Sweden’s TGOJ line, 2002
compiled by Richard Maund
This page was updated on 4 June 2002.
Oxelösund - Nyköping - Flen - Eskilstuna - Rekarne - Valskog - Frövi - Ställdalen - Grängesberg - Ludvika
(Ball European Railway atlas: Scandinavia and Eastern Europe 22B1-14B1)
1] Corporate history: The private-sector company Trafikaktiebolaget Grängesberg-Oxelösund Järnvägar (aktiebolaget or AB = ‘the limited-liability company’; järnväg = ‘railway’) were once infrastructure-owners as well as operators of both passenger and freight trains, but their railway was transferred in 1989 to Sweden’s public-sector rail-infrastructure authority Banverket. In 2002 the corporate successors of the original company are two entirely separate firms, neither with any lines of their own. TGOJ, now known by initials only, are a private-sector railway rolling-stock engineering company who have their headquarters in Eskilstuna, and operate the former Statens Järnvägar workshops in Örebro, Tillberga, Malmö and Åmål. The other successor firm, TGOJ Trafik, are freight-train operators in the public sector, being a subsidiary of Green Cargo, the still government-owned freight operators recently demerged from government-owned SJ.
2] Freight traffic: The TGOJ line was originally built for the rail-haulage of iron-ore from inland mines to Oxelösund on the Baltic coast for shipment. At some time after World War I, a steelworks was constructed at Oxelösund, and subsequently much expanded, but it is now fed by imported ore. The last iron mine, at Grängesberg, closed in 1990. In 2002 the line, electrified at the Swedish standard 15kV 16.7Hz but largely single-track, sees quite different traffic patterns, carrying semi-finished steel from the SSAB steelworks at Oxelösund inland to the rolling-mill at Borlänge, with a reverse flow of finished sheet-steel south from Borlänge. This traffic runs Oxelösund - Eskilstuna - Rekarne - Kolbäck - Ängelsberg (or Sala) - Ludvika (or Avesta Krylbo) - Borlänge so the TGOJ route south of Rekarne is much busier with freight than the section to the north.
3] Oxelösund: The TGOJ zero km post is at Oxelösund, where the sizeable TGOJ station, built in 1905 according to the weather-vane on top, still has its illuminated Järnvägsstation sign, though it no longer has a passenger service nor is it totally railway-occupied. Beyond the km0.0 post, a very steeply-graded industrial line over 3km in length climbs up behind the harbour to circle round and access SSAB’s steelworks. Oxelösunds Järnverk SSAB occupies the whole area to the east of the town, hemming in the small original village Gamla Oxelösund (gamla = old), and the steelworks access line, worked in 2002 by TGOJ Trafik, makes a level-crossing over the road to the village.
4] Oxelösund - Nyköping Central: (EGTRE SE02/29) Though the Oxelösund - Nyköping C section closed to passengers 1 June 1986, various closed station buildings were still standing in 2002. One of them was securely fenced-off from the railway but still had overhead equipment spanning the site of long-gone sidings and straddling the fence. The former Nyköping Syd station (syd = south) is marked only by a weed-infested loop and a space between the railway and an adjacent road, presumably the site of the station building, almost opposite the present bus-station. This loop and the ‘hole in hedge’ has in recent years served as the Nyköping terminus of the annual passenger train (see paragraph 12 below). Just to the north of Nyköping Syd, the TGOJ line becomes two parallel but separate tracks, both well-used and giving the appearance of a loop as they pass by the west side of SJ’s Nyköping Central station. Alongside the SJ station, the TGOJ once had a single platform-face on their main running-line allowing TGOJ passenger trains to call without having to use TGOJ-SJ connecting tracks and the SJ yard to reach the SJ platforms. (In the 1961 timetable TGOJ trains were booked to call at both Nyköping Syd and Central.) What is now the second track does not rejoin the TGOJ main but climbs to the SJ yard, at the north end of which is an apparently little-used north-facing lead back into the TGOJ running line. To the north of this crossover, the TGOJ climbs and turns to cross above the SJ line on a bridge. (The layout here is not as shown in the Ball atlas.)
5] Nyköping Central - Flens övre: At one time TGOJ had a station at Flens övre (=Flen upper junction), but by 1961 TGOJ trains were booked to call at Flen SJ station, with reversal from Flens övre. From 29 May 1983 passenger service became minimal and was finally withdrawn from 1 April 1985.
6] Flens övre - Mellösa - Skogstorp - Eskilstuna: At Skogstorp, two (closed) stations south of Eskilstuna, a brick building on the west side of the track, north of the station, is the former TGOJ Central Traffic Control room, still in May 2002 controlling the Oxelösund - Eskilstuna (exclusive) and Frövi - Ludvika (both exclusive) sections. In September 2002, about a month after replacement of the last TGOJ-style signals by standard Swedish-pattern ones (see paragraph 9), the Skogstorp CTC room is to close, with the work divided among CTC installations at Stockholm, Norrköping and Hallsberg. Formerly Skogstorp had a harbour branch, which lost its passenger trains 14 October 1938, and closed completely 27 May 1990.
7] Eskilstuna - Folkesta - Rekarne - Valskog - Arboga - Jädersbruk - Frövi: Two busy passenger-carrying sections of the TGOJ, Eskilstuna - Folkesta (- Rekarne) and Valskog - Arboga, were in May 2002 being double-tracked, with signs that Arboga - Jädersbruk might be a candidate for doubling later. Jädersbruk - Frövi has been freight-only since the opening of the new Jädersbruk - Örebro passenger line on 6 October 1997. However, during all or most of July 2002, passenger trains which normally take the 1997 chord were to be temporarily diverted via Jädersbruk - Frövi.
8] Frövi - Lindesberg - Storå - Ställdalen: This section has only modest passenger service and has lost much of its former freight traffic. On the west side the former Storå - Guldsmedshyttan branch, abandoned 31 May 1987, was lifted in 1992, but the Storå - Stråssa mine branch, also abandoned 31 May 1987, had both track and overhead line-equipment still in place heading east, although its junction points had been removed. After the branch closed the mine operators leased and made some local use of part of it in 1992-93 but no traffic passed across the junction.
9] Ställdalen - Kopparberg - Silverhöjden - Grängesberg: (EGTRE SE02/20) This section of the TGOJ closed after the Grängesberg mine shut in 1990, but from 7 January 1996 it was back in use, effectively as a second track, to relieve the ex-BJ Ställdalen - Grängesberg single line. The TGOJ and BJ lines cross each other by a bridge in this section, not running parallel as shown in the Ball atlas. In May 2002 the TGOJ line’s wooden sleepers were in deplorable condition, particularly at the south end, and the track was being refettled and resignalled, so clearly the capacity offered by what is in effect some 10km of double track is still needed. TGOJ colour-light signals were of a German design noticeably different from the standard SJ pattern. The last surviving examples were on the Kopparberg (exclusive) - Silverhöjden - Grängesberg section, and were due to be removed by 1 August 2002. In May 2002 replacements were already mostly in place but wiring work was still in progress.
10] Grängesberg mine and museums: A crossover, worked by a local ground-frame released by CTC, allows access, from the TGOJ line only, westward on to the branch which served the Grängesberg iron-mine and is now the access to the Grängesbergsbanornas Järnvägsmuseum (http://www.gbbj.nu/info.html). Although the junction end of the former exchange-yard for the mine retains its overhead line equipment, it has all has been earthed - and a section of wire above the crossover is missing, though this may not be immediately obvious from passing trains. The museum occupies some 400m length of several tracks in the former yard as far as the former locomotive roundhouse, just short of the Bergsmansvägen road underbridge. Beyond there, the trackbed has been cleared past the mining museum to the former dead-end alongside the north end of the opencast mine itself, a very large hole in the ground. This trackbed is not however the TGOJ alignment north to Ludvika. North of the mine-branch junction, the present TGOJ running-line drops down to run parallel to the BJ and now joins it south of Grängesberg passenger station. The pre-1941 TGOJ alignment here is inaccessible, being either within the mine fence or obliterated.
11] Grängesberg - Ludvika: From 1941 Grängesberg station was a joint facility where the TGOJ had its own island platform. This is still extant but now trackless, having at each end a wooden running-in nameboard whose positioning suggests a TGOJ origin. The Grängesberg - Ludvika TGOJ line closed to passengers and ceased to be a through route from 2 November 1981, the final section last being used 15 September 1986. It has been converted into a cycleway and footpath. West of Grängesberg station, between the cycleway and the mine, can be seen part of the overgrown abandoned alignment of the pre-1941 TGOJ running-line which trails into the post-1941 alignment, the present cycleway, several hundred metres north of the station.
12] Trip on the TGOJ: On the Saturday of the second weekend each May, the Oxelösund Lions run a street-fair, the Oxelösund marknad, and since the early 1980s the Grängesbergsbanornas Järnvägsmuseum have run a special Nyköping Syd - Oxelösund steam-train shuttle. This did not run in 2001 because of Banverket engineering work, but on 11 May 2002 six scheduled round-trips were operated by GBBJ’s 1916-built ex-SJ Class B 4-6-0 #1281, hauling three TGOJ passenger coaches of 1949-1957 vintage. To work these trips, the stock runs from Grängesberg south on the Friday and returns north on the Sunday. These are electrically-hauled empty-stock movements rather than public passenger trains, but GBBJ agreed to carry the author on the northward run on Sunday 12 May 2002. The train comprised 1954-built Class Bt electric locomotive TGOJ #305, support-van, sleeping-car (for crew accommodation at Oxelösund overnight), locomotive #1281 (in steam, running backwards), the three passenger coaches and two wagons of coal. The train was booked to leave Oxelösund 08:00 and followed the TGOJ route throughout, including the non-passenger sections south of Flen övre; the Jädersbruk - Frövi avoiding line - Frövi ‘north junction’ section, and Ställdalen - Silverhöjden - Grängesberg (mine-branch junction). Booked to arrive at 13:55, the train arrived early, thanks to a fortuitous improvement in the crossing arrangements on the single line. From the mine-branch junction at Grängesberg, the whole consist was propelled and pulled by the steam locomotive into the de-electrified museum yard.