Rail­way loco­mo­ti­ve from Ny Åle­sund under res­to­ra­ti­on

The famous rail­way loco­mo­ti­ve from Ny Åle­sund is one of Spitsbergen’s most fre­quent­ly pho­to­gra­phed attrac­tions. No sur­pri­se, as the this inte­res­t­ing bit of local histo­ry is pic­tures­que­ly pla­ced with moun­ta­ins and gla­ciers in the back­ground and next to a road whe­re thou­sands of crui­se ship tou­rists are wal­king each sum­mer.

Time and wea­ther have, howe­ver, been nag­ging con­stant­ly, threa­tening to des­troy this famous bit of machi­nery fore­ver. To pre­vent this, it is now in Nor­way for res­to­ra­ti­on. In Janu­ary, it went from Ny Åle­sund to Trom­sø on a ship and then from the­re on the road through Swe­den to Sørum­sand near Oslo. The­re, it will be taken care of by rail­way enthu­si­asts who have built up expe­ri­ence and repu­ta­ti­on with other his­to­ri­cal rail­way pro­jects. It is esti­ma­ted that the Ny Åle­sund loco­mo­ti­ve will need 300 work hours and 500.000 NOK (near 40.000 Euro) to get back to shape. After res­to­ra­ti­on is com­ple­ted, it will be be trans­fer­red back home to Ny Åle­sund. It is uncer­tain when this can be expec­ted. May­be tou­rists will see the famous coal train in Ny Åle­sund wit­hout the loco­mo­ti­ve this sum­mer.

The loco­mo­ti­ve is 107 years old and 8 tons hea­vy. It came to Ny Åle­sund in 1917 and was used for coal trans­por­ta­ti­on from the mine to the har­bour into the 1950s. It was res­to­red once on loca­ti­on in 1982. Plan­ning for the cur­rent res­to­ra­ti­on pro­ject star­ted 3 years ago.

-sizrce: NRK

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