The last depot of Liljeholmen, raized in 1959.
Pics from 1990
The main yard.
View towards the city including the bridge over the sound of Hornsundet.
Liljeholmen.
Switching yard in the city
It is hard to think of any railsite with as much varied history than Liljeholmen in Stockholm.
Once a part of the mainline which after major relocation became small yard serving industries to the 1990.s.
Today it is mostly used as a storage terminal for the new lightrail system built in the city.
The colorphotos (not very good ones) here are dating to the 1990, when the yard was still active as yard, but more less of the indsutries it once served.
Maps & plans
I have so far included earlier era maps, that do not perfectly correspond the images from the 1990.s but they help to to give a general idea of the site as it was before it was changed to the current use.
The shops and yard in 1868.
The shops and yard in 1871.
The shops and yard in 1906.
The shops and yard in early 1930, during the years the roundhouse and the turntable was replaced by a warehouse.
Railroads in Stockholm
The city is much depending on rail transportation even today. And displays a rather rich variation doing so, The main actors are SJ and the services provide by the Mass transport athority SL, which runs suburban lines to suburbs, subway net, trams and now a new light rail system. In north there is a narrow gauge feeder line which was in fact the first electified railroad on this palnet. The narrow gauge lines eventually grew in to a rather impressive system. But the net today is much reduced and new generation of passanger equipment replaced the interesting motley roster that had become badly outdated.
In north east, a suburban tramline connects the island of Lidingö. Earlier the line had a pair small centercab electric switchers for the limited feight service. In east, an interesting operation of electric interurban line connected to the town of Saltsjöbaden, the electric cars pulled the passengers, while steam and later small diesels handled the dockside switching and on light freights.
At north, a 3-feet gauge empire of SRJ, conneted allmost entire northern part of the county, including worlds first electric suburban lines (opened 1896, and steam, later diesel and electric operation to the city of Uppsala and the towns of Norrtälje, Rimbo, to the communities further up in north. Unlike most narrow gauge lines, the line survives to the day as feeder line from the north and north eastern suburbs of Stockholm, albeit that the large network is cut down to the current use as a suburban line of today. At the 1990.s the line replaced its motley roster to mdern EMU.s. The earlier equipment either scrapped, or transfered to the various museum lines through out the country.
The tram, except for one line in the western part of the city and a feeder line the neighbouring town of Lidingö, was closed in 1967. but to day a line that will circle around on the outskirts of the city is being constucted, and the first legs this line are under operation.
One of interesting lines within the city is the freight only from the now vacanted Tomteboda via North Station to the free port of the city.
History!
Liljeholmen is located in southwestern part of Stockholm and the tracks orginate to the very early days of railroad operation in Stockholm. The line started only a couple of kilometers to the centre of the city, where the first station of the city was constructed on former bed of a lake. The station was named Stockholm Södra (stockholm south) and it and the line was opened for service in 1860. The grand opening of the first strech from Stockholm to Tumpa was in 25.th of October 1860. The train was pulled by engine #8, named "Stockholm", and the engine was from the first order of early 2-4-0. s from Beyer, Peacock & Co located in Manchester, England. In the beginning the pace was rather modest and the 2 pairs of scheduled trains, sundays one train only! needed 45 minutes to Tumba.
SJ class B, No. 8 "Stockholm", one of its sisters No3 "Prins August" has been preserved at the national Railroad Museum in Gävle.
The construction work was conducted by troops and as the workforce needed to be increased, a number of prisoners were pressed to work The southern parts of Stockholm is quite rocky and blasting tunnels before dynamite was dangerous business, and the filled embankment just north of Lijeholmen needed rather impressive amount of filling as the bottom of the lake was quite loose. Once the embankment collapsed and sank a couple of sand floats tied to the embankement with it.
A new Central Station was constructed in the late 1890.s and the line from the south was extended through a tunnel and a pair of viaducts and finally the northern and western mainlines were connected.
The embankment at north of Liljeholmen and the tunnel south of Lijeholmen needed a lot of manpower in the 1850.s.
The early depots were rather small one, story buildings and were replaced by more spacious and modern buildings. The buildings were designed by A W Eherensvärd. But the most problems were in cramped yards as the traffic grew in just a few years as the line was gradually extended. The depot housed a post office and telephone switch office as well. the cramped depot was replaced by fairy large brick depot in 1911 which was levelled im 1959 when the street network was remodelled.
the first depot in Liljeholmen.
At Liljehomen the national line orginated its first machine shops. which graually grew as the new equipment were delivered. In 1862 the shops had only 4 engines and 99 cars to handle but only 4 years later the roster had increased to 99 engines and 425 cars. and the shops were expanded within the years to come. In 1867. The hills in the east, were blasted away and the rocks were used to fill a portion of the waterway to extend the property to house new shopbuildings.
the first depot in Liljeholmen.
In 1877 the shops were added by a carshop by additional filling of the bay. Two years later, the engine shops was greatly enlargened and the shops were adequate enough for the next decades to come. The additions in this era was only a number of storage sheds in the east. In 1890 the shops got electric power which replaced the boilers that was wearing out at this date. In 1906 the shops employed 324 employees. The main line was elcrified in 1926, but before that the line to the Central Station was partly relocated beween the South station and the Central station through a new double track tunnel.
The first remodelling occured in 1930 when the mainline was relocated to eat from the south station, The line crossed the waterway on a impressive bridge which was the longest SJ bridge for years. The old line was torn away and the embankement was dugged awy to clear for shipping. The new line was the end of the passenger runs to Liljeholmen and when the shops were relocated to new facilities in Hagalund in 1931, the yard became a local industrial yard with a freight station. Along the yard the former shop buildings were remodelled to warehouses and plants. The catenary came down in 1996, and the yard was closed a few years later. The yard is now used as a storage yard for the Light Rail System in the city.