A journey to Sweden - and Norway, 1989: Narvik

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At Abisko—far to the north of the polar circle—,we met a Swabian who was travelling to the Nordkap on a small motorized bicycle—he hat lost a bet, or wanted to win one, or something like that. And many more were on their way to the northern-most point of Europe—the number of people stepping there on each other's toes must have been (and be?) enormous. We, however, only wanted to go to Narvik, to have travelled the malmban ("ore railway") once.

At Abisko Turiststation, we slept overnight (although it was not really a night, because of the midnight sun). On the next day, this empty ore train came from Narvik:

Empty ore train, Abisko Turiststation, 24.7.1989

Empty ore train, Abisko Turiststation, 24.7.1989

At Narvik, I took this first photo of a Dm3, SJ's heavy locomotives used to haul the ore trains:

SJ Dm3 1229-1244-1230, Narvik, 24.7.1989

A shunting engine stands in front of the old, empty signal box:

LKAB 2837, Narvik, 24.7.1989

Here is the interlocking panel for controlling the line on the Norwegian side up to Abisko:

Interlocking panel, Narvik, 24.7.1989

Interlocking panel, Narvik, 24.7.1989

Interlocking panel, Narvik, 24.7.1989

A separate panel controlled the points and signals at Narvik itself. A Swedish Rc can be seed outside:

Interlocking panel, Narvik, 24.7.1989

Interlocking panel, Narvik, 24.7.1989

Here is the station building, in an unfriendly weather with light rain:

Station building, Narvik, 24.7.1989

Only one more ore train came down the grade:

SJ Dm3 1213-1237-1214 with ore train, Narvik, 24.7.1989

We went around a little to get a view on the ore unloading facilities, but we did not find the interesting locations (if there were any):

Ore unloading tracks, Narvik, 24.7.1989

Ore unloading tracks, Narvik, 24.7.1989

So we returned to the station ...

LKAB 11, Narvik, 24.7.1989

LKAB 15.2195, Narvik, 24.7.1989

... and rode back to Sweden on the next train:

Zweimal LKAB 15, Malmban, 24.7.1989

Abisko Turiststation, 24.7.1989

Driver's cabin on an electric rail car, Malmban, 24.7.1989

Malmban, 24.7.1989

SJ Rc4 1333, Malmban, 24.7.1989

SJ Dm 985-986, Malmban, 24.7.1989