Home Prototypes Delary-Stroemsnaasbruks Ry

Delary Stroemsnaasbruks Railway


The following text is a compressed version from a special edition of the OBJ members magazine "Raelsbiten" called "Transportlederna vid Delary bruk" written by Franz-Bo Frenzel. This special edition is available from OBJ and includes a short english and german text. I'm not sure if it's possible to mail abroad but if you are intrested please give it a try. The price (magazine only not P&P) is 15 SKR (approx $2, £1.50)
As I dont own an enlish-swedish dictionary I could not find the correct words in some cases. These words have ? behind them. Please advice if you know the correct word.

This is the story of a sucessful small industrial railway where most of the equipment was built and designed by the company engineers and blacksmiths. As a result the "homemade" equipment makes real unique prototypes.

Area Map (GIF, 25k)

Before the Railway

In Ry (Ryfors in the map) was a papermill built in 1759. Since the papermill was constantly confused with Ry steel mills the steel mill changed its name to Delary in 1843. The Steel mill was eventually closed and then two buisnessmen from Malmoe; Edward Engestroem and Rudolf Thomsom, saw financial possibilities in the forests in the neighbourhood and built a papermill in Delary and started the production of papermass? there in 1872. (papermass= the raw material for paper)

All transports went to and from the railway station in Almhult east of Delary. The only roads available for transport were bad and all transportation was made with wagons pulled by oxes?(=the animal that once was a bull...) The wagons were owned by local farmers. Once they had to move a steam engine from the railway station To pull this load they had to use no less than 20 oxes. In 1886 the factory foreman, engineer Joens Pehrsson, built a road locomotive but it was to heavy for the bad roads.
A few years later the company planned to build a railway to the mainline in Almhult but since the farmers who got payed for transporting goods with their wagons also owned the land where the railway should go they wanted a lot of money for the land.

The Railway

In 1874 the company wanted to switch from wood to peat as fuel for the mill so they built a 891mm gauge railway to a peatbog north of Delary, Kvarnmossen. In 1874 did Joens Pehrsson build a small vertical boiler loco with chain transmission, producing 8 hp. This loco was capable of pullung two unloaded cars up the steepest gradient of the railway but still it was used until the 1890s. Between 1884-88 he continued his loco construction with two 0-8-0 locos for 643mm gauge with cylinders and motion between the frames! The gauge of the railway and the vertical boiler loco was probably changed to 643mm as well. Why he decided to use the odd gauge of 643mm is unknown.

The production at the factory in Delary needed more fuel so the railway was expanded to the west towards more peat bogs. In 1894 the railway reached the river Lagan 14.5 km west of Delary. At this time was Delary one of the largest, maybe the largest, peat producers in the scandinavian countries. The pest was used as fuel for the bolers in Delary and later also in the mill in Stroemsnaas. When Skaane-Smaalands Railway opened in 1887 they had a station in Stroemsnaas and the farmers with their wagons were out of work...

Transportation between Delary and Stroemsnaas grew even more when Stroemnaas Mill AB (=ltd.) took over the mill in Delary 1908. Passenger transportation was popular but the railway only had one passenger car. The ride was free but tickets were given the passengers that said that the trip was made at their own risk. Transports kept growing and in 1916 yet another loco was built to the same design as the previous two. A worker have told that the driving axle with its four excenters and bearing surfaces was drilled and chiseled out from a solid block of steel before it could be put in the lathe and turned to its final shape, all this took a month.
At a fire in 1928 was one loco, "Rudolf Thomsson", damaged and rebuilt as a fireless loco in 1929. The same year was another loco bought, a Sentinel (see picture below), an odd design with vertical bolier and chaindrive. Even thou the loco had a very short wheelbase, and therefore more suited for shunting, it was often used for mainline duty. In 1946 was the loco "Karolina" bought secondhand, it was a standard O&K 040WT.
1950 was a diesel bought from John Bergman & son in Motala. This engine was truoblesome in the beginning but in may 1958 was all steamlocos off duty and the diesel had to pull all trains. The line was closed slowly during 1957 - 59 and was sold as scrap. In 1961 was everything gone.

Locos and wagons

The railway had 6 steamlocos :
NrNAMEMfg/No/YrNote
-"Magnus Lind af Hageby"Delary/1/1878Vertical boiler. Off duty 1890.
1"Edward Engestroem"Delary/2/1884Off Duty -58, Placed in Delary -59
2"Rudolf Thompson"Delary/3/1888Rebuilt to fireless, Off duty -58, scrapped -61
3"August Schmitz"Delary/4/1916Off duty -58, Placed in Stroemsnaasbruk -59
4"Max Engestroem"Sentinel/7543/1928Off duty -58, scrapped -65 (pity!)
5"Karolina"O&K/7696/1919Bought -46, Off duty -58, sold SEJ -68

Locos 1-3 was built in the companys workshops in Delary and seems to have been a sucessful as odd design. The locos was altered several times "Edward Engestroem" looked as in the linked pic in the above table when it was built in 1885, a photo from 1953 shows a different appearance.

The diesels used by the railroad was the loco from John Bergman & son and two Motor rail Simplex locos for switching duties. When the line was closed in 1961 the superstructure and engine from the Bergman loco was combined with the chassis from a fireless loco by Jung for 1435mm gauge, used in Stroemsnaasbruk.

The railway had only two passenger cars, both built in Delary. The first one was built around 1884 and was used until it was replaced by the second in 1926. This second car was used until scrapped in 1954.
Freight cars were two axle flatcars, some with sides for transporting peat. Most (approx. 130) of the cars were built at the workshop in Delary. They were built in wood and later in steel. In 1929 was approximately 10 car bought from ASJ (a swedish mfg) and O&K. 1951 was another 20 cars bought from Oedeshoegsverken (another swedish mfg).

Whats left?

Two of the locos are preserved, "Edvard Engestroem" och "August Schmitz". "Karolina" is regauged to 600mm and preserved at Boeda railway in Sweden. Some of the fraight cars are stored in bad condition at OBJ in smaaland. I have planned to "save" these by measuring and make some drawings this summer (-98). If I do they will eventually appear in the drawing pages.

(c)1998 Anders Ostlund. Updated 980419.