locomotives.
The railway started in Ludvika 25 km north Grängesberg and ended in the harbor of Oxelösund 340 km down south. To this main railroad several small private railways were connected.

The story about how the railroads in Sweden were built are connected to the development of the living through the Swedish agriculture society over to the building of railroads in order to sell the miner for the wars in Europe and for this building up and create the company of Gränges.
All this started with the Crimea war 1853 to 1856 Everybody know that war need much iron and copper and all this was bought from Sweden. The war ships were now started to be built from iron. Also remember that in America they were fighting their civil war. 1861 - 1865. This war came direct after the Crimea war. 1870 - 1871 started the French German war and this covered all Europe. Then we have the 2 Boer wars in South Africa between the colonial powers of England and the South African trial for freedom 1880 - 1881 and 1899 - 1902and then WWI and WWII.
All these wars were fought by the colonial powers of that time and their largest iron deliverer was Sweden.
Sweden was underdeveloped concerning transportations. There were only horses and wagons between the loading places and the channels. The English investors clearly understood this and were very willing to invest money in transportation systems, when Swedish mine owners asked for money to build railroads. In England they had already in the beginning of 1800 built their first railroad and had found that this system was much more better than horses and channels. This idea was already tried in Falun copper mine. But with rail of wood. What they also knew was that ore in large quantities could be found.
The three most interesting places for railroads to be built were Köping, Nora and Norberg, except for Kiruna in north of Sweden. The best delivery station for England was Gothenburg. The shortest way was Köping - Hult. The end station was a harbor in lake Vänern. With such a railroad it was easy to transport ore to England. This country needed large amount for their wars and wanted also the possibility to stop export to other countries. The plans for this railroad took long time and also was prolonged by a bankruptcy and for this reason was not started to be built until end of 1850. (cont.)

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2 balances from one of the railway stations of TGOJ. These were very rigid durable. If you put in a 10 or 25 öre coin you get your weight printed on a ticket similar to a railway ticket for that time.

It was a heavy resistance to build these expensive railways. People had difficulties to understand what they were good for. Few people knew about railways. How to get the money back? Compare with the discussions about building high speed train 2009 in Sweden.
Around 1850 the rearming of Germany had started and for exporting ore for Germany and England the interest showed up to a railway from Örebro/Köping. In this way the mine owners could get a cheaper transport to the sea over lake Mälaren. The complete main idea was to build a railway from river Dalälven and down to Lake Vänern. In the same time the Swedish government was planning the Swedish main railways. These railways were the government duty and the local railway up to privacy. Note that during this primary time King Carl XV reigned in Sweden and remember that the four class societies had the power. The state decided how much iron every blast furnace was allowed to produce. The reason for this was that the output of forest in Sweden and Finland was so large that it was on the way to end up. 1 ton of iron needed 8 m3 charcoal. But if there are possibilities to earn money there are always people showing up.
In Sweden we had not the money and knowledge to build railways but we had the ore. England had the knowledge because they had already 1830 built there first railway for transportation of goods. All this was due to the steam technology. Locomotives, wagons and rails had at this time been developed to be useful up to 1850.
A.E von Rosen was an enthusiastic Swedish railway builder and he got from the Swedish government, commission for the main lines. This was very expensive and his commission was only for the main railways. The pressure to get cheaper transports for the ore was increasing and smaller and narrow gauge railways so called side rails, were built in several places like Fryckstad in county of Värmland, Nora - Ervalla and Norberg - Ängelsberg. Locomotivs were bought from England and a Swedish industry started to be developed in order to produce goods for the railways.
The ore from Grängesberg was hard to sell as it was contaminated with phosphorus and the blast furnaces could not purify the ore. At this time 1855 two Englishmen, Gilchrist and Thomas (Thomasprocessen), had succeeded to purify the ore. This was a secret and the mine owners was not informed. Now the plans for buying mines came up and also organizing to build the railways. All this to be able to buy mining areas cheap. Kloten a small blast furnace near Grängesberg was bought and the new owner had order to buy as many mines as he could in the area. A railway company FLJ was started in order to transport the ore southwards. The leading person in Kloten was Liljevalch. The building of the railway from Örebro had soon reached Frövi and was on the way to Kopparberg. (cont.)

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Foto Gb 61 M3b (TGOJ)

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Stora - Strassa

Stora - Guldsmedshyttan

Frovi - Ludvika

Silverhojden - Mossgruvorna

Kloten

Oxelosund Flen Vastmanland

From this engine there were 2 types. M3a and M3b. M3a had no separate tender, instead the coal box was built in the end of the locomotive. M3b which was heavier and had a separate tender which carried water and coal. Both types were in for renovation. The digit 3 in M3 stands for 3 steam cylinders. This means that one cylinder is put between wheels. This is the same type as engine 49 which usually is used for excursions. This locomotive, no. 61 was ordered 1929 and was mainly aimed for ore transportation between Eskilstuna and Oxelösund. Besides in the shed nearby was another engine standing for reparation. Type Mb3 -61 it could pull up to 1700 tons.

All this planning was the result of the discussions between Tham and Ernest Cassel in England. At the Cassel´s later visit in Sweden did the organizers discuss how to, in longer term best and cheapest organize the railway transportation and were railways should be built. They figured out that the best harbor should be in Oxelösund because it could mostly be open all winter and it was short way to the sea. In addition they had plans to build 2 coke furnaces in this place. This was delayed because of iron custom fee was not free as for ore. Now the railway consist of 4 companies and those took care of the railway between Grängesberg and Oxelösund. The companies were Frövi - Ludvika 1873, Örebro - Köping 1867, Oxelösund - Flen - Västmanlands railroads 1878. The year state when they started to work. In the last company the English investors were large stockholders. Up to these 4 there were several small side rails like Storå - Guldsmedshyttan, Stråssa - Storå och Silverhöjden - Mossgruvorna. Now the goal was to bring all these to a working company. In order to look for their interests, the English investors started an English holding Company. The Swedish Association Ltd. was placed in England and their Swedish contact became Swedish Central Railway Ltd. This holding company was administrated by Kloten Ltd and Tham was director. Now several companies were put together, buying of stocks, several fusions and leasing contracts. 1896 everybody accepted to have a central management under the name TGO, Traffic company Grängesberg - Oxelösund. TGO handled an amount of stocks was 21 116 000 Skr. This was an enormous sum of money at this time. All this was organized 1900 in one management. The railroad was divided in two district, south and north of Eskilstuna. The north part was still under English ownership. The Swedish Central Railway Ltd. The problem was now to get this under Swedish ownership. This was made possible by good times in first part of 1900 and 1931 the company TGOJ was established for the whole line Ludvika - Oxelösund. The compete rail line was now 340 km. The port of Oxelösund was completed and the transportation on sea was done on cargo ships of Gränges own. The future seams to be good. (cont.)

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Lok litt Gb nr 95

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Engine nr 95 built in 2 copies and versions M2 and M3. Ref 1

TGOJ Litt. nr 95( 95-96).

1942 two Gb locomotives were delivered and they became the last new steam engine locomotives for TGOJ. During World War II Swedish Government had decided that only engines of the standard SJ type were allowed to be produced. The choice fell on SJ Gb/G5-typ. This type was copied from the Preussian G8-type. TGOJ:s Gb-locomotives differ from SJ type in certain details, such as closed driver compartment and larger water supply in the tender. The engines worked over the whole TGOJ-lines.

After the reorganization, the railway company continued to work with good profit and gave for the first time the stockholders money on their invested money. They had not got any fee the last 20 years. Still the goal was to make the whole line into one Swedish owned company. 1925 one step on this way, when English interests were bought and those were put into liquidation. 1931 the last reorganization was done and the name was changed to TGOJ. Under this name the whole line was administrated. Everything were under good control and the coming war states bought all ore the Gränges mine could produce. The three railway companies FLJ, ÖKJ and OFWJ were separately recorded with TGO as the holding company.
But they had a coming problem. When government gave sanction for the line Frövi -Ludvika they hold the right at the proper opportunity to buy it. A state decision 1939 said that all railway lines in Sweden had to be under the control of the state.
After WWII the railroad and it's material were hard worn and large investment like electrification was on the way.

In the beginning the consequences could not be foreseen by the company because of the unification with SJ. Because this was based on voluntariness. TGOJ decided to, for the time say no and instead started to update the line to SJ standard and also to electrify the line. This meant also that they bought 42 new locomotives for a cost of 70 million Skr. ÖKJ had already been electrified because of an agreement with SJ. The work with this started 1951 and 1953 the whole line to Oxelösund was ready. To get all this money TGOJ they sold their part in the mine fields of LKAB and Gällivari to Swedish state 1957. These they had owned since 1903. Oxelösund port and iron works were also modernized. The harbor had it's opening ceremony 1965. The money was also enough to start the LAMCO project in Liberia. TGOJ got also a coordination agreement with SJ. This should slowly and secure transfer Gränges into the SJ system without cutting a good working organization even if all terms not were put on paper. (cont.)

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Litt 49 was the archetype for M3 locomotives. From this the versions a and b were built. M3 stands for 3 steam cylinders.
TGOJ M3 49 is the only left loco of this type. They were manufactured at NOHAB Trollhättan and got the numbers 46-50 of these no. 46 was the first 3 cylinder loco in Sweden. They were used for the heavy ore trains from the Grängesberg mines to Oxelösund harbor up to 1940 when stronger locos took over. After this the M3 locos were mainly used for cargo train but was also sometimes put in for passenger transport. 1957 the 5 M3 locos were sold to SJ for preparedness. The M3:s were never used in traffic at SJ and 1972 they were put out for scraping. M3 49 was saved and bought by Locomotive museum in Grängesberg 1981 and transported from Boden to locomotive museum the same year. 1982 it was fully renovated and drivable. 1990 it was repainted in its original colors. (Translated from photo)

After 1970 it was heavy discussions how mines, transportation and steelworks should be organized in Sweden. At the same time the steel crisis occurred and pushed for a change. This made that the steel works in Borlänge reorganized within SSAB. The new part of NJA, Norrbottens Steel works was liquidated and all mining in middle of Sweden was cancelled. The port of Oxelösund was organized into a separate company. All this was done to save the mine in Kiruna. Last ore train from Grängesberg was driven 1990.
The railroads in Sweden were now divided into 3 parts. Banverket BV, the part that handled the rail. SJ AB that takes care of passenger traffic. Green Cargo is responsible of cargo transports.
TGOJ was divided into 2 parts, one half is a support company, EuroMaint, the other started 2003 TGOJ Traffic and rental. These 2 are parts of Green Cargo.
For Gränges train division, after near 50 years of a transitional period, succeeded to take care of all the knowledge that has been created under the TGOJ 150 years and formed it into the Swedish railway system. (end)

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In the end of 1800 there was not any main locomotive supplier in Sweden. Instead all material was bought from England. This was important for all investors from England when money came from the English bank system. This locomotive, nr 8, manufactured 1876 by Sharp & Stewart Atlas Works in Manchester. It was working at Oxelösund - Flen - Westmanlands Railroad. In this part the English investors were large stockholders. 8 copies of this type was also bought by SJ. This loco is now 2009 placed at the Locomotive museum in Grängesberg and is ready to take action in veteran tours. These types got the letter of A. Note that the working cylinder is placed inside between carrying wheels.

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STAL-Laval

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Here you can read some special and general turbine information about turbine locomotives.
Once upon a time 1956, I was sitting in a classroom at Nacka Realskola just outside Stockholm. I could through the window look down at Svenska Rotor Maskin (SRM). This was the late Birger and Fredrick Ljungström´s new company which now developed blow machines. During my time during the 1990th when I worked at Stal-laval Finspång with steam turbines I could every morning when passing the entrance into the working area see a small radial turbine which I think was a test machine. It was completely stripped just to be able to see how it functioned. All this was my contact with turbines and general interests for locomotives which got me to study M3t locomotive history.
Birger Ljungström had studied de Lavals axial turbine. About this he had the idea that steam should have it's inlet in the center and work radial outwards. This meant that he could have two rotating wheels in opposite directions. This construction made that it could be equipped with lesser blades. One disadvantage was that if wheel got large diameter radii forces would affect these wheels and together with temperature expansion it became hard to keep up close tolerances. The turbine is cold when starting up. For large radial turbines this problem could cause "blade salad". Those big turbines could deliver 50 mW or more 2009, which is normal for steam or nuclear power works (Forsmark). For a locomotive turbine no more then 1500 kw was needed (ca 2000 hp). A combined radial and axial turbine have the size for a perfect fit into a locomotive. Compare size between the two types. In order to make the radial turbine less complicated it was decided to restrict the turbine to only one rotating axle and a rigid part between, which changed the steam direction. Preferred speed was chosen by 5 nozzles. They are steam openings which can be opened one by one to chose the power and rpm. They are controlled by the driver. An other special thing is that if there is no steam action on the turbine the wheels on locomotive are locked. This because there was no free wheel for de-clutching the gearbox. The gear had a gearing of 51:1. The rotating speed for 60 km/h was 10000 rpm. If the locomotive had to be moved without steam the drive axles must be dismantled. The turbine is acting on a gearbox with left and right cog-wheels in order not to get side powers. The blind axle goes through the gearbox out to the driving part on which the coupling arm is mounted. In order to drive backwards there is a movable dog wheel in the gearbox. This kind of turbine demands a very rigid mounting so that not tolerances may be changed. First of all the unit must be mounted so that no temperature differences occur. This make the turbine easily damaged and revision must be done often. A stationary turbine can be working for years without larger revisions. Yet this locomotive was the strongest ever been produced. It was tested for a tension force of 2000 tons. Three copies were produced 1930 - 36 and all were good working. Yet this construction was to late in time to be a concurrent for the diesel and electric power engines. The ore transportation in Kiruna had already 1922 electric locomotives. TGOJ did use them up to 1953 when their line to Oxelösund port was updated for electricity. Today two of these locomotives are garaged with the still workable one in Grängesberg. The third one is to be found at Swedish Train museum in Gävle. (cont.)

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Unusual types

TGOJ had two types of M3 locos. The were named a and b. the a engine was the taype that didn't have any tender. The coal box was part of the engine. It was intended for FLJ rail and had also been shorted so it could use the turnover plate. It was rebuilt and got the designation M3a 101.

About the history of the turbine locomotives.
The first turbine loco saw daylight 1908 in Italy. At this time equipped with axial turbines. It had two axles and was used as a switching locomotive. A Swiss firm rebuilt ordinary cylinder steam locos to turbine type. This done also the well known German manufacturers like Krupp and Kraus-Maffei. All were equipped with blind axle. Birger Ljungström who for a long time had pondered over the size of the axial turbine. His solution was a construction called radial turbine. In this type the compressed steam entered into the turbine in the axle end and activated two wheels placed apart each other. In order to make it more simple he used one rotating wheel and the rigid had only the purpose to switch directing of the steam. This type of turbine was proven 1910 and at that time a 1 mW was built. This one was later sold to the subway of London for generating of electricity. This turbine was used for 50 years. 1917 cylinder steam locomotives had developed so far that the construction had reach the limit of power. This was depending of the railway system. The locomotives could not be broader. Compare locos in USA. At this time cylinders were mounted 2 to four outside and 2 inside the wheels. These engines were noticeably weaker than stationary turbines. Another wish was that one wanted to get rid of the depending water filling so often. The solution for this was to recycle the steam through a condensing system. 1920 decided ALÅ (AB Ljungströms Ångturbin) with a recommendation from professor Sokodol in Schweiz, later BBC, he could get money to build a full scale prototype for a radial condensing locomotive. The power unit was not full scale. This was done at Gåshaga Lidingö outside Stockholm. The AGA factory works was also situated here and Gustaf Dalén was surely one of the finance men.

The locomotive was ready 1921 for testing and 1923 it was ready for full scale test delivery. After this it was completely rebuild. With this locomotive 35% of coal was saved and it could drive from Stockholm to Gothenburg without filling of water. Nydqvist & Holm got the license to build and immediately got two orders. One for Argentina and one for Sweden. The Argentine loco was almost delivered at once and the Swedish for SJ had to wait till 1927. The construction was so done that the turbine was mounted on the tender and put it's power over coupling bars to 3 wheels on the tender. The turbine on the Swedish engine delivered 1470 kW and max allowed speed was 90 km/h. This locomotive was in use up to 1931 when electrified rails made it outdated. It was later scrapped 1935.
In England this kind of locomotive was also built according to the SJ-Type on license 1926. It was given the max speed of 120 km/h. It was also scrapped.
We have now reached the 3 TGOJ turbine locos that were first ordered 1931. They were of a simplified model and had no condensing equipment. The turbine was placed in the front and put power over a gear to a blind axle and coupling bars. This type must be seen as the best construction for Sweden. Even if it was more expensive than the cylinder locos it could pull much more. The first one went to OFWJ 1932 and the next two for TGOJ 1936. Sorry to say this construction was too late in time as electrifying had now taken over. Turbine locos could never be better. 1953 had the 3 turbines locos done it's job and were put in the shed. Today 2009 2 are at the Locomotive Museum in Grängesberg and one stored in Gävle. (cont.)

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F1200

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Om Birger Ljungstrom

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Inventions and developed constructions by Birger Ljungström

This is one of the most famous Swedish express train from Series F. It has it's storage her together with at least two partners. The place is Grängesbergs old ore railway yard. Perhaps one of them is bound for renovation in the future. But it must not go too many years and the cover must be changed. Even the headlight glass was still in order. I noticed that locomotives that were missing id was bound to be scrapped and were mainly left for spares.

More about the Ljungström brothers.
Birger and Fredrick are such a remarkable personalities that some word of their inventions may be of interest.

Birgers first inventions was the freewheel. For this he got patent already 1892. He used it in a cycle in which he used it. He sold the idea to cycle manufacturer Palmkrantz. This firm produced in Sweden 2000 copies. A license was sold in England where Fredrick took care of the interests. It was though a failure when just about 200 were produced. During a visit at Dals-Eds MC nuseum I found a modern variant of this cycle manufactured in Taiwan. Pictures 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -5. An early type can be seen at a private museum in Helsingborg Sweden. Picture.
With the invention of radial turbine he first started ALÅ AB Ljungström Steam Turbine and then STAL in Finspång. Swedish Steam Turbine AB Ljungström. This was later bought by Sigfried Edström from ASEA.
Now they earned much money for their radial patent by giving license for manufacturing.
Fredrick worked very much with the application of radial turbine for locomotives. One spin off effect of this was the pre heater. It was sold mostly to power works and ships equipped with steam turbines. Lots of living houses today 2009 have this kind mounted as a heat exchanger for fresh air ventilation. But today the patent is out. Remember though that it is a Ljungström idea.
One of the first world jet engines was constructed by ALÅ. It was one of their engineers Alf Lysholm who worked with this. The time was not ready for this and they didn't got finance money enough from SAAB and WWII demanded for all normal production facilities. Something that not so many know that already in the beginning of 1930th Heinkel flew a prototype with a jet engine. Lack of heat resisting material, as in Sweden, limited it's action time. Two spin-offs of this work became the gas turbine at Stal-Laval after the war. and also the screw compressors. The last had for this time problem with manufacturing technique. This invention became the leading during the 50th.
They also worked with something that was called Spontaneous gear 1920. It was meant for a car automatic gear box. With this and their special interest for cars they started a company for producing cars. Ljungströmsbilen. This time the stock market crises stopped the project from further development.
Together with this, there were ideas about a hydraulic gear. This got great use during the war and large royalties were paid by USA. This gear was used for rail buses an also for the Swedish rail cars in which Scania Vabis had their 8 cylinder engine. One thing was that Fredrick son Gunnar got work as engineer when SAAB constructed their car after war. This car had as all Swedes know one of Birger´s inventions. The freewheel.
Later Gunnar became director for the car division of SAAB.

After the war Svenska Rotor Maskiner, SRM, established in Saltsjö-Järla, just outside Stockholm. It was here, in nearby school, I sat in my classroom looking at the blue like shining neon light from this firm named SRM without knowing what they did in that house. (end)