Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Means of Communication, by Bernh. Andersen, Andr. M. Hansen and J. T. Sommerschild
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and an inland line southwards from Kristiania, and the Meraker
Railway (1881) from Trondhjem. Only 27 miles of the Ofoten
Railway, which is now being built from the head of the Vestfjord
to the large iron-ore districts in Norbottten [[** sic]] and to the Swedish
Norrland Railway, lies within the frontiers of our country. The
cost of construction in this wild mountain country is estimated,
however, at 9.3 million kroner.
A more connected railway system within the country itself,
the Western Railway, was brought about by the connecting line
Kristiania to Drammen, laid in 1872, and in 1881 continued to
Skien. Combined with the Randsfjord Railway and its branch
lines, this line has a total length of 225 miles.
The first real trunk line in the country, connecting large
districts, was obtained when the local district railways of Kristiania
and Trondhjem were connected via Østerdalen by the Røros
Railway (1877). By this line, the distance between Kristiania, the
economical centre of the country in the south, and Trondhjem,
the traffic centre in the north, where about ¼ of the population
of the country lives, was reduced from 793 miles by sea to 349
miles by rail (with a change of gauge, however, at Hamar).
It was not until 1894 that the Storthing passed an act for
the second great trunk line, connecting Bergen, the financial centre
of the west, with the east country, by continuing the Voss Line
across the mountains eastwards. Tn 1898 its further course was
finally determined via Hallingdal to the Northern Railway
(Nordbanen), joining this at Roa in Hadeland. In 1907, the distance
between the two largest towns in the country will thereby be reduced
from 423 miles by sea to about 310 miles by rail, and the time
occupied on the journey will be about one third of the shortest
voyage at present. This Bergen Railway, which for more than
60 miles of its length is at a height of more than 2,300 ft. above
the sea, presents considerable technical difficulties. At present a
tunnel (the Gravehals Tunnel), 3 miles long, is in course of
construction in the mountains, (2820 ft. above the sea level). The
large quantity of snow will probably render it necessary to cover
in the line for considerable distances.
By a vote of the same year, 1894, it was decided to extend the
Jæderen Line to Flekkefjord, and thus the third natural trunk line
of the country, the West Country Railway, may be said to have
been established in principle, from Stavanger round the south of
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