Krøderbanen

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Info
Krøderbanen
Type	Railway
Status	Heritage
Start station	Vikersund
End station	Krøderen
No. of stations	5
Operation
Opened	1872
Closed	1985
Owner
Operator(s)	Norsk Jernbaneklubb
Technical
Line length	26
No. of tracks	1
Gauge	1435 mm (4 ft 8½ in)
Electrified	No

Krøderbanen or Krøder Railway is a 26 km railway from Vikersund to Krøderen in Buskerud, Norway. The construction was started in 1870 and the line opened in 1872. The railway was operated by Norges Statsbaner (NSB) until 1985 when operations were discontinued. Today it is operated as a heritage railway.

The heritage railway operates steam trains May through October, operated as a cooperation between Stiftelsen Krøderbanen and Norsk Jernbaneklubb. In addition to the terminus stations of Krøderen and Vikersund, there are stations at Snarum, Sysle and Kløftefoss.

[edit] History

The railway was build with narrow gauge (1067 mm), but was rebuildt in 1909 to standard gauge (1435 mm). The main activity on the railway was lumber transport, effetively financing the rail. There was a lot of traffic on the rail when the strech Voss - Gulsvik on Bergensbanen was opened on June 10, 1908, but this traffic dissapeared when the strech Hønefoss - Oslo opened a year later.

The passenger service on the line was closed in 1958, and in 1985 the feight traffic also was discontinued. Two years later the Parliament decided to keep the railway and transform it to a heritage railway and to create a museam at Krøderen. Krøderen Station is now preserved.

At Vikersund there is connection with Randsfjordbanen while there was a steam ship to Gulsvik from the station at Krøderen. This voyage took 2 1/2 hours with D/S Haakon Adelsten (from 1861, Krøderen and Norefjeld. The last steam ship departed in 1925.