By
Frank Bunce
If a train in Britain consistently took, almost an hour to cover a distance of twelve miles, it would not be long before the service was discontinued and the line closed on the grounds of economy, And yet, in Norway, such a railway exists and continues to flourish in spite of the fact that this is country where, pre-war, every yard of railway track cost as much as 67 to construcht. The railway is known as the Flåm Line and is a branch of the famous Oslo-Bergen Railway which connects Myrdal, in Central Norway, with Flaam, a tiny village situated on an arm of the Sogne Fjord just twelve miles away.
Everything abouth the Flaam Line is contrary to accepted principles. Normally, a train in any country of the world takes less time to travel down a mountain valley from top to bottom than it does from bottom to top. The Flaam Line, however, is different. In travelling down from 2,800 feet at Myrdal to Flaam, at sea level, the journey takes 53 minutes, whereas the trip up the valley in the other direction is covered in only 45 minutes. This immense difference in height over so short a distance and where a maximum gradient of 1 in 18 is reached, is unique in the history of railway engineering. Incidentally, each carriage is fitted with no fewer than five independent brakes, all geared to halt the entire train in an emergensy.
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| Punch, The Flaam Line - 1957 |
Not unnaturally, the railway follows the course of the Flaam River for much of its course and, in doing so, crosses it at three points where the line swings from one side of the valley to the other. There are no bridges enabling trains to cross the river and the fording wich takes place at Blomheller and Kjosfossen, for instance, occurs actually inside the mountains. Here, the river has fashioned its own bed and runs beneath the point where the railway crosses it. Similarly, at Hoga, engeneers have constructed a tunnel in the mountainside so that the Flaam River passes under the line on this section also.
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| Engelsk negativ, ca 1960 - El 8 2064 på Myrdal |
The longes of the Flamm Line´s twenty tunnels occurs at Nali and is over three-quarters of a mile in length. When travelling south up the valley, the train emerges from Nali Tunnel to give an unprecedented view of the track ahead, perched precariously upon three ledges - one above the other. To the right, passengers see a fantastic road with 21 hairpin bends threading a tortuous path up the side of the mountain known as Myrdalsberget. This roadway, incidentally, was built towards the end of the last century and was designed to carry supplies and materials to assist in the construction of the Bergen Railway. At this point there are, within a distance of less than one mile, five railway tracks, and the fact that one line appears to run above the other is due to the constuction of a series of figure-eights built inside the mountain.
There are two fantastic waterfalls in the Flaamsdal - the brakneck Rjoandefoss Falls-wich thunder 400 feet down the side of the Vibmesnosi Mountain, near Lunden - and the Kjosfoss Falls on the eastside of the track, just before entering the Bakli Tunnel. Here the train, which is already travelling slowly in order to give passengers a better view of the passing scenery, halts for several minutes on a narrow stretch of track about 100 yards long spanning the mid-way point of the roaring falls.
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| Vatnahalsen hpl. ca. 1960 - Foto, Turist foto/Dias |
At Blomheller, nearing the figure-eight circuits already mentioned, thr Trollaskred, or Troll´s Avalanche, is a very real danger in Winter. Great falls of snow thunder down towards the railway track and are only halted by the many wooden protective snow -screens in their path. Wooden snow-tunnels, too, as in case of the Bergen Railway, are a fascinating feature of this line, for where these occur, they cover the permanent way completely, isolating them from any possibility of snow-blockage. And to reach a railway station 2,000 feet above sea level which is entirely enclosed and as dark as London Underground is an experience which many tourist never forget.
When the train emerges from the Bakli Tunnel, and the village of Vaatnahalsen is reached , its only a mile or so to Myrdal and its connection with the Bergen Railway. But for every dismounting passenger, the spell of the Flaam Line has already been cast, and the air is full of superlative descriptions of the wonders they have so recently seen.
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| Flaam - ca. 1960 |
Only one word can be said to sum it all up, and that, in the modern idiom, is -
FABULOUS.
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Winter Time in Norway means that the railways must have ready their snow fighting equipment. In addition to having huge rotary snowploughs at work, each individual locomotive is equipped with a small plough fitted on to its buffer beam. Our cover picture this month, by J. Allan Cash, depicts the scene at Finse Station on a winter day, two locomotives with snowploughs being visible. This station is situated on the line between Bergen and Oslo and is the highest station in Norway. It is an alighting place for winter sportsmen, and snow remains in the mountain region until July!
