Lokmuseet
Railway museum. The Bergslagen Railway built 1870.
Opening times:
Open during summer.
For information and guided tours please call
+46 (0)240-204 93 or +46 (0)240-207 35.
Tourist office +46 (0)771-626262.
Info www.visitsodradalarna.se
In the mid-1800s, there was a shortage in Sweden of both investment capital and of experience in large industrial projects and railway construction. Consequently, the principals of many of the railways in Bergslagen, in common with the Grängesberg mines, were British.
The Railway museum (Lokmuseet) at Grängesberg is what could be called a working-life museum. It is run by a non-profit-making association whose objective is to preserve and exhibit railway stock from the various TGOJ lines in their true environment.
The TGOJ railway company (Trafikaktiebolaget Grängesberg-Oxelösunds Järnvägar) was formed in 1896 as a joint enterprise with the Frövi-Ludvika railway (FLJ), the Köping-Hults railway(KHJ), and the Oxelösund-Flen Westmanlands railway (OFWJ). Two years’ later, the Frövi-Örebro section of the KHJ line was sold off and a new company, the Örebro-Köping railway (ÖKJ) was formed. The oldest was the Köping-Hults railway, which ran from Örebro to Ervalla, and was opened as early as in 1856.
The northern “Swedish Central Railway”—the Frövi-Ludvika line—was opened in 1873. The OFWJ, opened in 1878, provided the link between Bergslagen and the Baltic Sea.
The Railway museum is located at the Malmbangården station, which was built in 1929–30, and is equipped with signal boxes and engine sheds. The collection contains a large number of engines and rolling stock of various ages, including six steam locomotives. The oldest TGOJ engine from 1917 constitutes the first ever three-cylinder steam engine to be used in Sweden and was in continuous operation up until the 1950s.
The series M3t turbine engine No.71, built in 1930, is the only turbine engine anywhere in the world that is still operational. Altogether, some 30 turbine engines were built, of which six were manufactured in Sweden between 1917 and 1936. Three of these were supplied to TGOJ and remained in continuous use until 1953.