Treungenbanen

Treungenbanen
250px
Arendal Station, the terminus of the line until 1935
Info
Type	Railway
Status	Abandoned
Start station	Arendal Nelaug (after 1935)
End station	Treungen
No. of stations	17
Operation
Opened	1908 (to Froland) 1913 (to Treungen)
Closed	1967
Owner	Norges Statsbaner
Operator(s)	Norges Statsbaner
Character	Passenger/Ore freight
Technical
Line length	92 km
No. of tracks	1
Gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8½ in)
Electrified	No

Treungenbanen was a Norwegian railway line between Arendal via Nelaug to Treungen. The lower section of the line, Arendalsbanen, is still in use as a branch line of Sørlandsbanen. The upper section of the line was closed in 1967.

History

Treungenbanen was planned and built by NSB as a local railway that was going to connect Arendal with an important part of the cities surroundings up the river Nidelva. The line was first opened to Froland in 1908. In 1910 the line was extended to Åmli and by 1913 the line had reached Treungen. Further expansions to Fyresdal were discussed. Treungenbanen had a branch line from Rise Station to Grimstad. This line was buildt as a private railway, but was later taken over by NSB and operated as Grimstadbanen. Lumber and ore transport was one of the main activities for these railways, of course in addition to passenger transport. Both Treungenbanen and Grimstadbanen were built in narrow gauge (1067 mm), but part of is was from the beginning profiled for standard gauge.

Sørlandsbanen reached Nelaug in 1935, and Treungenbanen became split into branch lines. As a temporary solution, Sørlandsbanen terminated in Arendal, and because of this Arendal - Nelaug was upgraded to standard gauge. On November 9 1935 the first train went from Oslo V with among others King Haakon VII, Crown Prince Olav and Prime Minister Johan Nygaardsvold. At Nelaug there was locomotive change and a large ceremony in Arendal. For a three year period Arendal was the largest transportation hub in Southern Norway, with travelers from the west changing from steam ship to railway if they wanted quick travel east to the capital. Neither before nor later has Arendal Station has such traffic. Also Grimstadbanen was converted to standard gauge.

In 1946 the section of Treungenbane north of Nelaug was rebuilt to standard gauge. Søftestad Mine was the lines largest customer, and there were multiple trains from the mine to Arendal each week. The ore was then exported to European industry, primarily in Germany. Some years the export was up to 30 - 40,000 tonnes ore with the line. But in 1965 the mine ceased operations, and in 1967 the Norwegian legislature, Stortinget, decided to close the line between Nelaug and Treungen the same autome. The railway was to be replaced with a better road from Åmli to Nissedal in addition to a bus route from Arendal to Western Telemark. In 1969 NSB started removing the track, and most of the line is now a hiking trail. Vest-Telemark Billag has since operated a bus route from Arendal to Seljord in Telemark.

Stations

• Arendal
• Bråstad
• Rise
• Blakstad
• Froland
• Bøylestad
• Bøylefoss
• Flaten
• Nelaug(no station until 1935)
• Simonstad
• Vallekilen (no station)
• Åmli
• Seljås (no station)
• Sandås (no station)
• Øy (no station)
• Tjønnefoss
• Treungen(called Tveitsund until 1926)

Reference

• Bjerke, Thor and Tovås, Ove (1989) Togbytte på Nelaug Norsk jernbaneklubb ISBN 82-90286-10-4