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(Terje Melheim)
Visit to Valdres Railway
I am writing this document in the spring of 1999. It is about two visits I made to the Valdres Railway (Valdresbanen), the 100 km long branch line between Eina and Fagernes in Eastern Norway. I have written the story in English so that even railway fans from abroad, and particularly those interested in branch lines can have access to my story. I must point out that my descriptions are based upon my own views and impressions. If you are among those who were fascinated by cine films and who loved to make railway scenes on 8 mm films, you will have interest in reading this story.
Before the advent of railways the area of Valdres was strategically linked to central parts of Norway because the royal post road between Oslo (which was then called Christiania) and Bergen ( which it is still called) went through this locality. The connection to Bergen was interrupted by water, and between Lærdal and Gudvangen the post was transported on the Sognefjord. The Bergensbanen, or the railway between Christiania and Bergen did not stick to the post road. The railway did not cross any fjords by ferry, as it was constructed over high mountain areas on the peninsula between the Sognefjord and the Hardangerfjord. In Eastern Norway the Bergensbanen was not built through Valdres.
The people of Valdres realized they had to build a railway by their own force if they wanted any rail connection. At the turn of the century it had become tradition that the Norwegian state built and operated the railways. In spite of this political principle the Norwegian state was not willing to build a railway to Valdres, and Valdresbanen was to become the longest private railway in Norway.
It would have been easy to build a railway from Valdres to Hønefoss through the valley of Begna. Hønefoss did however not have a direct rail connection to Oslo, and the trade of Valdres would have been diverted to the town of Drammen. The railway from Valdres was eventually built to Eina on the railway Oslo-Gjøvik. Valdresbanen was therefore more costly to build and to operate. Fagernes, the terminus of the line, lies in the valley of the Begna. The railway crosses the hills of Tonsåsen and reaches the valley of the river Etna. From Etna valley the line climbs once more to Eina station.
In 1937 the time was ripe for the state to take over the operation of Valdresbanen, and the line became totally integrated in the net of NSB. The western terminus of Valdresbanen is at Fagernes, which originally was in the middle of nowhere. The growth of Fagernes into a central place of Valdres was due to the existence of Valdresbanen.
In contrast to most Western European countries, where the railways form a grid, Norway has got a railway pattern of tentacles stretching out from Oslo. Together with the railway Oslo-Gjøvik Valdresbanen was one such tentacle. That means if you live at one tentacle and you want to visit another tentacle like Valdresbanen you always have to travel through the railway hub of Oslo if you prefer to travel by rail.
First visit to Valdresbanen
In 1986 I got an opportunity to visit Valdresbanen with my 8 mm camera. In August of that year my family received a phone call that the brother of my wife was to get married in Oslo. I had a good idea to travel one day in advance of the wedding, and if my wife took my suit along, I could take my bicycle along. She agreed, and I went by night train from Bergen. In the dark night late in summer I got off the train at Gol. I intended to cycle to the highest point of Valdresbanen, to Tonsåsen, where I had a good idea for some impressive rail scenes. By bicycle I could make a connection between two rail tentaclesIn the dark night at half past three there was no one to be seen as soon as I had left the station at Gol. The road to Tonsåsen is a small gravel road across the mountains towards Bagn. During the hard climb from Gol the dawn came about and the light made its way through the darkness. It was quite a fascinating moment. When I had reached the summit at about 1000 m above sea level, I could see in the distance the TV mast of Tonsåsen. It did not seem so far away. But between me and Tonsåsen lies the valley of the Begna. I had to cycle down to a mere 220 m at the place called Bagn. It was easy enough to cycle downhill, but it was quite strenuous to cycle up the other side of the valley. The railway station of Tonsåsen lies at 680 m above sea level. The road up to Tonsåsen was very steep. I cycled and pushed and got more and more desperate. At 7.50 the first train of the day left Fagernes, and I had still a long stretch of steep road to cope with. Would I reach the railway in time for the filming of the first train? As I was fighting against time and gravity up the hills from Bagn to Tonsåsen, it came to my mind that this mountain side had been the scene of more serious fighting. In 1940 Norwegian troops tried to stop invading German troops at this locality. Time was close to 8.30, and that was the time for the train to pass Tonsåsen. After more vertical metres I finally recognized a typical Norwegian railway fence and shortly afterwards I saw the rails. I grabbed my film camera, climbed over the fence, ran along the railway line and found a good position for a scene. It was right on time, shortly afterwards the train approached with its familiar sound of General Motor's diesel engines. The NSB diesel engines of type 3 (Co'Co') have been built by NOHAB in Sweden on a GM licence. The Di.3 engine pulled two cars.
After the hard climbing I could relax. The train was not to return from Eina until 11.55. At the local shop I could buy food for a nice breakfast. I had not expected to find a shop at this isolated place, Tonsåsen, and just some years later this shop was closed for ever. In good time before 11.55 I put my camera on my tripod. The setting was ideal for making a continuos filming of the train as it was running along the side of the valley, climbing towards Tonsåsen from Eina, traversing the road crossing at Tonsåsen and making its way to Tonsåsen station. I got it all on one long film scene.
The timetable of Valdresbanen indicates 2x2 trains a day, and I would still have the opportunity of filming the train twice as it was passing Tonsåsen, but that included quite a long time of waiting, during this time I could sleep and read a book, the title of which was "The visit of an old lady" by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. The book was about a little town which suffered so much economic decline that trains did not stop in this town any more. The region of Valdres was soon to experience a similar situation. In 2 years and a half (January 1989) all trains would be gone from Valdres, and Valdresbanen would cease to exist.
Second Visit to Valdresbanen
The last half of the 1980s was the era of winds of neoliberalism blowing over Europe, including Norway. Some called it thatcherism, and it led to decreased wages for all people employed in the public sector. By ordinary bank services the post started to make just as impudent charges as the banks did. Competition was believed to be so good for everyone. In the field of transportation it was called deregulation and private bus companies were allowed to transport passengers parallel to a railway line. For Valdresbanen deregulation became fatal. Bus passengers from areas around the Sognefjord could stay in their bus all the way to Oslo, they did not have to change to train at Fagernes any more. Even passengers from Fagernes preferred the bus to train, as the bus was faster. The railway journey Fagernes-Oslo is 209 km. The E16 road is 188 km, or in other words the train journey takes 4 h 10 min, whereas by bus 3 h 35 min (1985). The numbers of passengers on Valdresbanen dropped dramatically during the 1980s. In 1982 there were 86 000 passengers going by Valdresbanen. In 1986 there were only 55 000 registered passengers using this railway. The axe over Valdresbanen was sharpened, and at the turn of the year 1988-89 the axe fell over this railway.In the autumn of 1988 I had some days holiday, and my family allowed me to travel to Valdresbanen, which was to be closed to passengers in a couple of months. On this nocturnal occasion I went by night train from Bergen and got off at Hønefoss at 5 o'clock in the morning. In 1988 there was a connection at Hønefoss with a bus going towards Gjøvik and Lillehammer, and it would call at Eina, where Valdresbanen commences and has its furcation station from the line Oslo-Gjøvik. A NSB employee at the station of Hønefoss told me that in this night (morning) the bus had not turned up. He made the excuse that the bus line was operated by a private company, and then we cannot expect it any better. He was apparently no admirer of mrs Thatcher. As the bus did not turn up at all, the employee advised me to take a taxi to the bus station, as the bus would more probably be there. Of course, at that place there was no bus either. The weather at Hønefoss was cold and it was snowing. In the dark at the bus station I could observe buses full of tired and grim looking commuters on their way to the job market in Oslo.
Finally, my bus arrived, one hour and a half late. Because of the snow the bus driver had to change tyres, and he got so tired from the tyres that he overslept. For me this delay was quite all right, as I did not have to wait so long for the trains at Eina.
Some readers might be wondering why I did not go by train all the way to Oslo, and from there by the first train towards Eina and Valdresbanen. I wanted to make cine film of the trains, and that meant I had to be there before the arrival of the trains. An early arrival would be essential if I wanted to film the trains in the landscape and not in the station area.
Some minutes to ten I found a good position along Valdresbanen from where I could make film of the train from Fagernes. I had a film scene of the train going to Eina, and after 20 minutes I had another scene of the train going to Fagernes. This train consisted of the same engine (no. 3 632) but with cars it had got from the train from Oslo. This scene I arranged in such a manner that as soon as the train to Fagernes was out of the view of the lens, the train to Oslo on the Oslo-Gjøvik line appeared in the background. The two trains did not go so close to each other in time, but by having the camera on a stable tripod and making a pause in filming (not realized by the spectators). I gave the impression that the two trains passed by almost simultaneously
Unfortunately I missed the great activity at Eina station when three trains from various directions met. Train from Gjøvik, Oslo and Fagernes, and besides the two cars from the Fagernes train were coupled to the train to Oslo and three cars of the train from Oslo had to be decoupled and attached to the diesel engine of Valdresbanen.
When I got back to the station after my filming there was a silence and relaxation after the hectic activity in the morning. The station building of Eina is quite impressive. It is built in a romantic national style, typical of the popular style at the turn of the century when the railway line Oslo-Gjøvik was built. At this impressive building the train traffic is not so impressive, in spite of the proximity to Oslo. This line is even electrified. At 14.00 hours there was a train coming from Gjøvik and proceeding to Oslo. At 16.00 hours there was a train going in the opposite direction. Both trains were documented on my cine film. And so was a freight train loaded with timber and hauled by a diesel engine of type Di 2. (Axles: C) This train came from Dokka at Valdresbanen and represents an important part of the traffic on Valdresbanen. My waiting time at Eina was spent by reading and buying provisions for two more days that I was going to spend in splendid isolation along Valdresbanen and making film of trains.
At 18.00 hours it was again time for the big train operation at Eina with trains from three directions and the shunting of cars to and fro Valdresbanen. Unfortunately it was already dark at this time of the day on October 14 1988. I took a seat in one of the cars going to Fagernes and I rolled along on Valdresbanen. I passed Trevatn, from where I have seen nice pictures of trains as the line curves round the shores of a little lake. In the autumnal darkness I could see nothing. Neither could I enjoy the view over the lake Randsfjorden as the train was descending towards Dokka. Just after Dokka the train starts its climb towards the summit at Tonsåsen. The line goes along the southern hill side of Etna valley on a continuous 22 permille incline.
Line side survival
While I was sitting in the train towards Fagernes I felt like a pioneer going out into the wilderness. Well, the railway pioneers made their activities a hundred years earlier when they endeavoured hardship by constructing new railway lines. I was a kind of an anti chronological railway pioneer, I was to endeavour hardship and endurance just before the closure of a railway line. I believe that the best film shots I shall get from the most inaccessible spots, and that would mean some days of isolation (and contemplation). I stepped down from the train at Etna, a little isolated station high up above the valley. There was a light at the station building. Outside the reach of the light it was pitch dark. I searched the vicinity for a place to put up my tent. Just to the east of the station building I could pitch my tent, and I crept into the tent and the sleeping bag. It was a very cold night, and at intervals I had to get up and do some gymnastic exercises in order to keep warm. Even during the night there were some train operations. When the train I had taken to Etna, had arrived at Fagernes, the engine was used to convey a freight train to Eina. In the middle of the night this train came thundering pass. At 6 in the morning another train. passed by It was the Di 3-engine returning from Eina with a freight train to Fagernes. I could already hear it farther down the track as it was climbing towards Etna. It was still dark. I could not make any film and I was so tired that I did not observe how many freight cars the engine hauled towards Fagernes. I slept in my tent until dawn.
It had been a hard night, and I would have two more nights in my tent in this cold environment. I was a bit worried about this fact. When I was making breakfast outside my tent a railway worker came walking past. He was of course very curious as to what kind of person would sleep in a tent in a cold night at Etna. He said he had been wondering since he saw me alighting from the train last evening. He thought I might be a patient for Tonsåsen sanatorium who had got off the train too early. I told I had come to Valdresbanen to bid it the last farewell. I asked what would become of Valdresbanen in the next year, and he said they had certain plans to establish a fuel storage at Leira, 5 km before Fagernes and the line would still have to be maintained to that point. After the 31st of December 1988 the line was just to be allowed to snow in, but it would be cleared again in late winter so that melting water would not damage the track bed. When he heard that I was going to stay for more nights at Etna, he offered me to stay in a resting hut of the railway workers, next to the track and just east of Etna station. I was very grateful. I did not have to pass any more painful cold nights in my tiny tent. In the hut there was electricity for lighting and heating and there was even a radio. There was no bed, but I had no problem sleeping in my sleeping bag on the floor. I knew that in this way I would survive my train spotting activity by clear margins.
Etna station building looks very nice. The walls are made of semi round logs, and it is constructed like a log cabin. I believed this building was an original building from Valdresbanen, but at the privately owned Valdresbanen only cheap station buildings were erected. The present station building of Etna was brought here from another railway line by NSB. The station is called Etna from the valley far below the station. There is a very steep road from the valley up to the station.
It is a mere coincidence that the valley, the river and the station bear the same name as the Sicilian volcano. One thing the two Etnas have in common is railways in their vicinity. Unfortunately there is hardly any traffic on Valdresbanen after 1988, but there is still traffic on the Circumetnea -1- -2- .
On Saturday the 15th of October thick clouds had started to build in the valley below Etna station. It was certainly not due to any eruption of the volcano of Etna, for at Etna, Eastern Norway there is no volcano - it was fog, caused by humid air from rivers and lakes, and the cold air above preventing it from going away, so it remained like a thick, white carpet over the valley. At Etna the sun was shining as I made my camera ready on the tripod. The setting was perfect for a shot of the red coloured train towards Fagernes at 11.40, speeding past he red station building of Etna. I read the number of the engine: 3 632. The fog however which had started rising, caused some moisture on my lens, and the scene did not turn out as sharp as I had expected it to. I then walked along the track towards Tonsåsen in order to find a good location from where to make film of the 16.30 train towards Eina. I found an open area where the trees had been cut, and it gave me a nice view of the line. I got the train coming through a snow-covered forest with the fog over the valley like white cotton in the background. I then walked back to my refuge at Etna, knowing that the next train would be useless to make film of because at that time it would be too dark.
Next day I wanted to explore the line for a farther distance than the day before. I came to a tunnel, but I could walk along the old track on the outside where there lay no rails. After some 100 metres more I came to another tunnel where everything was opposite. Through the tunnel there were no rails, they went outside the tunnel. I have learned afterwards that because of falling rocks in the tunnel the tunnel had been abandoned.
A scene of the train towards Eina could be made at 8.50, at optimal light conditions, and in a curve I found a nice spot to make film of the train towards Fagernes at 11.40. On this day however the fog did not stay in the valley, it kept rising, and the fog obscured the train from my view. I could just make a short film scene as the train was emerging from the white wall. When I had got the train on the film, I walked back in thick fog to the hut at Etna. The next train to Eina I filmed at a ghost like station Etna well covered in fog. The number of the loco was now, 3 624. It was usual that the engines of Valdresbanen were exchanged during the week ends. This train was rather long and consisted of four cars. If my visit to Valdresbanen had been one year earlier I would have got another train on Sunday evening. Until summer 1988 there was an additional train going to Oslo on Sunday evenings. This train used to leave Fagernes at 17.40, but it had been withdrawn when I visited Valdresbanen in 1988. Because it was Sunday I heard no freight trains during the night from my line side shelter.
Return to civilization
Next morning at Etna station I made a film scene of the morning train towards Eina. There was one passenger at Etna, an old man with a rucksack. He was probably going shopping at Dokka, and the train was very useful for him. When the train returned towards Fagernes, I was the only passenger who got on board. I was surprised that there were so many travellers in the train. Many of the passengers were small children. The kinder gardeners of Valdres went on excursions by train in order to give the new generation some nice memories of Valdresbanen. From the train I recognized the spots where I had been walking and waiting the previous days. Down in the valley the fog was again building. The train reached Tonsåsen summit at 682 m above sea level. Valdresbanen is/was the 4th highest railway in Norway. On the western side of Tonsåsen lies the little station of Bjørgo with its nicely preserved station building. This station represents a simple architecture, and makes quite a contrast to the station building at Eina. A private railway like Valdresbanen could not afford to build impressive station buildings.At 12.35 hours the train arrived at its terminus Fagernes. When I got off the train, I observed a sign saying train for Oslo Ø. The eastern (Ø) station of Oslo had been replaced by a new station called Oslo S (Central station) some years before, but Valdresbanen still used this nostalgic sign.
The diesel engine was shifted over to the other end of the train and made ready for the return. On the film I got a nice scene as my last train was leaving the little town of Fagernes with the surrounding nature clad in autumnal colours.
Fagernes is not so isolated as Etna and from here I could even make a phone call home. In 1988 society had not yet been invaded by mobile phones. My wife was very anxious to know how I had survived the three cold nights in my tent. When she heard I had slept in a hut, she said, "Your luck is better than your brains". From Fagernes I went by bus to the next tentacle of the Norwegian railway net, I went to Gol at the Bergen railway and from there back home.
The passenger service of Valdresbanen ceased to exist on the 31st of December 1988. On TV the station master of Fagernes was interviewed. He was very sad and said, Valdresbanen had been his life. On this occasion he felt so miserable that he was about to cry. He probably did so too, because there was an unmotivated break in his interview. The closing of a railway is an unhappy event. People who are involved in the railway, both as passengers, freight customers and employees, have the feeling that with the railway an important part of their lives is gone.
After the closure of the line, the track between Leira and Fagernes has been lifted. The road has been widened with a lane for pedestrians and cyclists. The militarily motivated oil depot at Leira has not been established. The track of the whole stretch between Leira and Dokka is in danger of being lifted. In 2002 the track between Leira and Bjørgo was removed in spite of vehement protests. Even the timber transports on rail between Dokka and Eina are gone. On the 31st of March 1999 the last freight train went from Dokka to Eina. In summer time train excursions for tourists and rail enthusiasts are organized between Eina and Dokka.
More pictures of the Valdres Railway:
Near Eina Fall Station Dokka Station Dokka Station Dokka Station Near Bjørgo Fagernes Station
Links to Valdres Railway:
a/s Valdresbanen/Nye Valdresbanen
Valdresbanen by rail tricycle.
Valdresbanen (Jernbane.net)
HOMEPAGE E-mail to: temelhei@online.no
