Upsala-Lenna Jernväg
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Upsala-Lenna Järnväg (ULJ) (literally: ''Upsala-Lenna Railway'', also nicknamed ''Lennakatten'') is a narrow-gauge
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 ...
in Uppsala County,
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
. It is long and is a part of the once extensive Roslagen network. The gauge is the , unique to Sweden. The railway is run by the SRJmf society.


History

The railway between Uppsala and Lenna (old spelling of
Länna Länna (old spelling Lenna) is a locality situated in Uppsala Municipality, Uppsala County, Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is ...
) was opened in 1876 and was the first of all railways in the region. It was built to serve the ironworks at Länna with a connection to the railroad network. The choice of gauge was somewhat of a compromise, would have sufficed for the ore and steel traffic but with only a slight increase in budget allowed the greater capacity to carry passengers, mail and other goods. Two years later the Dannemora-Harg Railroad (DHJ), also , started to operate in the north of the county. That railway was built to connect the mines in Dannemora with the harbor at Hargshamn. In 1884, ULJ was linked with the coast by the Lenna- Norrtelje Railroad (LNJ). The following year that line was connected through Rimbo with
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 ...
by the Stockholm-Rimbo Railroad (SRJ). SRJ acquired LNJ in 1905 and ULJ in 1908. In 1909, the company's name was changed to
Stockholm–Roslagens Järnvägar Stockholm–Roslagens Järnvägar (SRJ) was a private railway company in Sweden 1885–1951, running a vast network of narrow gauge railways in Roslagen north of Stockholm. The company was taken over by Swedish State Railways in 1951, formally comb ...
(Stockholm-Roslagens Railroad), which enabled it to keep its signature (SRJ); Roslagen is the historical name of the coastal district north of Stockholm. SRJ was also involved in the building of a new line northwards from Rimbo which was finished in
Hallstavik Hallstavik is a locality situated in Norrtälje Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 4,476 inhabitants in 2010. The town is famous for its papermill and the Speedway team Rospiggarna. The modern Hallstavik An established project organ ...
in 1915. In 1920, DHJ (by then a subsidiary of SRJ) was connected with the rest of the system by the Faringe- Gimo line. As of 1895, the line from Stockholm (including branch lines) were electrified. This project was finished in 1949 when Rimbo-Norrtälje was electrified. After World War II, most railways started to decline. SRJ/DHJ was nationalized in 1951, and eight years later the network was absorbed into the Swedish National Railways (SJ). During the early 1950s, all three freight only branch lines to DHJ (to Lövstabruk, Ramhäll and Fagervik by Lake Vällen) were closed. In 1960, passenger traffic ceased on the Dannemora-Harg and Faringe-Gimo lines as well as all the traffic from
Stockholm East Station Stockholm East Station ( sv, Stockholms östra station) or Stockholm Ö is a railway station on the Roslag Railway in Stockholm, Sweden. The present station was inaugurated in 1932 and located on Valhallavägen in northeastern central Stockhol ...
to Engelbrektsplan in the centre of Stockholm. The latter was a city line with regular tram tracks, and for this reason freight trains never ran there, and steam engines only rarely. Six years later, in 1966, the commuter line Stocksund-Långängstorp was closed. That line was initially built with standard gauge, but was converted in 1934 to narrow-gauge, 891 mm, for practical reasons. In 1966, passenger traffic closed on the line Uppsala-Rimbo-Hallstavik, and in 1969, only twenty years after its electrification, the line Rimbo-Norrtälje was closed. The same year, freight traffic closed south of Rimbo. However, freight traffic was still quite busy on some parts of the network. The Dannemora mines still exported iron ore through the harbour at Hargshamn, and freight trains with transporter wagons took freight to and from the paper mill at Hallstavik via Uppsala-Rimbo. For this reason, the national railway board decided to convert the former DHJ into standard gauge. The conversion was completed in 1970. At the same time, all traffic was closed on the line Faringe-Gimo. A newly built standard gauge extension was built from Hargshamn to Hallstavik in 1977 and the transporter-waggon traffic Hallstavik-Rimbo-Uppsala ceased. In 1972, the Greater Stockholm Transport Authority (SL) took over the remaining lines with passenger traffic, ''i.e.'' the lines south of Rimbo, which now was effectively disconnected from the northern network including present-day Upsala-Lenna Järnväg. SL closed the branch line Djursholms Ösby-Eddavägen in 1976, and in 1981, the former railroad junction at Rimbo lost all its railways when the
Kårsta Kårsta is a locality situated in Vallentuna Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden with 457 inhabitants in 2010. Kårsta is since 1980, when the line to Rimbo was cut, the northern terminus of Roslagsbanan Roslagsbanan is a narrow gauge commut ...
-Rimbo line was closed, making the village of Kårsta with some 200 inhabitants the new northern terminus. What is still used nowadays goes under the name
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 ...
and is now an essential part of Stockholm commuter traffic. File:Marielund station Upsala lenna.jpg, left,
Marielund railway station {{Infobox station , name = Marielund , style = , image = Marielund station Upsala lenna.jpg , image_caption = , address = Marielund, Uppsala , country = Sweden , ...
in 2006. File:Lännakatten Almunge 2015.webm, thumbtime=3, left, Almunge station (video) 2015.


SRJmf Society

The SRJmf society was formed in 1968 with the main purpose of saving rolling stock from the SRJ/DHJ network for excursion traffic. Initially, the society was based in Stockholm and ran excursions on different parts of the network. As the SJ started to close down parts of the network discussions about converting various parts to heritage railway was discussed. Finsta-Syninge on the Rimbo-Norrtälje branch, closed in 1967, was a strong candidate as was Faringe-Gimo. As SJ in the early 1970s started to construct the new standard gauge line from Hargshamn to Hallstavik, the society realized that the Uppsala-Rimbo-Hallstavik line would no longer be used for freight traffic, providing the society the opportunity to start traffic on the scenic line close to Uppsala. With the aid of the Municipality of Uppsala, traffic started on Sundays in the summer of 1974 when freight trains did not run. Three years later the Hargshamn-Hallstavik line was opened and all traffic ceased on the Uppsala-Rimbo-Hallstavik line. The society could then take over the line Uppsala-Länna-Faringe, with the City of Uppsala as owner of the track and with the former junction Faringe serving as the headquarters with workshop facilities. The tracks between Faringe and Rimbo were removed in 1978. File:Steam engine srj28 lenna.jpg, left, SRJ 28 ''Stortysken'' at Lenna Station (in Länna) in June 2005. This is the last of a series of three of the biggest
steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...
s ever built for 891 mm rail gauge. File:SRJ 3 Rimbo.jpg, left, SRJ 3 Rimbo at Faringe. The oldest (1884) extant locomotive from the SRJ.


Current traffic

Presently traffic is run Sundays in June to early September, expanded to four days a week in July; a great number of school excursions and other charters are run in late May and throughout the year. A typical Sunday sees two steam-hauled trains and one motorcar train, augmented by veteran buses transiting to Fjällnora open air baths. Weekdays mostly resemble Sundays; one of the steam hauled trains might be replaced by a diesels. However, there is usually an early extra connection to Faringe and the Thun's outlet store. File:Steam engine BLJ5 Thor uppsala.jpg, BLJ 5 ''Thor'' at Uppsala Ö in June 2006 File:Steamengineblj4.jpg, BLJ 4 ''Långshyttan'' leaving Uppsala Ö in September 2006 File:ULJ Diesel locomotive TP 3515.JPG, Tp 3515 leaving Faringe File:ULJ Railbus SJ YBo5p 809.JPG, Motorcars arriving at Marielund File:Uppsala Ö.JPG, Uppsala station File:Bärby station 2009.JPG, Bärby station File:Almunge station 2009.JPG, Almunge station File:Faringe station, invigning 2011.jpg, Faringe station File:E4 bro beskuren.jpg, ''Thor'' crossing the E4 bridge File:Thor Strandbodkilen.JPG, Thor arriving at Uppsala Ö


See also

* List of heritage railways *
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 ...


References

*''Roslagsbanan 100 år'', AB Storstockholms lokaltrafiks järnvägar, Malmö : Stenvall, 1985.


External links

*
ULJ Fordonsförteckning
List of rolling stock

{{DEFAULTSORT:Upsala-Lenna Jernvag Railway museums in Sweden Heritage railways in Sweden 1876 establishments in Sweden Museums in Uppsala 891 mm gauge railways in Sweden Articles containing video clips