HVESTA

STEAM-POWER

The history behind steam-power includes names as Heron, von Guericke, Papin, Calley, Triewald, Newcomen, Smeaton, Polsunov, Watt, Trevithick, Mallet and Schmidh. Plus of course many others, known or unknown.

Initially engines were used to pump water, often in mains. Cylinders was a problem. The method to bore them, was the same used for canons. Seals of leather or even water were added. Files and chisels used to improve the surface. Not good enough for piston-engines. A drilling-machine made by John Smeaton inproved the steam-engines capacity by 50%. Still there was a long way to go.

First real locomotive, running on rail, was build in 1804 by Trevithick. It was though to heavy, lacked suspension, and wornout the rail in a fast pace. In 1829 at Rainhill (England), was the famous locomotive-competition held. Ericssons Novelty had probably the highest potential, but broke down. The victorious Rocket (Stephenson) reached almost 60 km/h. In the decade after was railroads on the marsch. Several countries got their first.

SWEDEN

The first indigenous built locomotive was Förstlingen in 1847. It was followed by Fryckstad and Norberg, all made at Munktells verkstäder. Förstlingen had teething troubles, and was probably not in service before 1853. It exist today as a functional replica. In 1856 was a second-hand engine called Norden bought. It is belived to be the oldest that has existed in Sweden.

In this year started railway-traffic by schedule. Within this decade came also a decision to make the main lines national, still keeping the smaller open for companies. This rule was somewhat modified into the 1870-s. The big international crisis for the railroad (1878-79), forced the private companies to seek help from the government. In the end came the national railway company (SJ) to be the dominant one.

From the 1920-s came the main lines to be electrified rather quickly. Sweden had a great capacity in hydro-electric power. In 1942 could you travel from the far north to the far south, all the way with electricity. This over 2000 km. At about this time, was the total length of the Swedish railways at its peak.

HVETLANDA 3D

Vetlanda (Småland,Sweden), was Hvetlanda before the spelling-reform in 1906. In terms of railroads, you can call it backwoods. To connect Vetlanda with the southern main line, the railway to Sävsjö was opened in 1884. The station was probably built to this occasion. Later was the track to Nässjö added. Still used to day. Nässjö being, then and now, a major junction.

The first local steamengine was ordered from Motala verkstad in 1884. The name became simply Hvetlanda. It was used here until 1911. After that it came to work at limestone quarries. It was scrapped in 1955.

This 3D-graphics intend to show the station and the engine Hvetlanda, in about 1900. The colouration of the model are based on some old photos, not precise. The door and the windows on the lower extention, are guesswork. The photos that I have seen from that angle are from 1960-s. The station was then rather modified. It was demolished in 1965. Its successors are not much to write about.

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