Laxå and Hallsberg

Today I'm spending my day watching trains around Laxå and Hallsberg.

 Västra Stambanan railway is meeting Värmlandsbanan railway here. The railway from Laxå to Charlottenberg opened already in 1866, but it was not until 1962 that the two railways were connected from the north, making it possible to travel from Stockholm to Karlstad without changing direction in Laxå. Here is a X2 train to Oslo.

 MTR Express X74 train from Göteborg to Stockholm.

 Laxå has today one of the main triangular junctions (wye). To the left the is start of the Värmlandsbanan.

 It is one of such days when rain and sun are replacing each other over and over.

 An X2 train in double traction on the way to Göteborg

 Painted with "The Get Down" Netflix series advertisement.

 I'm a little bit unsure who is supposed to see this advertisement except for some moose, foxes and occasional railway enthusiast like me.

 X40 train on same route as X2 (Stockholm-Göteborg) but with more stops and slower speed.

 Another X40 on the way to Stockholm. This one has 2 sets with 3 coaches each (233 + 233 seats).

 X40 is from Alstom Coradia Duplex family with relatives in France (SNCF Z245000/Z265000).

 X74 is from Stadler Flirt family, and it is a Swedish version of Norwegian NSB Class 74

 MTR Express has also advertisement on its livery, here is "Från station till din destination" ad from Uber. MTR Express has had a cooperation with the taxi company, and was offering their passengers a voucher of 150SEK from/to train stations in Göteborg and Stockholm.

 After starting its services 1,5 years ago, MTR Express is now expected to have 15-20% of the market on this route. Trains has a share of 35%, cars 35%, flights 27%, busses 3% for this route.

 Another double X2, this time to Stockholm. A standard X2 train (five 2nd class and one 1st class coaches) has 333 seats.

 A multiple X2 has a length of 330m. Compared to a 14 coach German ICE1 train set, it is rather short, ICE1 has a length of 410m.

 Hector Rail class 143, which is an old Rc3 from 1970.

 One of most popular freight routes is between Hallsberg and Göteborg harbour.

 Green Cargo Td from 1983 is a rebuilt T44

 This train is coming from Mariestad to Hallsberg, using the non-electrified Kinnekullebanan railway between Gårdsjö and Mariestad.

 Freight train from Göteborg Skandia harbour to Borlänge for Stora Enso paper industry.

 Train is hauled by Rd2 and Rc4 from Green Cargo.

 This type of container is called SECU (Stora Enso Cargo Unit) and it is bigger than a standard container.

 The advantage is that these containers much higher weight reduces the number of containers and therefore reduces handling cost. The drawback is that special solutions are needed.

 A SECU is too big and heavy to be transported on road, and instead they are transported only by railway and ship.

 A post train is next

 Relatively short compared to other freight trains.

 The train is a daily service from Göteborg Sävenäs to Rosersberg post terminal near Arlanda airport.

 I'm now passing by Värmlandsbanan (here is the view towards west).

 Triangular junction, left from Stockholm, right from Göteborg.

 Train is approaching.

 It is an Intercity (replacing X55 "Snabbtåg") on the way to Karlstad.

 Rc6 with AB7, B7C, RB7, and B7B.

 B7 is one of the most common 2nd class open saloon coaches. The coaches were modernised in 2009, B7B was rebuilt from B8, while B7C was rebuilt from B9. RB7 is a rebuilt Bistro coach from former BFS9. There are no seats for dining in this coach, only passenger seats. AB7 is a combined 1st and 2nd class coach, rebuilt from AB9.

 After seeing large scale trains, it is time to see some miniature scale. Each summer there is an daily exhibition in Hallsberg showing the model trains.

 It has been opened since 2014, and the intention is to built Hallsberg station in a small scale.

 Real trains are just outside the window.

 Model of CargoNet class 185.2 (Bombardier Traxx).

 Model of HectorRail class 142

Model of X2

 SJ Regional (Hallsberg-Stockholm) in Hallsberg.

 Service railcar LMV type 2

 After having problems with permission to provide service the private company Blå tåget will be back in service in December. During the summer, it was still possible to take this train, but in August services were suspended. I had a chance to catch one of the last trains.

 Blå tåget is operating services from Stockholm (and Uppsala) to Göteborg since 2011. Old coaches are hauled by a modern Siemens Vectron locomotive (Class 193), hired from Railpool GmbH.

 From December however, Blå tåget trains will be hauled by Hector rail locomotives.

 Northrail owns the locomotive, while Railpool is hiring it.

 Blå tåget has only had one train set, hence only one locomotive. Since May 2015, a 2nd train service has started, branded as "gröna tåget" and hauled by another Vectron (from TMRail).

 Blå tåget has one of most comfortable coaches, A2 from 1963. It is a pure 1st class coach with open saloon.

 Restaurant coach is a old German WRmh coach.

 Other coaches are B1, B36F, B5 etc. Here is B1 coach from 1963. It is a pure 2nd class coach.

 B36F is an old Norwegian coach from 1947 (rebuilt in 1979 and 2007).

 X2 train to Göteborg. One of the few X2 services stops here, most of them makes the route between Katrineholm and Skövde without any stop.