Tegelbruk Ytterväggar

H0, Swedish rural railway, 8 @ 3 feet

Video

Before starting a layout I like to check the route is practical and research potential traffic. Possibly because my father came from a pit village and/or lovable eccentricity I’ve always been keen on coal traffic. For my new Swedish H0 layout this has been a problem as coal mining has never been a major industry in Sweden being largely restricted to Scania in Sweden’s South West. There mines often extracted clay and coal leading to the development of a ceramics industry that has survived the closure of the last mine in 1994. Coal mining lead to Sweden’s first railway in 1798 when a horse-drawn and wooden railed line at Höganäs in Scania was built to link a coal mine to the harbour. Web searching came across a combined coal and clay mine at Valinge that operated 1872-1979.

Clay delivery for the brickworks

The siding is used by the railway to delver clay to the brickworks.
In theory clay is emptied from the standard gauge wagons, loaded into narrow gauge wagons and tramed to the brickworks.
Tegelbruk Ytterväggar means Brickworks Siding.
 

Vegebanen is imaginary private railway from Valinge 14.8 Km/9.2 miles along the Vege Valley to a junction with the Swedish State Railway [SJ] at Bjuv. Coal and clay traffic is the mainstay of the line with mineral trains running as required. On route the Vegebanen passes the rural villages of Strövelstorp, Hasslarp, Nyvång, and Hyllinge which produce limited passenger, parcels, and goods traffic – mostly outbound vegetables & milk, and inbound fuel. In steam day’s passengers and goods traffic would be handled by three mixed trains daily. Dieselisation improved the service to four passenger trains daily and goods trains as required. To add interest in both steam and diesel days the summer bring an extra train of Vegebanen loco and SJ through coach. Additional services will be added as soon as I find a reason. Like most minor lines the Vegebanen tends to buy second hand stock often from the SJ.

Coming on stage

Sweden’s second railway the Trafikaktiebolaget Grängesberg-Oxelösunds Järnvägar operated a V36 the Wehrmacht’s [German Armed Forces] standard medium diesel locomotive. Most British sources down play the V36 flexibility by comparing it to British Railway’s class 08. However the V36 was a small mixed traffic loco, its low axle load 14 ton, 360 horse power engine, top speed approaching 40 miles per hour, and the ability for two V36s cab to cab to run in multiple made it ideal loco for post war minor railways and branch lines.

Going of stage

 
Panoramas of the layout