The Bolling-stock is of very good quality and quite on a level with
that of other countries. The Swedish passenger-carriages are specially
renowned for their comfort and easy running.
The total number of locomotives amounts to about 2 000, of which number
900 are the property of the State railways, the construction-priee of this latter
group of engines amounting to about 49 million kronor. During the last few
years, a great number of locomotives have been made with superheating arrangement
for the steam, according to Schmidt’s system. Specially powerful locomotives
have been acquired for the ore-traffic in Upper Norrland, the largest of
them having five coupled axles and, including the tender, a service-weight of
130 tons. - - The fuel used is chiefly English coal, but on the State lines
Swedish coal from Skâne is also used to some extent. On one or two of the
larger private lines, experiments have been for some time carried on with a
device invented by Hj. von Porat, mechanical engineer, for firing locomotives
with peatr-powder, a fuel of which large quantities exist in Sweden.
The passenger carriages amount to a total of 3 800, of which number 1 700
belong to the State railways. The cost of construction of these latter amounts
to 28 million kronor. Both on the State-, as well as on most of the private
lines, bogie-carriages are employed, with side-corridors and a through-pasSage
right along the entire train; these, so far as fittings and technical arrangements
are concerned, are thought to satisfy the most exigent claims. Special dining-
cars are attached to the principal day trains, and there are sleeping carriages
in all the night trains. As a result of the comparatively severe climate, pains
have been taken — and, on the whole, successfully — to warm the passengercarriages
in a satisfactory manner, and this has been effected by means, of steam
from the engine. The lighting on the State railways is effected by means of
oil-gas, according to the Pintsch system, for the production of which special
gasworks are established at several places. A considerable improvement in this
system of illumination has been introduced during the last few years by'the
employment -of mantles for the burners, whereby the strength of the light is very
essentially increased. A large number of the private lines employ acetylene-
gas for lighting their passenger-carriages. Quite lately it has been found possible
to employ mantles for this system of illumination, too. Automatic vacuum-
Pho to . J ohn Wa l l g r e n , Mótala.
A State Railway Express Locomotive.
brakes running through the entire train, in accordance with Körting s or Hardy s
systems, are in use on the express trains of all the State lines.
The Goods waggons of all the railways number altogether 51 000, with a total
carrying capacity of about 640 000 tons. The cost of the building of the 23 000
waggons belonging to the State railways amounted to 72 million kronor. Among
the different types of waggons characteristic of the country and its conditions
of traffic, may be mentioned the three-axled ore-waggons, of which those for the
conveyance of ore in Norrland have their bodies made of iron, and are now built
with a carrying-capacity of 35 tons each; and also the so-called biiltcr-wagyojis,
which are constructed for the carriage of butter and other more perishable articles,!
and which are provided with treble walls and roofs, refrigerators, etc. There
are' also special waggons for the transport of cattle, of charcoal and limestone,
and four-axled bogie-waggons, specially intended for the carriage of ore and with
a carrying-capacity of 36 tons. The carrying-capacity of the double-axled waggons
of newer types is, as a rule, 16-r—18 tons. The heavy ore-trains running
on the line Luleä—Riksgränsen are all provided with the Westinghouse brake.
With regard to the rolling-stock of the State railways, this is, manufactured
in Sweden itself. Of the factories which supply the railways with locomotives,
the Trollhattan and the Motala Mechanical Works have brought the manufacture
to a comparatively high state of perfection. The Trollhattan Works produce an
average of 50 locomotives per annum, and the Motala works about 30. Factories
for the manufacture, on a large scale, of rollingstock are now to be found
in several plac.es, as for instance at Falun, Malmö, Kristianstad, Hässleholm,
Linköping, Södertalje, and Arlöv.
The railways themselves have workshops for the repairs of stock; some private
lines also have works for the manufacture of rolling-stock. There is a Central
Repairing Workshop at Örebro for the State railways, these owning ten workshops
of varying importance in. different parts of the country.