Swedish three-foot gauge railways (Swedish: "trefotsbanor") are railways with the gauge , or 3 Swedish feet in the old Swedish measurement system. Railways with this gauge have only existed in Sweden. This was the most common narrow gauge in Sweden. As of 2016, the total network with this gauge is , all of which is electrified (excluding lines which only remain as

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

s). Sweden once had some fairly extensive narrow-gauge railways, but most are now closed. Some were

converted Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series * "The Conversion" ...

to standard gauge (the latest one was KBJ,

Kalmar - Berga Järnväg Kalmar (, , ) is a city in the southeast of Sweden, situated by the Baltic Sea. It had 36,392 inhabitants in 2010 and is the seat of Kalmar Municipality. It is also the capital of Kalmar County, which comprises 12 municipalities with a total of ...

, between

Berga Berga () is the capital of the ''comarca'' (county) of Berguedà, in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is bordered by the municipalities of Cercs, Olvan, Avià, Capolat and Castellar del Riu. History Berga derives its name from ...

and Kalmar in the 1970s) and some remain as

s. The only commercial Swedish three foot gauge railway still in use is the suburban railway

Roslagsbanan Roslagsbanan is a narrow gauge commuter railway system in Roslagen, Stockholm County, Sweden. Its combined route length is and there are 38 stations. It is built to the Swedish three foot () gauge. The Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (SL) classifies ...

('the Roslagen Railway') in north-eastern

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

. The parts of this railway which is still in use will be in continual use in the foreseeable future, with new trains to be delivered in 2020 and there are even plans for a new line to connect this railway to Arlanda Airport. A branch line of Roslagsbanan, ''

Långängsbanan Stocksund railway station, ''Stocksunds station'', is a railway station at Roslagsbanan, serving Stocksund in Danderyd Municipality, a bit north of Stockholm. Stocksund station is now a simple railway stop, where only the trains on the way betw ...

'', was built in 1911 and ran for some years as an isolated tramway in anticipation of a planned conversion of the main line to raise its capacity, but those plans came to naught and the branch was rebuilt to narrow gauge in 1934; it is closed since 1966. The Nordmark-Klarälvens Järnväg (NKlJ) was a network issued from different lines built from 1873. It was electrified in 1920, with 15 AEG-locomotives. A new class of 5 locomotives (ASEA) went in 1961. The network was dismantled in 1990. Only Karlstad-Skoghall was regauged to standard gauge and transferred to SJ.article in swedish
/ref> The longest remaining Swedish three foot gauge railway is the heritage line from

Åseda Åseda is a locality and the seat of Uppvidinge Municipality, Kronoberg County, Sweden with 2,430 inhabitants in 2010. Åseda was the birthplace of the chemist Otto Folin Otto Knut Olof Folin (April 4, 1867 – October 25, 1934) was a Swed ...

Virserum Virserum () is a locality situated in Hultsfred Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden with 1,742 inhabitants in 2010. Prior to 1971 it was a ''köping''. The history of Virserum goes back to the Middle Ages, and in the 1950s the town was a centre fo ...

Hultsfred Hultsfred () is a locality and the seat of Hultsfred Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden with 5,143 inhabitants in 2010. It is best known for the Hultsfred Festival The Hultsfred Festival ( sv, Hultsfredsfestivalen) was an annual music festival ...

and

Västervik Västervik is a city status in Sweden, city and the seat of Västervik Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden, with 36,747 inhabitants in 2021. Västervik is one of three coastal towns with a notable population size in the province of Småland. Cl ...

. between Hultsfred and Västervik are served by daily tourist trains in the summer, including of

dual gauge In railway engineering, "gauge" is the transverse distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of two rails, which for the vast majority of railway lines is the number of rails in place. However, it is sometimes necessary for track to c ...

track. Tourist railbuses also run along the southernmost (Åseda–Virserum), albeit less frequent. The middle section (Virserum–Hultsfred, , is only used by draisines or not at all. The Vadstena–

Fågelsta Fågelsta is a locality situated in Motala Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden with 297 inhabitants in 2017. It is located 9 km south of Motala. History Fågelsta grew around a railway line between Hallsberg and Mjölby, which began ...

narrow gauge railway was part of a larger network in

Östergötland Östergötland (; English exonym: East Gothland) is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish) in the south of Sweden. It borders Småland, Västergötland, Närke, Södermanland and the Baltic Sea. In older English li ...

. The gauge difference to the internationally much more used is small, only 9 mm, and some used 900 mm vehicles have been brought to Sweden and given a slight

wheel A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axle Bearing (mechanical), bearing. The wheel is one of the key components of the wheel and axle which is one of the Simple machine, six simple machines. Wheels, in conjunction wi ...

adaptation (reducing the flange by using turning).

References

{{Navbox track gauge Track gauges by name Rail transport in Sweden

See also

References