Oslo - Bergen Line cab ride in Winter

[jis]

If anyone ever tells you that electrification is not doable in areas with winters with heavy snowfall and blizzard, point them to this video. It is of a cab ride on a freight train from Bergen to Oslo across the Hardangervidda. In winter during a blazing blizzard it is something else.



The real action is after 1hr 40mins, specially after it passes through Myrdal and ascends to the top of the pass.

One can do a quick trip acroos the plateau and also visit a fjord in a package tour called Norway in a Nutshell. On that tour, one travels to Voss on a regular Oslo - Bergen Regional and then take a bus down to Gundvagen on the fjord. Next is a boat ride on the fjord from Gunvagen to Flom. After a brief break in Flom one takes the famous Flom Line up to Myrdal on the Oslo - Bergen main line with a stop at a waterfall which is crossed by a bridge on the way. From Flom and either returning to Oslo or carrying on to Bergen. It is a day trip from Oslo. The journey down to the fjord can be done either Voss - Gunvagen - Flom - Myrdal or Myrdal - Flom - Gundvagen - Voss, When I was there I did it in the former direction.

 

[jiml]

The engineer who makes these videos used to drive passenger trains but switched to freight about a year ago for more interesting work. She occasionally live-streams her runs on some very obscure routes.

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) filmed the entire route - in late winter or early fall I think - from Bergen to Oslo several years back and broadcast it as "slow tv" in Norway. As I recall it was the most watched program in Norway for the year or something like that. They since did several other of the routes - most notably the Nordland Line north from Trondheim.

They are all available on YouTube and the Bergen Line video can even be downloaded from NRK as a 'raw' file iirc.

Here's a view of Finse, the high point of the line, in 1986. It's not road accessible and is bloody cold in winter...

 

[jis]

Aforementioned Flam Line, though not in the winter, but still spectacular...



It is a spectacular side trip from Myrdal down to the Fjord at Flam. Incidentally, Myrdal has no public road access. For the public it can only be accessed by rail.