Welcome to
Östra Södermanlands Järnväg (ÖSlJ)

The Museum railway in Mariefred

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An introduction to ÖSLJ

There were once seven 600 mm gauge railways providing public services in Sweden. They were built in the years 1888 to 1910, and most of them were closed in the 1930s when their slow trains lost the traffic to buses and lorries.

As these little lines closed so early, their rolling stock and equipment represented an earlier stage of railway technology than most other lines with a wider gauge. Fortunately some of their rolling stock was sold to industrial lines, especially papermills, and remained in use well into the 1960s. Without these industries as a source of historical rolling stock, the ÖSLJ would not have been the "live" operating railway museum it is today

The objective of ÖSLJ today is to demonstrate how a small narrow gauge railway was operated seventy or eighty years ago. Thus we have a definite cultural and historical aim to work for - to show that a midget-size railway of this type could actually be an important carrier of both passengers and freight.

The financial situation of our railway is very much geared to its visitors/passengers, as its costs must be covered by traffic receipts and the net income from our railway café.

Today the society has about 1,000 members, about 130 of whom are working actively on the line. The railway itself is fully amateur-operated - all work in management, traffic, training of staff, on permanent way and in the workshops is done by unpaid members, even if bookkeeping and some maintenance of buildings etc is performed by three salaried staff. As a railway the ÖSLJ is, legally, an ordinary railway entity subject to governmental inspection and control of safety regulations, staff training, etc., just like any other railway. For instance the Railway Inspectorate's general helth requirements of traffic staff apply to our staff too.

A few figures about the ÖSLJ
Line: 3,6 km, gauge 600 mm.

Maximum permitted speed :25 km/h
Maximum gradient: 16 o/oo (1 in 67)
Maximum axle load: 5 tons

Motive power: 9 steam engines, (7 at present operable), 6 diesel engines, 1 battery loco, 1 petrol railcar

Coaching stock: 18 coaches (14 i operation and 3 under restoration).

Freight stock: 27 wagons in operation, also16 service vehicles of various types for maintenance etc., some of which are self-propelled

Traffic: Public traffic is usually operated 100 to 110 days a year, with a steam train traffic production of about 5,500 train-km annually. The railway is operated on Saturdays and Sundays from the beginning of May till the end of September, and a daily service is provided from Midsummer's till mid-August. Trains are usually running about once an hour between approximately 11AM and 5PM. The duration of a return journey is about 40 minutes.

Passengers: About 35,000 a year, some 1,000 of which are travelling on the Circular Tour Ticket issued jointly with the steamship s/s MARIEFRED and the State Railways.

Staff: About 130 unpaid society members, performing more than 2,000 man-days a year. Of these about 800 are traffic duty.

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