Bjorli Station ( no, Bjorli stasjon) is a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

on the

Rauma Line The Rauma Line ( no, Raumabanen) is a long railway between the town of Åndalsnes (in Rauma Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county), and the village of Dombås (in Dovre Municipality in Oppland county), in Norway. Running down the Romsdalen v ...

located at Bjorli in

Lesja Lesja is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is village of Lesja. Other villages in the municipality include Bjorli, Lesjaskog, L ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

. The station opened on 19 November 1921 and was the line's terminus until 1923. In addition to a station building, Bjorli had a

water tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towers often operate in conju ...

, roundhouse,

turntable A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

and a restaurant seating 700 people, the latter which was bombed to pieces in 1940. The station is served by

SJ Norge SJ (formally ''SJ AB'') is a government-owned passenger train operator in Sweden. SJ was created in 2001, out of the public transport division of ''Statens Järnvägar'', when the former government agency was divided into six separate government- ...

trains four times per day per direction. In the summer, the station is the terminus of a tourist services from

Åndalsnes is a town in Rauma Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. Åndalsnes is in the administrative center of Rauma Municipality. It is located along the Isfjorden, at the mouth of the river Rauma, at the north end of the Romsdalen valley. ...

History

Construction of the station started in 1918 and was finished in 1921. The station, excluding its water tower and restaurant, cost 117,062 Norwegian krone (NOK) to build and took 26,883 man-hours.Raumabanen (1994): 133 The station and axillary buildings were designed by Gudmund Hoel of

NSB Arkitektkontor NSB may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * Natural Snow Buildings, a French experimental music duo * Nihilist Spasm Band, Canadian free improvisation musical collective *Nu skool breaks, a subgenre of breakbeat music originating during the ...

. The station opened with the first part of the Rauma Line on 19 November 1921. It remained the terminus until 25 November 1923, when the next section, to Verma Station, opened. The station is located in a wide, flat terrain, so getting sufficient pressure to supply water for the steam locomotives would be very expensive. Instead, a water tower was built at the station, with water pumped from the river Rauma. The pump is located from the tower, with the water intake being another from the pump.Raumabanen (1994): 136 The water tower was built in

natural stone This is a geographical list of natural stone used for decorative purposes in construction and monumental sculpture produced in various countries. The dimension-stone industry classifies stone based on appearance and hardness as either "granit ...

brick and is square. After the steam locomotive services ended, was used as a storage facility. The tower cost NOK 103,795 to build. The station also received a turntable, which cost NOK 101,236,Raumabanen (1994): 137 which had a diameter. Although it was planned completed on 1 August 1921, construction was delayed and it was taken into use one month after the station opened. Bjorli had a temporary roundhouse while the station was the terminus. Built out of wood, the building cost NOK 30,373. On 1 July 1927, a separate restaurant building with place for 700 diners opened. Open only during summer until September, it was aimed at cruise ship tourists who took the line from Åndalsnes to Bjorli. Operated by Norsk Spisevognselskap, it was highly profitable. However, during the

German occupation of Norway The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until th ...

in 1940, the building was bombed and burnt down, and was never rebuilt.

Facilities

The station building is owned by Bane NOR Eiendom, while the tracks and infrastructure are owned and operated by

Bane NOR Bane NOR SF, formerly Jernbaneinfrastrukturforetaket (English: ''Railway Infrastructure Company''), is the Norwegian government agency responsible for owning, maintaining, operating and developing the Norwegian railway network, including the tra ...

. The station building is unstaffed, but the waiting room is open from 07:00 to 22:00. The line lacks

centralized traffic control Centralized traffic control (CTC) is a form of railway signalling that originated in North America. CTC consolidates train routing decisions that were previously carried out by local signal operators or the train crews themselves. The system cons ...

, so the station must be staffed for trains to pass. The station has three tracks: two which are used for trains to pass and one which is designed for loading, and has an effective length of . The station has ten parking spaces but lacks

ticket vending machine A ticket machine, also known as a ticket vending machine (TVM), is a vending machine that produces paper or electronic tickets, or recharges a stored-value card or smart card or the user's mobile wallet, typically on a smartphone. For instanc ...

s. The station is

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance ( height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as '' orthometric heights''. Th ...

and located from both Dombås and Åndalsnes, and from

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

. It is located in the village of Bjorli in Lesja, that serves as an Alpine skiing center.

Service

SJ Norge operates passenger train services on the line. Using Class 93 trains, they operate four services in each direction per day. During the summer, from June through August, SJ operates the trains as tourist trains, limiting the service from Åndalsnes to Bjorli.

References

;Bibliography * * ;Notes {{end Railway stations in Oppland Railway stations on the Rauma Line Railway stations opened in 1921 1921 establishments in Norway Lesja