Has there ever been a railroad in Iceland?
The answer is yes! Two of them! And plans for a third.
Iceland's first railway, the Reykjavik Harbour Railway, was built to transport materials to construct the quay and breakwater between the mainland and Örfirisey Island. One section of the 90 cm gauge track ran from Öskjuhlið and the other went to Skólavörðuholt. Two steam locomotives, Pionér and Minör, were purchased from Denmark and transported to Reykjavik. Each was 3 m high, 4·9 m long, and weighed 13 tons. From 1913-1917 the locomotives were quite busy, often making up to 25 trips each day. Even after 1917, the locomotives remained in limited use up to 1928. Interestingly, both locomotives have been preserved and the locomotive Pionér can be seen at the Árbaer open-air museum.
The answer is yes! Two of them! And plans for a third.
Iceland's first railway, the Reykjavik Harbour Railway, was built to transport materials to construct the quay and breakwater between the mainland and Örfirisey Island. One section of the 90 cm gauge track ran from Öskjuhlið and the other went to Skólavörðuholt. Two steam locomotives, Pionér and Minör, were purchased from Denmark and transported to Reykjavik. Each was 3 m high, 4·9 m long, and weighed 13 tons. From 1913-1917 the locomotives were quite busy, often making up to 25 trips each day. Even after 1917, the locomotives remained in limited use up to 1928. Interestingly, both locomotives have been preserved and the locomotive Pionér can be seen at the Árbaer open-air museum.
The Minør, shown here, is on display at the port, still attracting the admiration of
small boys. It was built in 1892 by the Arnold Jung Lokomotivfabrik
in Jugenthal bei Kirchen in Germany and delivered to Iceland
on March 9, 1913 where it puttered around the 12 km of track in the port. Iceland
the probably the only country in the world to have preserved all its steam locomotives.
Note the unusual rails in the picture below.
ICELAND'S second railway is a diesel-powered light railway used to transport workers, equipment, and supplies for the Kárahnjúkar hydropower project. The project harnesses some of the great glacial rivers in the east of Iceland and uses them to generate electric power which will be transmitted to the Fjarðaál aluminium smelter, to be built in the port of Reyðarfjörður on Iceland’s east coast. The six generating units of the Kárahnjúkar project will produce 690 MW.
To aid in the construction, three giant tunnel boring machines (TBMs) drill through solid rock supported by the three railroad trains which trundle back and forth, 24 hours a day, transporting not only people but all the materials necessary to keep the giant drilling machines busy.
In 2004, the construction site was also the location of Iceland's first railway collision. Three workers from the Italian contractor Impregilo were injured slightly when a train ferrying workers to the TBM 1 tunnelling machine ran into another loaded with cement in the Valþjófsstaðarfjall mountain. The trio were taken to the local health centre in Egilsstaðir and treated for their non-serious injuries.
ICELAND'S third railway may be the 50km proposed airport rail
link between the capital Reykjavik and Keflavik airport though this project appears to be on hold.
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