#norske jernbanehistorier

[norwegianrailwaystories]

"New year, new chances and new beginnings!" An image I've had in mind for a while. Granfos sure has gotten a new chance and a new beginning, now being owned by the Norwegian Railway Museum after being saved from scrap for the third time. Next year, we will start working on his repairs and fix him up. December 9th this year he set out on his last ever travel… to his forever home and safety. Never again will he face the treath of being scrapped.

Happy New Year, everyone!

[little-red-toyota]

Today, we fetched Granfos from LB (the Lommedal Line) where he has been rotting under a tarp for 22 years, giving him a new home at the Norwegian Railway Museum in Hamar, where we will restore him to his former glory and put his to work alongside Urskog in the park. I went as the museum representative and followed the transport all the way from he was loaded onto the truck at LB until he was unloaded outside the museum workshop in Hamar. Almost every staffmember at the museum showed up to see him! And he seemed to gain quite a few admirers among the female staff who swooned over how pretty he is… 😂 Even now that he looks like hell… Then Vasco and I went to the office to lay some plans for the restoration project which will start next summer. It was just a tad urgent to get him as LB was about to start harvesting him for parts, which would have been a death-sentence… So when we finally got the thumbs up, we wasted no time hiring transport to bring him to safety. This is the third time this locomotive has been saved from scrap… so let's hope this will be his final and forever home now.

[norskejernbanehistorier]

UHB Nr.3 Høland. Hølands (No.6) forgjenger. Det eneste amerikanske loket som noensinne har gått på UHB. Jeg hadde bare et svart-hvitt foto å se etter, så jeg og UHB har gjort en del research for å finne ut av fargene hans, vi fant til slutt et dokument som slo fast at han var “olivengrønn med staffeleringer og detaljer i bladgull og blankpusset messing”. Han ble bygget på Baldwin verket i Philadelphia i 1898. Skrotet i 1925. 

[little-red-toyota]

Remember Granfos?

I am so happy right now!!! 🥳 Just got a call from the Norwegian Railway Museum who informed me that our dear Granfos has been saved from scrap and will arrive at the museum Monday next week! If I get to know when, I will follow the transport and take some photos. It all started because a 9-year old girl wanted to have a peek under the tarp her favorite locomotive was stored under... Later her mom had a drink with someone from NRM, who remembered the article about her in a railway magazine and started asking about Granfos as they needed a narrow gauge diesel at the museum... and the ball started rolling from there.

My daughter has contributed to saving a locomotive from scrap! <3 I will be part of the restoration project, doing the electrical wiring and maybe some cosmetic work.

What a Christmas gift!!

[little-red-toyota]

"Pain will leave you when it's done teaching you"

Illustrations from "Losing someone you love" from Norwegian Railway Stories 1. A story of how to move on after losing a beloved one, in this case a driver (father figure).

It has been 14 years since my own father passed away. The sorrow is still there, but it doesn't hurt as much anymore. I wrote this story based on my own experience of losing someone who meant a lot to me, losing him felt like a wall was removed from our house. I felt everything Setskogen feels in this story and more... But I also learned that time heals, it makes the sharp edges of the sorrow go blunt.

[little-red-toyota]

The Christmas booklet was sent for printing today! :-) That will be my second publication this year! And the fourth in total.

[little-red-toyota]

A new chance in life? Granfos has been stored under a tarp since 2002, when he was sent from UHB to Lommedalsbanen (LB) as UHB no longer needed him and Odda… Sadly LB has a different gauge, and Granfos couldn't be regauged any smaller as he had already been regauged from 1435mm to 750mm. But they didn't want to scrap him, so they stored him instead. Last fall… we visited LB with the railway club and my daughter begged the staff to have a peek under the tarp to see her favorite locomotive… and she was allowed! She was the first person to enter his cab in 21 years… A few weeks ago I was working at the Norwegian Railway Museum and had a few beers with a staffmember there after work. He mentioned that the museum needs a narrow gauge diesel for light work on the line, and he asked me about it since he had seen photos of my daughter in the cab, knowing I had seen the locomotive up close. And then the ball started rolling from there… Today, we went to LB to have a closer look at Granfos, the volunteers there had removed the tarp, cut down some shrubs and even used a leafblower to clean him up a little bit. I was the first to arrive, so I examined the electric wiring closely and was surprised to find it in good condition despite all these years outside. The cables were still intact and there weren't many loose ends and damages. Then the team from the museum arrived and took a closer look at the engine, gearbox and overall condition of the machinery. We were pleasantly surprised to find the locomotive to be in such a condition restoration is highly possible. Now we just need to get the admins at the museum to say yes… 😉 So… maybe after all these years, Granfos will get a new life at the museum at Hamar?

And it all started with a little girl who wanted to lift the tarp to meet her favorite locomotive…

[little-red-toyota]

My fourth publication, and the second of 2024. I am a little bit proud, I admit. :-) My kid will go wild when she wakes up tomorrow and finds these!

[little-red-toyota]

Hold them gently...

Pretty, little beans out of their boxes for a moment. These are the most precious models I have.

Models of the UHB locomotives are super rare and hard to come across. By sheer luck I was offered to buy all three last summer. I am only missing Bjørkelangen to have a complete set (Urskog and Eidsverket were never produced sadly), but I am not as emotionally connected to him as I am to these three. These three are the ones I work with, fire and drive... They mean a lot to me.

Of course, the models being so small, they are not 100% accurate; the striping on Høland and Setskogen isn't right, but you can't get everything right in this tiny scale.

[little-red-toyota]

Always fun to flip through a railway magazine and come across a review of my book. 😅 At least it's a positive one!

[little-red-toyota]

As many of you might know by now, I have started writing a spinoff featuring Granfos as the main character. I was originally going to write small character books for each character, but when I started writing about him I realized his background story couldn't be covered in just a small two-story book… So he gets his own outside the main storyline. I've called this book "Granfos- the locomotive with nine lives" and so far I have finished writing 3 chapters. I am working on this while also working on the illustrations for book 3, so don't worry, book 3 will also come. 😉 I have to say though… I really enjoy writing Odda in the spinoff. They have a strong personality I really enjoy writing and I often have a chuckle over how they push Granfos out of his comfort zone at times. 😂 This is a fun project! As if I wasn't busy enough already... XD

[little-red-toyota]

"I almost lost you...."

I feel this one is fitting now... As we did indeed almost lose Granfos last week if the railway museum hadn't acted as fast as they did when I told them what was happening...

Don't like what you see? Scroll past it.

[norwegianrailwaystories]

Bingsfos is getting some good news. From the story "Drought" (second book). Høland pledges not guilty to vandalism… 😅

[little-red-toyota]

“Can’t they make some at the workshop? They make all sorts of weird stuff!” Bingsfos stated.

“Yeah, they made YOU!” Setskogen just couldn’t resist teasing him.

"Very funny…" Bingsfos stuck out his tongue to her.

(What do you think of their wall art...? 🤓)

Illustration for the story "Drought" (second book).

[little-red-toyota]

The second book is finally in sale!

The challenge isn't writing them... but illustrate them. XD That is really time consuming and is the reason why it takes that long between each book... But here it is!

Kiddo was so stoked when I came home with these today. XD

[little-red-toyota]

I'm not going to give any context… You'll have to read the book, but which of these gets her point across better?