RJUKANBANEN

'Rjukanbanen' or 'Rjukan Railway', at first called 'Vestfjorddalsbanen', was a 16 km Norwegian railway line in Vestfjorddalen between Mæl and Rjukan in Telemark. The railway's main purpose was to transport fertilizer from Norsk Hydro's plant at Rjukan to the harbor at Skien, in addition to passenger transport. Rjukanbanen terminated at Mæl where the wagons were shipped 30 km on Tinnsjø by a railway ferry to Tinnoset. Rjukanbanen and the ferries were operated by Norsk Hydro from 1909 until the line was closed in 1991. Sometimes the entire stretch from Rjukan to Notodden, including the railway ferry and Tinnosbanen, is mistakenly referred to as Rjukanbanen, a stretch that totals 80 km.
The transport chain from Rjukan to Skien consisted of four sections:

★ Rjukanbanen, railway line from Rjukan to Rollag (Mæl), 16 km

★ Tinnsjø railway ferry from Rollag to Tinnoset, 30 km

★ Tinnosbanen from Tinnoset to Notodden, 34 km

★ Telemark canal from Notodden to Skien, 54 km with barge

★ In 1919 the canal was replaced with the railway Bratsbergbanen from Notodden to Skien.^[1]

Contents

History

Stations

References

External links

History

Norsk Hydro was founded in 1905 by Sam Eyde as a Norwegian fertilizer manufacturer, and the first factory was opened in Notodden. Fertilizer factories need a lot of energy, and then it was necessary to locate the plants near hydroelectric power plants, and at Rjukan there were several large waterfalls. In 1911 Rjukan Salpeterfabrikk was opened.^[2]

Rjukanbanen was opened in 1909 as a standard gauge (1435 mm) railway along with Tinnosbanen and the railway ferry service, and in 1911 became the second railway line in Norway, after Thamshavnbanen, to be electrified. The railway service utilised Telemark Canal until 1919 when Bratsbergbanen opened from Notodden to Skien. The railway was used both to transport raw materials to the factory and to transport the finished fertilizer to the harbor at Skien. There were also passenger trains that ran.
The railway ferry service was provided by four different ships, D/F ''Rjukanfoss'', D/F ''Hydro'', D/F ''Ammonia'' (1929) and M/F ''Storegut'' (1956). The first three were steam ships, and the latter two are still anchored at Mæl. The service was the only ever railway ferry service on a lake in Norway, and D/F ''Ammonia'' is the only remaining railway ferry steam ship in the world.^[1] In 1944, during World War II, D/F ''Hydro'' was the target of the Norwegian heavy water sabotage, when the ferry was sunk to 430 meters deep in Tinnsjø to prevent a shipment of heavy water from reaching Nazi Germany for the development of nuclear weapons.^[4]
In 1929 Norsk Hydro also established itself at Herøya in Porsgrunn, and in 1991 the factory in Rjukan, and therefore also the railway line, was closed. The passenger trains, operated by Norges Statsbaner, had been discontinued already in 1970. In 1997 the ownership of the track was transferred to Stiftelsen Rjukanbanen, a foundation that started heritage operation of the line in 1999.

Stations

★ Rjukan

★ Ingolfsland

★ Øverland

★ Miland

★ Mæl

References

1. Fakta om Rjukanbanen Maana Forlag
2. The next gigantic step Norsk Hydro
3. Fakta om Rjukanbanen Maana Forlag
4. Rjukanbanen Rjukan Tourist Office

External links

★ Stiftelsen Rjukanbanen

★ Web site on Rjukanbanen