History of Railways in Sweden

Foreword

Generally, the words railway and railroad are synonyms. The difference between railway and railroad is in the practice rather than in the meaning of the two words. In the UK and the adjoining commonwealth countries, railway is the term that is used. In the USA, the term railroad is used even if railway is used by some companies. Internationally, railway is the most common term. So, the meaning of both railway and railroad is the same. They both refer to the track on which a train runs.

Introduction

In 1845, Count Adolf Eugène von Rosen (1797-1886), the initiator of the Swedish railways, obtained Royal permission to build railways in Sweden. 1856 is regarded as the year of birth for the Swedish Railways. In 1856, the first three railway lines were officially opened, built for rail public transport with steam locomotives. There had been public rail transport earlier also but with horse-pulled carriages. Except for underground mines, the first established railway in Sweden was built in 1798 between the port in Höganäs and a mine. The rails were made of wood and the wagons were pulled by horses. However, the first public railway was the Frykstad Line in Värmland which opened in 1849. During the first couple of years, the carriages were pulled by horses. The railway was constructed by Claes Adelsköld (1824-1907). In 1850, the railway line between Kristinehamn and Sjöändan was opened, a stretch of 11 km and the gauge was 1099 mm. The carriages were also here pulled by horses initially, but from 1858 with steam locomotives. The first railway in Sweden to use steam locomotives from outset was Nora-Ervalla-Örebro Railway which opened on 5 March 1856. The first railway line in the world was opened in 1825 between Stockton-on-Tees and Darlington in the UK. The image at the top of the page shows two coupled steam locomotives and passenger carriages. Photo: Eric Lundquist. Image: Järnvägsmuseet, ID: JvmKBDN01489.

The Swedish State Railways, SJ

Under the Parliament Act of 1854, the government was to be responsible for the construction of the railway main lines (mainlines) in Sweden. Engineer Baron Nils Ericson (1802 - 1870) was appointed to lead the project. Ericson resigned in 1863 when the Western Main Line was officially opened. The responsibility for the State Railways was then transferred to the “Styrelsen för statens järnvägstrafik” (The Government Board of Rail Transport) under the leadership of a Director-General. On 1 June 1888, the Board was transformed into the Royal Swedish State Railways (Kungliga Järnvägsstyrelsen or Statens Järnvägar, SJ). Thereafter came a boom of railway development with the organizing of linemen along the rails including dwellings for the linemen and the railway station’s staff and not the least the construction of all the railway stations. The Swedish State Railways was established in December 1856 with the opening of the two major main lines; Southern Main Line (Södra stambanan) and the Western Main Line (Västra stambanan). More main lines were being built but the construction of the many branch lines was handed over to private companies. The image shows the B class steam locomotive Prince August SJ B 3 which was SJ:s first class of locomotives for railway service, manufactured by Beyer, Peacock & Co, UK. It was procured in 1856 to be used on the Southern Main Line (Södra Stambanan). Image: Järnvägsmuseet. ID: Jvm00001-1. During the first hundred years of rail transport, the Swedish State Railways has had two major periods of growth. The first took place during the second half of the 19th century when the major main lines were being built which were the backbone of the Swedish rail infrastructure. The second period began in the 1940s when most of the private railway companies were nationalized. The reason for the incorporation of the private railways was to avoid a shutdown of these lines since they were struggling with profitability. The increasing motoring and bus services made many private railways unprofitable. By nationalizing the unprofitable private lines they were saved and SJ usually operated these minor lines with railbuses. The first railbus on regular traffic was the Y6. A railbus is a lightweight passenger rail vehicle that shares many aspects of its construction with a bus, hence the name. The railbuses were very suitable on minor lines and more economical than complete train sets. In 1950, SJ was as biggest with 50,000 employees. The effort to save the minor lines from bankruptcy by buying them wasn’t durable in the long run and at the beginning of the 1960s about half of the minor lines were closed down.

Swedish Main Lines

The main line (or mainline in the US) of a railway is a track that is used for through trains or is the principal artery of the system from which branch lines, yards, sidings, and spurs are connected. It generally refers to a route between towns. The Swedish term for mainline is “Stambana”. As mentioned above, the government was to build all the main lines in Sweden while the branch lines were built by private companies. The mainlines were being built between 1856 and 1892 when the main line through North Sweden, “Stambanan genom övre Norrland”, was opened. The main lines were built with the international standard gauge, 1,435 mm (4.7 ft). However, the branch lines were narrow-gauge railways. There are no standards for narrow-gauge railways; however, the most frequent narrow-gauge in Sweden was 891 mm (3 ft). The narrow-gauge railways were cheaper to build and more economical to maintain and operate which is why the minor private railway lines were built narrow-gauge. The image shows railway construction in Lilla Edet, Västergötland, circa 1905. Image: Västergötlands museum, ID: 1M16-A145233:3864. Both locomotives and carriages had to be built to meet the gauge of the tracks they were to be running on. To exchange goods from a train on a narrow- gauge branch line to a train on a standard gauge main line it had to be reloaded. Busy narrow-gauge lines were usually, over time, rebuilt to standard- gauge. Förstlingen (The Firstling) was the first locomotive built and used in Sweden. On 2 June 1853, the Firstling made a test run in Eskilstuna and on the Norberg Railway Line. In 1856, the first steam locomotive railways were opened. The first train went from Gothenburg Central Station to Jonsered. After arrival in Jonsered, elated passengers could narrate how they had been “hurled forward” at the amazing speed of 30 km/h (20 mph). In 1855, the construction of the Southern Mail Line (Södra Stambanan) and Western Main Line (Västra Stambanan) commenced. The construction of the Southern Main Line began in Malmö and the Western Main Line in Gothenburg. Both railway lines were to be built to reach Stockholm. The Main Lines: The Western Main Line (Västra Stambanan) was inaugurated on 3 November 1862, and thereby Stockholm was connected to Gothenburg (Göteborg) via railway and Malmö in 1864 when the Southern Main Line (Södra Stambanan) officially opened. The construction of the Western Main Line began on 30 April 1856 and took 6 years to build. • Western Main Line comprises the route: Stockholm–Katrineholm–Hallsberg–Skövde–Falköpi ng-Göteborg. • Southern Main Line: Katrineholm–Norrköping–Linköping–Nässjö–Sävsjö -Alvesta–Hässleholm–Malmö. The route Katrineholm–Nässjö was formerly called the Eastern Main Line (Östra Stambanan). The terminal railway station of the Western Main Line was Stockholm South Station (Stockholm S) in Södermalm District, Stockholm. On the north side of Stockholm was Stockholm North Station (Stockholm N) by Norra Bantorget which was the terminal station of the Northern main Line. Stockholm is a city located on several islands and initially, there was no rail connection between the South and the North stations. However, in 1871, the two stations were connected via the so-called Sammanbindningsbanan (Connection Line). A new railway station located in central Stockholm was built, Stockholm Central Station (Stockholm C) which was officially opened on 18 July 1871. On the other end of the Western Main Line was Gothenburg Central Station (Göteborg C) the terminal station. Southern Main Line was built from Malmö in the southern tip of Sweden to Nässjö in Småland Province. From there the track was built in a northwestern direction into Västergötland Province where it was connected to the Western main Line in Falköping. Eastern Main Line was built from Katrineholm, via Norrköping and Linköping down to Nässjö. Thereby there was a shorter route (an eastern route) for travelers between Stockholm and Malmö than the detour via Falköping. Eastern Main Line was opened in 1874. However, the line between Katrineholm and Norrköping was opened as early as 1860. The route from Malmö to Stockholm via Nässjö-Norrköping- Katrineholm was frequently called Southern Main Line (instead of Southern and Eastern main lines) and this naming was finally accepted by the Board of Transportation in 1990. The route of the southern main line in the north, mainly on the Norrköping-Katrineholm section, was heavily loaded with railway traffic, and in order to reduce the traffic load here, the government built a new railway line from Norrköping via Nyköping and Järna. This line was built as a single track and opened in 1915, shortening the journey by running along the coast and thus connecting the town of Nyköping—the Södermanland county seat—to the state railway network. Northern Main Line (Norra Stambanan) comprises the route Gävle/Storvik–Ockelbo–Bollnäs–Ljusdal–Ånge. The first part of the line, Stockholm-Uppsala, was opened in 1866. The railway line was thereafter built bit by bit and reached Krylbo in 1873, Gävle/Storvik in 1875, and finally Ånge in 1881. The railway line took 15 years to build. The route Ånge-Bräcke-Östersund was opened already in 1879 and thereby Stockholm was connected to Östersund via railway. The railway was in 1883 extended from Bräcke and further northward to Ragunda-Långsele-Vännäs and Boden and in full opened in 1894. This route is called Stambanan genom övre Norrland. (The Main Line through Upper Norrland). The image shows a map of the railway system in the southern half of Sweden in 1910. Image: Nordisk Familjebok, Projekt Runeberg. Click on the image to enlarge it. More Maps. Although most cities are located by the coast and therefore ought to be the destination of most rail transports, no railways lines were being built along the coasts, at least not in the 1800s, due to the so- called Antikustprincipen (Anti Coast Principle). This was due to defense policy reasons. If there, for example, would be an enemy landing along the Norrland coast, it would be more secure to deploy troops up north if the railway lines were located 30 - 50 km inland (20 to 50 mi away from the coast). Northwestern Main Line (Nordvästra Stambanan) comprises the route Laxå–Karlstad–Kil–Charlottenberg. Today the railway line carries the name Värmlandsbanan (Värmland Line). It was officially opened in 1871. The line was built as a main line to connect Stockholm with Kristiania (today’s Oslo in Norway). It was opened bit by bit between 1866 and 1871. Mid Line (Mittbanan) is the name of the railway line between Sundsvall by the east-coast in Mid-Sweden to Storlien west of Sundsvall by the Norwegian border. The first part of the line, Sundsvall–Torpshammar, was a 60 km long narrow- gauge private railway, opened in 1878. At the same time, the second part of the line (Norrländska tvärbanan) between Torpshammar–Östersund, was being built and opened in 1879. In 1881 this line was connected to the Northern Main Line in Ånge. The last part of the Mid Line, Östersund-Storlien, and to Trondheim (Norway) was opened in 1882. The private part of the line, owned by the Sundsvall–Torpshammars Railway was acquired by the government in 1885 and rebuilt to standard- gauge in 1886. The name of the entire line between Sundsvall-Storlien was then changed to "Norrländska tvärbanan" (Line Across Norrland). Inland Line (Inlandsbanan) is a railway line between Kristinehamn, Värmland, in the southern end, and Gällivare up north in Lapland, a total distance of 1,288 kilometers (800 mi). In 1907, the construction of the first stage, Östersund–Ulriksfors, began and was ready in 1912. In 1911 the construction of the second stage Ulriksfors–Vilhelmina, began. The stage Sveg–Brunflo was ready in 1922. The building of the northernmost stage, Wilhelmina–Gällivare began in 1917 but wasn’t ready until 1937. The line reached Dorotea in 1915, Vilhelmina 1918, Storuman 1923 and Arvidsjaur 1928. The final stage Jokkmokk−Gällivare was ready in 1937. The image shows a SJ S class steam locomotive, S1 nr 1916 at Kalmar Central Station in 1975. Image: Kalmar Läns Museum, ID: KLMF.Okänd01379. The East Coast Line (Ostkustbanan, OKB) is a railway line between Stockholm and Sundsvall, Medelpad, via Uppsala and Gävle. The railway line was initially a private line on the route Gävle - Härnösand. The East Coast Line was opened in stages but the entire route was opened on 1 November 1927. The private line between Gävle and Härnösand was from outset partially owned by the government, 65% of the shares in Ostkustbanan AB (OKB). The line was extended from Härnösand to Sollefteå in 1893. The final stage Sollefteå - Långsele opened already in 1886. On 1 August 1933 the private railway company, OKB, together with Uppsala–Gävle Railway was nationalized. The route between Sundsvall and Långsele via Härnösand is today called Ådalsbanan (Ådalen Line). It was a great benefit to all the towns the railways lines passed. These communities were able to grow and attracted businesses that needed rail transports. The number of branch lines increased and connected towns. It became much easier for people to travel. For a period in the middle of the 1800s, about 70% of the government spending went to the construction of railways. In the 1960s many of the smaller branch lines were unprofitable and the government closed those railway lines and replaced them with bus services instead. Many of the new bus lines were also run by SJ and SJ soon became one of the leading bus operators. Further, many railway stations were closed down on the main lines in depopulating areas. In 1958, the Southern Main Line between Stockholm and Malmö had circa 90 railway stations. 20 years later, the number of stations on this route was reduced to 20.

Railway Tracks and Rails

Rail transport or train transport is a means of transferring passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are located on tracks and rail vehicles (rolling stock) are directionally guided by the tracks on which they run. The track on a railway/railroad is the structure consisting of the rails, fasteners, railway sleepers (ties, American English), and ballast (or slab track). Tracks usually consist of steel rails. A railway sleeper is a rectangular support for the rails in railroad tracks, generally laid perpendicular to the rails. Railway sleepers are traditionally made of wood, but prestressed concrete is nowadays widely used. During the early days of rail, there was considerable variation in the gauge used by different systems. Today, most railways use a gauge of 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in), known as standard or international gauge (Swe: normalspår). Gauges wider than standard gauge are called broad gauge; narrower, narrow gauge. A reason for the different gauges is that the many railway lines have different needs and budgets. Broad carriages can carry more goods, but broad goods wagons need broad gauge tracks to roll steadily. Broad gauge tracks call for broader embankments which means that more land has to be acquired. More goods also make the wagons heavier which need more powerful locomotives which in its turn demands stronger rails. Stronger rails, powerful locomotives, and broader wagons are more expensive which is why private railway branch lines usually were constructed as narrow- gauge railway lines for economical reasons. The image shows a railway track with rails and sleepers on an embankment somewhere in Sweden. Image: Wikipedia. The rails used in rail transport are produced in sections of fixed length. Rail lengths are made as long as possible, as the joints between rails are a source of weakness. Throughout the history of rail production, lengths have increased as manufacturing processes have improved. In the early days of railways, the rails were short, only a few meters. Welding of rails into longer lengths was first introduced around 1893, making train rides quieter and safer. By the time, the length of the rails reached 20 meters (66 ft) bolted together using perforated steel plates known as fishplates (UK) or joint bars (North America). Fishplates are usually 600 mm (2 ft) long, used in pairs on either side of the rail ends, and bolted together. Small gaps which function as expansion joints are deliberately left between the rail ends to allow for expansion of the rails in hot weather. The sleeper has two main roles: to transfer the loads from the rails to the track ballast and the ground underneath and to hold the rails to the correct width apart (to maintain the rail gauge). They are generally laid transversely to the rails. Various methods exist for fixing the rail to the sleeper. Historically spikes gave way to cast iron chairs fixed to the sleeper. The terms rail anchors, tie plates, chairs, and track fasteners are used to refer to parts or all of a rail fastening system. Each sleeper is usually 2.6 m (8.5 ft) long.

Related Links

• Railway History, part-2 • Railway Occupations and Uniforms • Swedish State Railways - Locomotives • Iron Ore Line • Railway History - Images • Maps of the Swedish Railway System • History of Swedish Log Driving

Source References

• Staten, järnvägarna och den regionala utvecklingen i Sverige 1840–1890, Agaton Sten, 2015, Umeå Universitet. • Den glade rallaren? Norrbottniska rallares syn på sina arbets- och levnadsvillkor, Per-Jonas Pihl 2016, Luleå Tekniska Universitet. • Boken “En rallares levnadsminnen”, av Samuel Magnusson Svanbäck; nedtecknade av Herbert Malmback, 1931. • Boken: “Banbrytare. Äventyr och upplevelser under ett 100-årigt järnvägsbyggande i Sverige”. Manne Briandt. Kristianstad 1959. • Sveriges järnvägars historia, Populär Historia, 13 september 2006 av Niklas Ingmarsson, publicerad i Populär Historia 7-8/2006 . • Rallarna i Sverige banade väg för industrialismen, av Mats Utbult, publicerad i Populär historia 11/2009. • Wikipedia • Järnvägsmuseet (Railway Museum in Gävle, Sweden) Top of page

Important Years for the Development of the

Swedish Railways

Besides the tracks and the locomotives, the carriages were also developed further. Steam heating of the railway carriages was introduced in Sweden in 1871 and in 1872 SJ introduced passenger carriages with passages between the carriages. Stockholm Central Station was inaugurated in 1871. Swedish standard time was introduced in 1879. Vacuum brakes were used from 1883 on passenger trains. The goods trains were at this time still using manually applied brakes. In 1886, SJ began with sleeping cars for first and second-class passengers. SJ introduced bogie cars in 1891. The first train ferry between Sweden and Denmark opened in 1892. The first electrified railway line in Sweden for passenger traffic opened in Stockholm in 1895, Djursholmsbanan (Roslagsbanan). The Anti Coast Principle was abandoned in 1896 which made it possible to build the East Coast Line (Ostkustbanan) along the Norrland coastline. Thereby the railway line could be extended from Gävle towards Sundsvall and a railway line from Gothenburg on the west coast to Oslo in Norway could be built. In 1894, the first dining cars were used on the railway line Uppsala–Gävle. The Gällivare–Riksgränsen–Narvik part of Iron Ore Line in the north of Sweden was opened in 1903. In 1905, SJ began using electric locomotives. The F-class steam locomotive, Sweden’s most powerful steam locomotive, was delivered to SJ. In 1919, SJ introduced the compressed air brake system and the system was adapted between 1920 and 1927. From 1924, electric heating was installed in passenger carriages.

Navvies / Gandy Dancers

“Rallare” is the term used for early railroad workers in Sweden, who laid and maintained railway tracks in the many decades before the work was done by machines. The British equivalent of the term is "Navvy" (from "navigator"). Gandy dancer is a slang term used for early railroad workers in the United States, more formally referred to as "section hands". In the 1900s, the Swedish term “rallare” was also used by the workers building hydroelectric power stations but then with the prefix “vatten”, i.e. “vattenrallare”. A similar title was used for the workers building roads for motor vehicles at the beginning of the 1900s, “vägrallare”. The major period for the construction of railways in Sweden was between the 1850s and the 1930s. During this period, railway construction was performed by manual work. The “rallare” lived a nomadic life and were general workers equipped with levers, drills, pickaxes, and spades looking for jobs wherever a railway was under construction. The work sites shifted continuously and were usually far away from home. Railway construction was at the time Sweden’s largest building project and occupied about 20.000 people annually. The “rallare” were foremost from the countryside of Central and Southern Sweden, often farmhands and small tenant farmers who moved from one railway construction to another. In the rest of this article, I will use the British English term “navvy” for “rallare”. The image shows a Swedish navvy (rallare) at a railway construction by a tipper car on the rails. Image: Alingsås museum, ID: AMB 00062. It was a hard and laborious life to be a navvy with tough working conditions and not the least risky. In a book titled "En rallares levnadsminnen" (A navvy’s memories of life) from 1931 the old railway navvy Samuel Magnusson Svanbäck narrated about his life as a navvy in Sweden. In 1872, then only 16 years old, he obtained his first employment as a navvy with a railway construction south of Växjö, Småland. It was long working days beginning at 5:00 in the morning and lasting until 20:00 in the evening with three breaks; 8:00-9:00, 12:00-13:30, and 16.30-17:00. At 04:45 the navvies had to line up at the working site to be counted by a foreman (schaktmästaren). If a navvy was late for work, he, as a punishment, wasn’t allowed to begin working until 8:00 which meant that he lost a quarter of his payment that day. A white and red flag, known as the cat, was hoisted when the work began and lowered when the work stopped for the day. The navvy camps, quarters, were usually far away from the working sites which means that the navvies had to get up very early to be at the working site in time. In the evening they arrived late to their quarters. Railway construction by definition implied moving working sites. The navvies had a tradition of using songs to coordinate work, unique in their use of task-related work chants, similar to those songs used by sailors on sailing ships. The chants were used to keep time when they were drilling using sledgehammers, digging, or piling. There was very strong solidarity among the navvies in Sweden; they were a very close-knit family. Navvies took care of each other and helped fellow navvies in need.

Working Conditions

Railway construction was usually divided into sections of about 20 km (12.4 mi). However, a section could be longer than that if the terrain was easy or shorter on a difficult section with earthmoving and blasting. How did they do it? The work was performed with different teams of workmen. The engineers planned the direction of the section. Thereafter, teams of earthmoving, stone-workers, and blasters began their work, supervised by the foremen. When the embankments were ready, teams who laid the rails (rälsläggarna) took over. They laid the sleepers and rails and fastened the rails to the sleepers with spikes. The navvies used special sledgehammers called spike mauls to drive spikes. The rails were bolted together using perforated steel plates known as fishplates (UK) or joint bars (North America). The sleepers were produced with portable sawmills of wood purchased locally. Initially, the rails were imported from the UK. A rail could weigh up to a ton and it took five strong navvies to carry a rail and lay it in place. The navvies laid about 1 km of rails a day. When there was a need to blast rocks, dynamite was used. The navvies then needed to manually drill holes in the rock. One man drove the drill with a sledgehammer while a second man rotated the drill between each stroke with the sledgehammer. It was not uncommon that the drill got stuck in the hole and the crew had to make a new hole. Sledgehammers and levers were made of iron and heavy to use. Wheelbarrows were made of wood. There were two types of wheelbarrows; the grand barrow (Swe: Storkärran) and the “tiny barrow” (Lillkärran). It took three navvies to move a loaded “grand barrow”. The image shows a team of navvies removing earth at a railway construction in Lilla Edet circa 1905. Image: Västergötlands museum, ID: 1M16-A145233:3863. The railway workforce was very hierarchic with foremen supervising the navvies and several levels of engineers. The discipline was hard and it didn’t take much to get fired. Each navvy had an employment card in the size of a playing card containing personal data. It was compulsory to always carry the card at the worksite. If a navvy made a misdemeanor, the foreman would ask for the navvy’s card and make a note that the navvy was fired including the reason. The management usually forced the working pace without any consideration to the workers. It was no shortage of laborers and worn-out navvies could easily be relieved by others. At the turn of the century 1900, the working hours per day was between 10 and 12 hours. The navvies had no means to cure themselves if sick or injured. A navvy that didn’t turn up for work in the morning wasn’t paid. Therefore they usually worked even if they were sick.

Navvy Camps

The navvy camps were simple log hoses or wooden hovels usually with earthen floors where the navvies competed for the bunks. About 15 - 16 men could sleep in a room of 25 square meters (270 sq ft) where they also dried their clothes and cooked food. In the worst case, the quarters could be a dug-out or a hut. The image shows the interior of a navvy camp dwelling in Kiruna in 1902. To the right a female cook. Image: Järnvägsmuseet, ID: JvmKDAK03487. The food the navvies eat was monotonous, simple, and usually consisted of salted herring, bacon, and potatoes, coffee, and bread. Initially, the meals were cooked by the navvies themselves but later by female cooks (kokerska). The “kolbulle” was a popular dish consisting of flour, water, salt, and bacon fried in plenty of lard. It was a very rich meal, easy to make and above all nourishing. “Kolbulle” was like a thick pancake with bacon made in a frying pan. Table drink was often “havrevatten”, oatmeal water (a fistful of porridge oats watered-down). It was difficult to store perishable foodstuff in the wilderness which is why the food usually consisted of salted or dried goods. Sometimes the navvies could buy some milk from a local farm or catch a fish in a nearby stream. The image shows a group of navvies by an E-class steam locomotive, SJ E 900, at a railway construction. Image: Wikipedia. Still, many men looked for employment with the railway constructions, foremost for the better payment. The wages were good, better than the wages laborers earned in other sectors of the society, so the good payment was an important incentive for the navvies. The navvies were the object of many myths such as fistfights, liquor, and moist snuff (Swe: snus). However, foremost they were hardworking laborers. The romantic glare about life as a navvy often concealed the reality of hard labor. When the navvies arrived in small communities in the countryside they became popular among the local young women. The encounter with the local men therefore often caused conflicts that usually ended with a fistfight. The navvies took a pride in doing good work and keeping the schedules set out by the foremen. The fellowship in the navvy teams forced the men to behave and it wasn’t allowed to dishonor the team. the phrase “Do not disgrace the team” was like a mantra to the navvies. “Drink but do not get dead drunk, do not enter a fistfight unless forced, but then fight like hell” were catchwords for the Swedish navvies. The navvies were feared but respected people. The rumor that the navvies liked to pick a fight preceded them where ever they went which gave the navvies a bad name. However, this was often due to the locals’ aversion and lack of accommodating to the navvies. The navvies were touchy and the self-esteem rose like sap in a birch tree when they took to the fists. If they were treated badly, justice was done with the fists. The image shows navvies at a railway construction in North Sweden (Lapland Province). Wooden sleepers are placed on the embankment and a group of navvies is carrying a rail. Image: Järnvägsmuseet, ID: JvmKDAK03463. Fighting was after all not very common but usually in connection to alcohol which was easily obtained. So, it might not be very surprising that the local people didn’t look forward to the arrival of the navvies. Bootleggers followed the navvies and supplied them with alcohol. The railway companies permitted the establishment of so-called "futtar" near the railway construction sites. Futtar was a combined grocery store and a diner licensed to serve alcohol, nothing posh, more like huts. However, after a “wet” weekend it was an unwritten law to turn up at the railway construction site on Monday morning even if the head felt heavier than ever. Laying rails was the heaviest work at railway constructions. It was the biggest and strongest men that were picked for this work. They had to be strong to cope with this heavy job and they were much better paid than other navvies.

Emigration from Sweden to North America

During the period between 1850 and 1930, about 1,200,000 Swedes emigrated from Sweden to North America. Many of the Swedish immigrants to the US settled in the Upper Midwest of which Minnesota was the most popular state. In 1879 there was a crisis in the lumber industry in Sweden at the same time as the ironwork industry had difficulties, which caused a peak in Swedish emigration. Many of the Swedish emigrants at that time were occupied with railway construction (navvies) and this group of immigrants usually resumed their former occupations in the US. For further information, see The Swedish Emigration to the USA. Railway construction attracted large numbers of the workforce. As railroad constructions progressed these job opportunities headed west. The railroad companies needed laborers for the many railroad construction projects. The Swedes earned the reputation to be the best navvies (railway laborers). An American railroad tycoon once said, “Give me moist snuff (snus), whiskey, and Swedes and I will build a railroad to Hell”. The rail tycoon who reportedly said these words was James J. Hill, who lived in St. Paul, Minnesota.