RjB

Modell av D/F Hydro, Rjukanbanens jernbaneferje som nå ligger på bunnen av Tinnsjøen. (Foto: Trond Lepperød) Søndag 20. februar 1944 ble Rjukanbanens jernbaneferje D/F «Hydro» senket på Tinnsjøen med 40 passasjerer og et mannskap på sju om bord. 29 personer overlevde forliset, de andre omkom. Les også: Tre menn om fedrenes roller i 1944 Senkingen var den siste i en rekke av aksjoner for å hindre tyskerne i å få tungtvann til sitt uranprosjekt. På alliert hold ville man gjøre alt for å hindre at nazistene seiret i kappløpet om et kjernefysisk våpen. «Reisen med Rjukanbanen: Gjennom krig og fred». I en ny bok, «Reisen med Rjukanbanen - Gjennom krig og fred» (Maana forlag, 2018) fortelles historien om tungtvannsaksjonene fra et nytt perspektiv. Hvordan utspilte dramaet seg for de som som var om bord på ferja? er spørsmålet forfatterne først setter fokus på. Vi får høre om både ofre og overlevende om bord på den dødsdømte ferja, sabotørenes kvaler og deres roller i det stor...

In 1991, after 82 years of service, the last freight train rolled out of Rjukan station. Here the company Norsk Hydro produced artificial fertilizer in the same period of time - and the famous biproduct heavy water. Since then, most of the railway, rolling stock and ferries have been in mothballs and now is preserved as a museum railroad. Two of the railways ferries can still be admired and are vivid reminders of what an entreprise it was to built this industri town in the county of Telemark, Norway. Diesel-powered "Storegut" from 1956 are as good as new, and "Ammonia" from 1929 might be the last steam-powered railway ferry in the world still in running condition. The engines were tested OK in September 2010. "Reisen med Rjukanbanen", 2010. 78 pages. With English captions. ISBN 978-82-993549-4-3 Get the facts straight: A brief overview

What we call the Rjukan Railway today is the 16 kilometers of track from Rjukan to Mæl, yet that comprises only a small part of the original grand and complex system. Back in 1909, this stretch of the railway was known as the Vestfjorddal Line (Vestfjorddalsbanen). At the ferry landing at Mæl (then called Rollag), freight cars from the factories in Rjukan (then known as Saaheim) were loaded onto railway ferries and sailed the length of lake Tinnsjøen, about 30 kilometers. At the opposite landing at Tinnoset a new locomotive would couple on and continue 30 more kilometers on the Tinnos Line (Tinnosbanen) to the town of Notodden on the lake Heddalsvannet, the lower terminus of the railway. There, at least until 1916 when a direct rail route was established, tugboats and barges were waiting dockside to carry the cargo onward over lakes, down rivers and through locks 54 kilometers to salt water ports near the cities of Skien and Porsgrunn. Altogether the route was 130 kilometers long and t...