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4rail.net - Reference - Finland - Railway History | |
 Finnish railways history starts in mid 1800's, in the middle of the Russian period of Finland. Finland was a colony of Sweden until 1809, when it became an 'autonomous' region for the Russia. This rule lasted until in 1917 when the independence was declared. The Beginnings In the mid 19th century Finland was very poor and under developed country living out of forestry and farming. Much of the Finnish area of Russia was covered with waterways in early 1800s, as elsewhere in Europe. These channels, lakes and rivers served the transportation of the export and import goods. Much of the imports were forest products. Connecting the southern coast with the inland waterways proved to be a challenge and in 1849 Claes Alfred Stjernvall suggested an investigation on "rail track way" between Turkhauta (near Hämeenlinna in Southern Finland) and Helsinki (capital of Finland on the south coast). The track was intended to be 96 kilometers long with one train either way each day. If necessary, there could be more traffic, with double tracks in the middle to allow trains to pass. For a poor country this plan seemed at first appropriate. As with all railways at the time, the initial comparisons with horse and iron horse operations were "mandatory". Lars von Haartman continued investigations. After numerous discussions the decision to build an iron horse railway between Hämeenlinna and Helsinki was finally reached in 1857. The railway was opened for traffic in January 31st 1862. As planned, the traffic started with one train each way every day except Sundays. Already in October however, the Sunday train was started as well to meet the rising demand.
Next major extensions for the Rail Network were
At first the rolling stock was 4 engines, 12 coaches and a bunch of freight cars, all built in United Kingdom, but already in 1863 8 more coaches were built at the depot. First locomotives built in Finland, of class A5, were completed as late as 1874-1875 because they were manufactured 'when time allowed' from service operations. This method was found iunsatisfactory and the following orders were given to foreign builders such as Sigl, SLM and Hanomag. For rolling stock maintenance the first building was depot right next to the Helsinki railway station. 
Private Railways Surprisingly to the current state there were originally also private railways in Finland. So the general railway investment boom followed by bankruptcies spread all the way to Finland as well. The list of private railways is following:
 In the 20th century, much of the rolling stock was built in Finland, leading to the quite different style of Finnish rolling stock from the eastern and western railways, although the license building was common. Only today the rolling stock is acquired from the manufacturer who has the best offer for the purpose, balancing the quality and the cost.  One of the vintage classes, the much used medium-light switcher class Dv16 of VR-Yhtyma was used in deamnding switching work until 2008 (and the very similar calss Dv15 until 2007). Here seen nose cover opened on the hot summers day outside Holiday Inn building at the Helsinki Main station. Picture by Stanislav Voronin 2006. Licence Building or Buying the Rolling Stock To be added next.  Finnish Railroad Electricification To be added.  To the top of the page
 Finnish reference main page
Sources: Höyryllä Hämeeseen, Pasilan konepaja 1903 - 2003, the web, other sources |
Created for 4rail.net by John McKey. Pictures by Hannu Luukannel, Hannu Peltola, Ilkka Siissalo, Sanna Siissalo, Stanislav Voronin and John McKey.  See also these pages!  Finnish Railroads Main Page, a great place to start browsing this section.  Finnish railroad organizations and railroad operators have their own pages, as well as the largest operator VR-Yhtyma and a newcomer to the field Junakalusto.  While much of the passenger traffic concentrates around the capital Helsinki, you might be interested in the roster pictures of VR-Yhtyma, Junakalusto and the city of Helsinki operator HKL. HKL operates the metro, buses and narrow gauge trams.   You might also like to see the Finnish Rolling Stock Classes Page or the Rolling Stock Heritage Classes Page!   The Finnish Infrastructure Page gives you details on the railroad projects of past, present and the future. Finnish Railroad History Page describes the beginnings of Finnish railroading.  Finnish location is quite challenging for the railroading, the European Union Railroading Page and the Rail Baltica Page shed light to this subject.  Russians in Finland Page brings you some of the exotic Russian models, many still dating back to the Soviet period.  Last but not least, Take a virtual tour with a Finnish heritage locomotive Vr1 / "Chicken". This story was brought to 4rail.net by Hannu Peltola. | |
       
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