This northern town is a port city on the Gulf of Bothnia where iron ore from mines north of the Arctic Circle is trans-loaded to ships. There’s a traditional passenger station that serves sleeping car trains that originate here for Stockholm and points south; a coach yard and sidings.
Markku Pulkkinen, Matti Mäntyvaara, Asko Räsänen and I arrived in early afternoon. We had lunch in the station restaurant and observed the action.
The combination of low-level platforms, ground-level switching activities to make up trains, and conventional locomotive hauled consists made for some proper old-school railroading! And that’s just the way we like it. Only the Kiruna-Narvik service appeared to be provided by a modern wedge-shaped electric multiple unit.
X-T1 panoramic composite of the second Stockholm sleeper at Luleå.X-T1 photo.Luleå is old school; traditional station building with restaurant, low level platforms, plus loco-hauled sleeping car trains with long consists of bogie carriages. All good. Long may it last.Lumix LX7 photo of a sleeping car.Since my visit in 2002, the local passenger service has been ‘improved’. (The improvement is the wedge-shaped EMU at left.)An empty iron train led by IORE electrics (the most powerful on the planet) rolls through the station on its way north.
The low northern sun provided some great light for photographs, and I made the most of our visit working with my FujiFilm X-T1 and Lumix LX7 to make digital photos.
I was bemused when a young British girl complained to her father when he went to make a photo of the Rc6 electric on a sleeping car train, ‘Daddy, don’t do that! Why do you make a photo of the train?’ Surely this child needs to be sent to camp for re-education! I blame the internet and/or television.
A track-level view of a Stockholm sleeper at Luleå. My FujiFilm X-T1’s flip down screen and heads-up display with level makes it easy to take low angle photos of trains.It’s a long way from Luleå to Stockholm by train.A second empty ore train rolls through Luleå. These big modern Bombardier-built electrics replaced the old Dm3 siderodders, but I’ll forgive them for that—they’re still pretty impressive!An Rc6 works the coach yard as the empty ore train heads northward to beyond the Arctic Circle.Modern high-capacity ore wagons are a contrast with the old six-wheel jennies from a century ago.One of the classics is on display near the station. Luleå respects its heritage.
In late July 2015, I traveled with Markku Pulkkinen, Matti Mäntyvaara and Asko Räsänen from Oulu, Finland to Luleå, Sweden. Among the goals of the trip was to visit the Norrbottens Järnvägsmuseum (Bothnia Railway Museum).
This has a great collection of preserved steam and electric locomotives, plus freight cars, passenger equipments and related displays. I made dozens of images of the historic equipment using my Lumix LX7.
I found it especially interesting to study the vintage electric locomotives up close. My favorites were the Dm3s, which I recall working iron ore trains to Narvik on my 2002 visit. I bought a Dm3 t-shirt at the museum’s gift shop.
View from the platform at Årstaberg Station in suburban Stockholm, Sweden on May 6, 2010.
I visited Stockholm for several days in May 2010. The public transport system is among the best I’ve experienced anywhere. Multimodal connections and unified ticketing made it easy to transfer between suburban rail, metro, light rail and other modes.
I spent several days re-exploring the city. On the evening of May 6, at 7:04 pm (you can tell by the clock), I exposed this view of an inbound SL suburban train Årstaberg station. Located immediately south of the central Stockholm, this station afforded connections to a light rail line,on a lower level.
My Lumix LX-3 was a great tool for photographing Stockholm. Where-ever possible, I tried to include location finders such as station signs, so that I’d be able to caption photos later on. I’ve learned from past experience, that even when I’ve taken detailed notes, it can be difficult to accurately identify photos exposed unfamiliar cities!
Green Cargo Rc2 rolling at Alvjso, Stockholm, Sweden. Exposed digitally with my Lumix LX-3
I was in Stockholm in Early May 2010 to visit a friend. I made some time to re-explore the railways, as it had been a dozen years since my last trip here. On my first afternoon, I noted a container train passing the suburban station at Alvjso just after 5pm. The next day, I was in place at precisely that time to make a photo. My observation and planning paid off, even if the weather didn’t fully cooperate.
Stockholm is a fascinating city with superb public transport and near perfect time-keeping. There’s multimodal connections at most major railway stations, with a well developed network of metro and tram lines.
