To see a larger variant of the pictures click the thumbnail.
Then use the BACK ARROW to get back to this page.

The 40-year history of the 7¼ " railways in Sweden is still alive in Borås

Drawing by Rustan Lange

The history of the model railway hobby is as old as the railway itself. The earliest models of locomotives are the same age as Stephensons The Rocket. As with a lot of mechanical hobbies, these are originated in England.

The scale of our club track is 1:8 and the gauge is 7¼ inches (184 mm). The locos are usually models built the same way as the original full scale engines. Even the models are fired with coal and in every other way treated as the larger locos. The younger generations that encounter a steam loco for the first time, usually think of it as a fun thing. For us older ones this encounter of these small locos are much more. Steam, smoke, sound and smell remind us the train journeys of our childhood. We have not only steam locos in our society, but also electrically and IC engine driven locos as well.

We feel that one of the reasons our establishment is so nice, is that it's not only track, points and train driving but the fact that we have tried to create an environment in both full size and scale with fantasy and reality. We use the traffic in the established rules of a railroad. People with lots of different interests are always of great use to us. This is probably the reason why this hobby fascinates so many of us.

Playing with trains of this size is what we in BMÅS like best and we look forward to many interesting years ahead as Live Steamers.

This is how it started

Rustan had during a long period of time, without success, tried to construct a track somewhere in Sweden. During 1957 he bought the Duchess of Buccleuh from England. An English model engineer during the latter part of the 1940:s started to build the loco but he was forced to abandon the project due to illness when only the chassis, cylinders and tender was constructed. Rustan did the remaining construction in cooperation with British Rail and apprentices at the workshop of Husqvarna Vapenfabrik AB (HVA). The finished loco was given the pet name Hertiginnan (The Duchess).

The famous English model engineer Sir William Stanier constructed the full size prototype. During the trial run with a fully loaded train a speed of 160 kilometres/hour (100 mph) was achieved. Most experts consider this to be one of the most beautiful locos ever built. A loco of this type was sent to U.S.A. and was the first loco all by itself to pull an American standard train over the Rocky Mountains. Today only three remain of the ten full size locos built.

The exhibition Train 62

Drawing by Rustan Lange

Rustan Lange found out that in 1962 a railway exhibition was planned by Statens Järnvägar (SJ = Swedish Rail), as the main line between Gothenburg and Stockholm was celebrating their 100 year jubilee. He contacted the district manager Per Svartling for talks with a view to merge their exhibition and a 7¼" exhibition with a railway track. The apprentice workshops at HVA were involved and manufactured the carriages needed for the exhibition track. The carriages had to be sufficiently strong and stable to carry both adults and children and could therefore not be exactly to scale.

One of the original passenger carriages still in traffic at BMÅS

Two such carriages and two box cars were made. An exact copy of an existing waggon was not built, but SJs open box car type I3 was probably the inspiration for the construction, as Rustan found this to be very beautiful and well-proportioned.

A test track, 100 meter long, was laid out in Husqvarna (probably 1961). The apprentices at HVA did this work in their spare time so that locos and carriages could be tested prior to their baptism of fire during the exhibition.

The Royal Scott

The Royal Scot loco was purchased from England at the beginning of 1962. It had a wheel-pattern of 4-6-0 and was an old veteran, which according to Rustan, had travelled thousands of miles carrying lots of passengers on a commercial 7¼" track. The loco was very much worn out and could barely travel under its own steam. After adjustments and repairs it was used as a reserve loco during the exhibition. This type of loco is one of the most popular amongst railway enthusiasts, and many models of this type have been built over the years.

For the exhibition Tåg 62, on May 10th to July 15th, a 250 meter long oval track was built. The lightest decauville rail available was a portable 600 mm track with a height of 50 mm and a weight of about 4,5 kilogram per meter. The rail was fastened by 5 mm Gunnebo spikes on 50 × 50 × 400 mm impregnated pine sleepers. At one end points were leading into the depot, passing a model of a water tower, as used by SJ, but built to scale. The track continued over a slag pit, and forward to a turntable. Connected to the turntable was a loco shed with space for two steam locos. A specially built miniature Gunnebo wire fence surrounded the station.

Prince Bertil of Sweden in the light-coloured coat,
with Rustan Lange to the left of the loco.

Rustan must have felt very proud when, during the inauguration, he was able to show his railway to Prince Bertil of Sweden and the general manager of SJ, Erik Uppmark. During the duration of the exhibition the Duchess travelled without any problem a distance equivalent of the distance between Gothenburg and Stockholm.

The time of Galtarö and the new track in Hulsingstorp

At the end of the summer 1962, the building of Galtarö Railway was started on a site belonging to a charitable organisation called The first of May-flower Childrens Holiday Camp, located outside the town Stenungsund at the west coast of Sweden. Rustan arranged so that the children could ride on the trains if he could use the site to build the railway. He was able to purchase new rail, made of aluminium by a Swedish company, SAPA. They had an extruding tool with a suitable profile, left over from an earlier order from U.S.A.. The aluminium rail was only used at the station and for the first 50 m of the track. During the summer of 1963, the track was built long enough for the 200 children from the camp to have a ride. It took a whole day to allow them all to have a turn, which they thoroughly enjoyed.

Our present chairman Karl-Gustav Ryberg in his younger days,
to the right, bending over the trolley on the turntable.

In the spring of 1964, Rustan had a trolley made. But the first motor, a 20 cubic centimetres clearing saw motor was not strong enough and a new motor had to be fitted. As this was considerably stronger the trolley could now be fitted with a towing hook and came to be a very useful tool for the gang of navvies. During this period of construction, two open box cars modelled on the type used by Göteborg-Dalarna-Gävle Järnvägar (GDG). The full size cars were purchased from Belgium in 1939. China had originally ordered these cars, but with the invasion by Japan the order was cancelled. The box cars were called China-cars by the staff of SJ.

The Duchess and The Royal Scot.

At the start of the season 1966 The Royal Scot (the reserve loco for the exhibition Tåg 62) was back in action after repairs. Apart from engine overhauls, the loco was given a new boiler, new boiler cladding and a new structure on the tender. It was now an almost new engine suitable for traffic.

From the track at Galtarö

From the summer of 1968, after five years of work, the new 500 meter long railway was ready for use. The traffic was run by steam, usually two engines during the summers of 1968 until 1974, while the camp was open.

During 1975 Rustan moved the depot and the part of the track that was built of aluminium, to a new site at Hulsingstorp outside Husqvarna. The building of Ramsjö Lillesjö Railway (RLJ) had now begun. The whole track was constructed with aluminium rails.

The train left at the Galtarö camp.

A petrol-engine train was left as a compensation and payment to The First of May-flower Camp so that they could continue with their own railway traffic on the remaining track at Galtarö

The plans for a big inauguration of RLJ were conceived in 1978. A loop by Lillesjö halt was completed one year later, and RLJ was then ready for traffic. Rustan, together with his like-minded friends, decided to arrange The Grand Opening of the railway in august 1980. The gang helping him accomplish this was Nils Jansson, Bengt Jansson, Börje Johansson, Gunnar Lindberg, Sten Lorick, Jan Carlsson (now Bragée), Bengt Johansson and Karl-Gustav Ryberg. A vast amount of work now had to be done to be ready for the event in August 23 and 24.

During the final days of work, Rustan tragically died. The committee now had to dismantle the whole railway instead of preparing for a Grand Opening. Before this happened Bengt Jansson had the possibility to test drive his newly built loco Black Five, a model of London Midlands and Scottish Railway Class 5.

Dismantling the railway that took five years to build, took only one day for a couple of men. Track, wagons, trolleys, loco shed, water tower and turntable were donated by Rustans family to his live steam friends, while the Duchess of Buccleuch was put up for sale in England.

The Club track in Borås

One day in 1980, Börje Hedberg had a call from his friend and engine driver Nils Jansson. During their conversation Nils asked Börje if he was interested in the building of a live steam club track in Borås. A lot of experienced model engineers already lived in this part of the country and they would probably be interested. This sounded very tempting and a constituent meeting was called. Eleven interested people accepted the invitation. Among those present were Bengt and Nils Jansson, Jan Carlsson, Gunnar Lindberg and Karl-Gustav Ryberg. They had all previously been engaged in Rustan Langes projects, Karl-Gustav right from the very start at Galtarö so they all had good experience of this hobby. Börje presented two application forms that, thanks to him, had been handed in to the company LM Ericsson and to the City Council of Borås. This was an application for a permission to use a piece of land at Sandlid in Borås. This site was deemed very suitable as it was secluded and had the real Gothenburg Borås track as a border line on one side. Those present at the meeting formed Borås MiniatyrÅngloksSälskap (BMÅS) (The Miniature Steam Locomotive Society of Borås). This was to be the first club of this kind in Sweden.

On the 9th of January 1981 a contract was signed with LM Ericsson and on the 1st March, one with the City Council of Borås. The chairman at the time Gunnar Lindberg and vice chairman Börje Hedberg signed the above contracts. We were now able to transport track and wagons to the site at Borås, and preparations for a miniature railway was under way. With levelling instrument, measuring stick and tape we went to work.

Anders Hässler behind a young live steamer driving the loco Fristedt in Gävle.

Some track and wagons were packed and sent to Gävle to be erected and included in the 125 year celebration of the railway at the Railway Museum. The driving of the small trains was done by members from Borås with the locos Black Five, Royal Scot and the smaller loco Fristedt, owned by Anders Hässler from Stockholm. After the event in Gävle the Royal Scot was sold to England. The new owner, exhibits the loco today (1993) in a glass case at the entrance to Wellington Country Park, Riseley.

After the jubilee in Gävle an exciting time began and we were looking at the future with great enthusiasm.

In 1981 we planned for coming working days, 19 weekends. But these days stretched into working weeks almost all spare-time. A handful of workers spent all their time at the track in sunshine and rain through spring, summer and autumn. We must here recognise that the busy bees Gunnar Lindberg and Bengt Jansson, really showed their true colours. Together with Sten Lorick they managed to procure both an old digger and a dumper as well as repairing these to working condition. Many things were needed such as a storage shed, filling materials, sleepers, tools etc., not to mention ready cash for the purchase of different odds and ends. Luckily one of our members, Gösta Carlsson father of Jan Carlsson, had a great ability to find different sponsors.

We planned to construct the track in 2 — 3 years, but it was not until 1986 that the last spikes could be put in place at the double track over the bridge by the depot. On the last day of May in 1986, Gösta Carlsson and Bengt Jansson, each drove in a golden spike in the track at the viaduct. After five years of hard labour we now had a track of nearly 1 kilometre.

During the Steam Days in August the track had its inauguration with guests from England and Denmark. The club flag, designed by Liselott Mitlöhner, was hoisted for the first time and Kristina Pedersen, daughter of one our Danish guests, cut the blue and yellow ribbon, The track was now officially inaugurated. Before railway service begun, a parade of vehicles, from the smallest trolley to the largest steam engine, was held. In the evening the guests and members were treated to pickled herring and potatoes in the specially erected party tent.

The future of the track and club

BMÅS has since the club started, celebrated its 20th birthday. Thousands of man-hours have been spent to improve, develop and maintain the railway track. Loco shed, turntable, water tower and wagons, which were used for the TÅG 62 exhibition, are still in good repair. We still drive our trains on tracks and points that came from Rustan Lange, but of course some sleepers have been replaced over the years. We were eleven enthusiasts who started BMÅS. We now have 150 members, but the number of really active members have hardly changed at all.

Nobody knows what will happen to the railway in the future, but it still needs a lot of work to be maintained and to keep it as nice and clean as it is at present. For this we need a lot of younger new members in the club. New members that have joined us up till now are usually at the same age as the pioneers. At present we are a few old men young at heart, but interested, willing and still able to do most of the work. The nucleus of the club is all from that time period when we all as children, wanted to be engine drivers. Childrens games always have reflected the times and we know that at present it is computers that are todays favourite pastime. Computers and IT are also part of todays railway and will probably be incorporated in a nostalgic preserved club, such as ours.

We know that we can look forward to many new vehicles on our track. Models are being built in workshops and basements. Some are building miniatures as close to the originals as possible, while others are creating vehicles from odds and ends that are readily available.

The members in BMÅS are both active and supportive. They have taken on the responsibility to develop the idea of a club owned 7¼" track with real railway traffic.

Rustan Lange with his loco

One man, Rustan Lange, with a great idea and a capability to carry out this idea, has made it possible for us at BMÅS to drive steam engines on a real live steam track in Borås. And to be able to use the material from Rustans original construction. Many people, active with trains of this size, have probably been inspired by the enthusiasm that Rustan had for his hobby.

If you are interested in our club please make your wayto our track and speak to any of our members. At the bulletin board we show our activities for the coming year.

Börje Hedberg
Honorary member

Karl-Gustav Ryberg
Chairman