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 A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

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 to standard gauge (the latest one was KBJ, Kalmar - Berga Järnväg, 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 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 ...

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 Roslagen is the name of the coastal areas of Uppland province in Sweden, which also constitutes the northern part of the Stockholm archipelago. Historically, it was the name for all the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea, including the eastern par ...

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 Stockholm Arlanda Airport is an international airport located in the Sigtuna Municipality of Sweden, near the town of Märsta, north of Stockholm and nearly south-east of Uppsala. The airport is located within Stockholm County and the pr ...

. A branch line of Roslagsbanan, '' Långängsbanan'', 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 ''Rebuilt'' is the second and final studio album by the American girl group Girlicious. The album was released on November 22, 2010, by Universal Music Canada. The album draws from the dance-pop genre while infusing hints of R&B. Production init ...

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

railbus A railbus is a lightweight passenger railcar that shares many aspects of its construction with a bus, typically having a bus (original or modified) body and four wheels on a fixed base, instead of on bogies. Originally designed and developed ...

es also run along the southernmost (Åseda–Virserum), albeit less frequent. The middle section (Virserum–Hultsfred, , is only used by

draisine A draisine () is a light auxiliary rail vehicle, driven by service personnel, equipped to transport crew and material necessary for the maintenance of railway infrastructure. The eponymous term is derived from the German inventor Baron Karl Dr ...

s or not at all. The

Vadstena Vadstena () is a locality and the seat of Vadstena Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden, with 5,613 inhabitants in 2010. From 1974 to 1979 Vadstena was administered as part of Motala Municipality. Despite its small population, Vadstena is ...

–

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 A flange is a protruded ridge, lip or rim (wheel), rim, either external or internal, that serves to increase shear strength, strength (as the flange of an iron beam (structure), beam such as an I-beam or a T-beam); for easy attachment/transfer of ...

by using

turning Turning is a machining process in which a cutting tool, typically a non-rotary tool bit, describes a helix toolpath by moving more or less linearly while the workpiece rotates. Usually the term "turning" is reserved for the generation of ...

References

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

See also

References