About the Swedish steam reserve, the engines were stored at numerous locations with usually up to 3 or 4 locos at each place. We were allowed access to one such store during a special Swedish-organised railtour in the early 1980s. It was a large steel clad building not unlike a Nissen hut with two or three tracks each holding 2 engines. As I remember it they were various types of 4-6-0s certainly including the B class of which an example exists in the UK. There may also have been one of the E class inside cylinder 2-8-0s. The main feature was that each locomotive was sealed entirely inside a huge polythene sheet securely fastened down to prevent entry of damp air. That precaution alone shows up the story of ex-BR engines hidden away inside some dank disused Welsh or Pennine tunnel for what it is, an urban myth.
Flamingo - this is fascinating stuff and sheds some light on little known aspects of the Cold War in Europe. Like the ROC Posts and Brixmis.
I don't suppose your steam preservation group took photos of the Steam engines in storage during your tour of Sweden back in the 1980's ???
About the Swedish steam reserve, the engines were stored at numerous locations with usually up to 3 or 4 locos at each place. We were allowed access to one such store during a special Swedish-organised railtour in the early 1980s. It was a large steel clad building not unlike a Nissen hut with two or three tracks each holding 2 engines. As I remember it they were various types of 4-6-0s certainly including the B class of which an example exists in the UK. There may also have been one of the E class inside cylinder 2-8-0s. The main feature was that each locomotive was sealed entirely inside a huge polythene sheet securely fastened down to prevent entry of damp air. That precaution alone shows up the story of ex-BR engines hidden away inside some dank disused Welsh or Pennine tunnel for what it is, an urban myth.
Flamingo - this is fascinating stuff and sheds some light on little known aspects of the Cold War in Europe. Like the ROC Posts and Brixmis.
I don't suppose your steam preservation group took photos of the Steam engines in storage during your tour of Sweden back in the 1980's ???
Yes I did take pictures inside the building but they don't show the engines very well, just dim shapes inside the huge polythene sheets. I have a dim recollection of writing an article about that railtour for publication in one of Ian Allan's magazines.
We were given to understand that certain Swedish railwaymen had a status not unlike that of military reservists in the UK. This conferred on them a liability to do some kind of national service, which was met by periodically taking an engine out of a storage location and then to prepare, steam and test it to establish its condition. If the loco was found to still be in good condition, it was put back into reserve storage complete with polythene sheeting etc. If it failed this examination it was sent for scrap. I cannot vouch for the truth of that story but it would explain the occasional appearance of steam engines in Sweden for preservation many years after their withdrawal and long after the SJ had ceased to use steam traction. It may be that the WD 2-8-0 which was retrieved from Sweden and is now on the KWVR in Yorkshire owes its survival to such a history.
As those 2 picture show the locos were stored under conditions rather different to those likely to be found in disused railway tunnels on closed lines in the UK. The Swedish steam reserve was real, and there definitely was a strategic motive behind it. The BR stategic steam resrve was, is, and always will be just a myth which owes everything to the fertile minds of certain magazine writers I could name.
Hi Flamingo,
Wow !!! great pictures, this must be the Swedish equivalent of finding the
Holy Grail for steam train enthusiasts; to come across a secret cache
of steam engines, just slumbering away under wraps, ready for the return
of the Age of Steam to the Scandinavian rail network.
As for your Quote:
If the loco was found to still be in good condition, it was put back into reserve
storage complete with polythene sheeting etc. If it failed this examination it was
sent for scrap.
How dare they even think of scrapping these engines !!! - I reckon
many railway museums and British steam preservation lines would have
given their right arm to have first refusal on these slumbering beauties.
I'm sure their were a number of steam engines made in Britain amoungst
the Swedish Steam Reserve.
Naturally myself and many other enthusiasts, would be interested in any
articles you wrote about the Swedish Steam Reserve.
There were - the only surviving O7 (2-8-0 Austerity) came from Sweden. The restoration included a "de-Swedification" of the tender (it needed some major re-engineering!).
Glad to hear of it although its a pity the other engine from the Swedish pair was scrapped.
Still I wonder whether the Swedes kept an inventory of all the steam engines they put into storage
and whether its possible to track down any other steam engines from the Swedish Steam Reserve ??
Your best bet for more information would be the various Swedish rail enthusiasts groups such as the Bergslagernas Jarnvagskallklub (BJS) who ran the railtour I was on when we visited the storage location. I may not have that spelling right! No problem with language, their officials spoke English at least as well as we do - English is virtually a second language in Sweden and they were very knowledgeable about railway matters. Frank Stenvalls Verlag published pocket books about Scandinavian railways and in the UK it used to be possible to obtain them through the Locomotive Club of Great Britain, who do have a website.
The place we visited was one of the larger storage locations. Some only held 1 or 2 engines but they were always of similar appearance - a 'tin shed' at the end of a siding on a little-used branch line was a dead giveaway as to what was inside. The reserve began to be dispersed abut 30 years ago and I doubt if any locos still remain in long-term storage as the need to keep them disappeared after the end of the Cold War. Many ex-reserve engines went into preservation in Sweden and a few, such as the B class 4-6-0 at the Nene Valley railway, were exported.
Flamingo wrote: The reserve began to be dispersed abut 30 years ago and I doubt if any locos still remain in long-term storage as the need to keep them disappeared after the end of the Cold War. Many ex-reserve engines went into preservation in Sweden and a few, such as the B class 4-6-0 at the Nene Valley railway, were exported.
Now its funny you should say that as 3 loco's were only just released
from storage 11 months ago ( July 2008 to be exact ) from a storage
area in Sandtrask, Sweden.
One of which has been fully restored and is the subject of this thread,
namely steam locomotive B 1037.
See press article, Swedish steam engines hidden since 1954:
A very interesting news item. Perhaps there are still a few left? The B class were good go-anywhere mixed traffic engines, you might even say the 'B1' or 'Black Five' of Sweden. I believe examples ex-reserve were sold for preservation in other European countries and possibly one even made it across the Atlantic.
