Stockholm-Roslagens railways
and especially about its passenger cars
Test train for one of the new coaches. The train is awaitng a meeting train at Vissinge.
Detonators in action. The reason was it was the engineers’ last train before retirement. It was customary to celebrate the occation this way at Roslagsbanan, at least during the 1970s and 1980s. The detonators had at the time no official use (usual meaning: stop at once, danger ahead). The train is arriving at Stockholm East Station from Österskär.
Foot plate view of the old bridge over Stocksun, with the station in the background.
SRJ aka Stockholm-Roslagens Järnvägar (S-R Railways) or Roslagsbanan was the net of narrow gauge railways (3 swedish feet or 891 mm) north east of Stockholm. Neither of the names are actually the real name. SRJ seems to have meant Stockholm-Rimbo Järnväg until the nationalisation, notwithstanding the railway itself used Stockholm-Roslagens Järnvägar in various publications. Originally half a dozen more or less independent railway companies which eventually was bought by SRJ. Dannemora-Hargs Järnväg (DHJ) being the most important of theese. It was bought by the state in 1951 but run as an independent railway until 1959 when it was formally absorbed by Statens Järnvägar, SJ (State Ralways). This makes the railway to be one of the last to be nationalized (the bulk nationalization took place between 1940 and 1950). DHJ was changed to normal guage in 1970, the southern part of the railwya was sold to Stockholm transit authority who still operates most of it, and the rest was closed between 1960 and 1977, though the part nearest Uppsala is preserved as a heritage railway.
Roslagsbanan is renowned not only as the last narrow guage railway in service, but also because conventional trains were used into the 1990s. As a result, a great number of passenger cars are preserved.
