The Golden Train: Åndalsnes - Bjorli

Once upon a time, there was a valley covered in snow and ice. Hidden beneath this white blanket were treasures shaped by glaciers over 2.5 million years ago. As the sun warmed and the snow melted, a landscape of high pointed peaks, lush deep valleys, and the most beautiful golden river you can imagine was revealed. Here, trolls lived peaceful lives, sleeping by day, and engaging in harmless mischief by night. Millennia later, humans found their way to this golden valley, and the trolls had to hide inside the mountains and live in secret. This beautiful place is called Romsdalen, and its landscape is our gold. And the Trolls still watch over this golden treasure to this very day…so they say! Welcome aboard “The Golden Train” and this journey along the Rauma Line. The railway line was opened by King Haakon in 1924 after 13 years of impressive construction work through a steep landscape, initially unsuitable for railway construction. It's no wonder that this train route has been voted the most beautiful in Europe by Lonely Planet. This route was also the scene of a spectacular rescue operation during World War II. At great personal risk, Norwegian soldiers did everything to save Norway's gold reserves from the Nazis, an operation known as the "Gold Transport."

The Norwegian author Jo Nesbø has described the landscape here with this quote: "He told about Åndalsnes, a small village in Romsdalen surrounded by high mountains, where it was so beautiful that his mother always said that this was where God started when he created the world, and that He spent so much time on the nature in Romsdalen that the rest of the world had to be made in a hurry to be finished by Sunday." Out the window to the right, you can see two valleys converging. The Rauma Line, which we are on now, goes up Romsdalen, the valley to the left. To the right, you can see into Isterdalen, the entrance up to Trollstigan.

Out the window to the right, you can now see Romsdalshorn, one of the most famous mountains here in Romsdalen. The mountain stands 1550 meters above sea level. Let's go back to a late summer evening in 1828. There was a wedding in the valley, and two of the guests began boasting wildly about how good they were at climbing mountains. They maybe drank a bit tooo much to fortify courage, and suddenly a bet was made: they would be the first to climb the infamous Romsdalshorn. The next morning, they set out, and when they returned late in the evening, they proudly told how they had climbed Romsdalshorn. There were no cameras at the time, so naturally, no one believed them. The feared mountain retained its title as unclimbed. Fifty years later, Danish mountaineer Carl Hall was determined to be the first to climb Romsdalshorn. On his seventh attempt to reach the top, he finally succeeded. But as he looked over the edge, he could see with his own eyes the cairn that the two local boys had erected fifty years earlier. Carl Hall confirmed the earlier ascent, and for his honesty, he was rewarded with Norway's most famous second ascent, and the route he climbed was named "Hall's Gully."

To the right, the massive Trollveggen begins to show. Trollveggen is Northern Europe's highest vertical rock face. Trollveggen was first conquered by climbers in 1965, when a Norwegian and an English climbing team via separate routes reached the top within a day of each other. The Norwegian team came first. Since then, many have tried to climb Trollveggen, but it is very dangerous. Since 1966, a total of 19 people have lost their lives in Trollveggen, 10 in climbing accidents and 9 in BASE jumping accidents. There have been countless rescue operations, and with a vertical wall as a starting point, these are very difficult to carry out and put the rescue teams in risky situations. Today, BASE jumping in Trollveggen is illegal.

To the left, you can now see up to the massive Romsdalshorn, and soon we will also pass Trollveggen station, also on this side. On the right side, you can see Trollveggen itself.

Until the early 1800s, the people of Romsdalen made their living from forestry, agriculture, and fishing. In the mid-1800s, the area began to attract foreign and wealthy travellers in earnest. The tourists created a demand for transport, food, and lodging, providing opportunities for the people of Romsdalen to make a living from this tourist income. Carriage traffic became profitable as travelers paid good money to be transported by horse, and later by car, up the valley to admire the nature and the beautiful waterfalls. On the left side, across the river, you can see one of the many coach stations that were established at this time in Romsdalen. At Horgheim coach station, guests could buy food; get rested horses, and a warm bed to sleep in before continuing their journey up or down Romsdalen.

The construction of the Rauma Line took 14.5 million working hours, and at its peak, 617 men, or navvies as they were called, were working on the project. They worked 10-hour shifts in summer and 9-hour shifts in winter. The Rauma Line had a budget of 8.5 million but went significantly over budget, ending up costing 49.1 million kroner, an enormous sum at the time. The construction of the Rauma Line triggered a flow of migrants from large parts of the country, and Romsdalen saw a population increase of 52% during the construction period. Many settled and started families, and many descendants still live in the area today.

The large boulders you see scattered throughout the valley indicate that the valley has a dramatic past. With its high and steep mountain sides, Romsdalen is very prone to landslides, and small and large slides occur here from time to time. Over the years, several farms in the valley have had to move due to the danger of slides or damage caused by them. In April 1858, a major snow avalanche took several lives and left farms and several houses in ruins. Further up the valley, houses were built with escape routes underground in case of landslides.

The Rauma Line is named after the clear, green river that winds its way down the valley. The Rauma River is one of the region's largest rivers, with a length of 64 km. It is known for its salmon population and has attracted fishermen from near and far for generations. It is said that English sports fishermen were in Rauma as early as 1832. The local farmers thought it was pure magic when the sports fishermen could catch salmon with such thin fishing rods and hooks. Traditional fishing equipment, such as nets, required much work and yielded little catch. When the farmers adopted the Englishmen's fishing method, they could suddenly catch over 100 salmon per day. After the new fishing method revolutionized fishing, there was plenty of fish in all households in Romsdalen. It ended with the maids refusing to eat salmon more than twice a week, which they had written into their employment contracts. Salmon fishing marked the beginning of tourism in Romsdalen and was one of the main elements of tourism in this area for a long time. In 1980, a salmon parasite was detected, and after a 40-year battle against the parasite, the Rauma River was finally declared parasite-free in 2019. The dream of a new golden age for the Rauma River is alive again!

To the right, you will soon see the beautiful Verma Waterfall.

We are now approaching Kylling Bridge. Kylling Bridge was opened in 1924 and stands 59 meters above the ground. The bridge is one of Norway's highest railway bridges. To build it, a suspension rope bridge was hung from one side of the valley to the other, but it was only capable of supporting the weight of two men with tools at a time. The size of the bridge and the craftsmanship it represents, have made it one of Norway's most famous and photographed stone bridges. The bridge is built with handcrafted stones, each of which had to be fitted to the bridge construction. Kylling Bridge has been used in the filming of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," and more recently in "Mission Impossible." We recommend you enjoy the fantastic view – on both sides of the bridge.

The attentive will now see that the train has made a U-turn. Verma Waterfall is now on the left side, on the other side of the valley. In the pocket in front of you, there is a map of the Stavem Switchback Tunnel, which you can now take out. Due to the steep terrain, it was not possible for the Rauma Line to follow the road down in the valley. To gain altitude, the railway had to be built in a double loop,like a giant corkscrew with two switchback tunnels inside the mountain. We have just passed through the first one and are now on our way to the longer Stavem tunnel.

This switchback tunnel is 1340 meters long, and over this kilometer, the train makes a 180-degree turn. Creating a horseshoe-shaped switchback tunnel in the 1920’s was an incredible feat of engineering. The workers started by digging holes at both ends, and it had to be dug within a precise margin of error to ensure the ends met in the middle of the mountain. All calculations were done with pen and paper, and it took nine years to build the tunnel. There is a local legend that says when it was close to breakthrough at the midpoint in the mountain, that the engineer got so nervous that he took his own life. But when the breakthrough came, the deviation was only a few centimeters. By comparison, similar tunnels can be built today with considerably larger deviations, even with today’s modern technology.

Out the window to the right, you see Verma Waterfall for the third time. So, if you haven't noticed it by now, you might as well give up.

Romsdalen is a classic example of Western Norway's fjord landscape where over thousands of years, a deep fjord gradually turns into a narrow U-shaped valley. The area also provides examples of alpine landforms. High up in the lower part of the valley, you can see pointed peaks and sharp ridges. The valleys, mountains and ridges were all shaped by glaciers and ice streams that started to melt out here into the fjords around 11,000 years ago. Further up Romsdalen, the landscape changes character. The valley becomes less U-shaped and more V-shaped, with even more waterfalls and small canyons. And as we now approach Bjorli, the landscape changes again and flattens out in a plateau area. Here, there are rounded gentle valleys and mountain tops, and in the high mountains, there are many small lakes and tarns. Åndalsnes has a typical coastal climate, with mild temperatures from the Gulf Stream, but also with more wind and changing weather. Bjorli has an inland climate, which provides colder weather and longer and more stable winters.

On April 9, 1940, World War II began in Norway. The first thing the Nazis were after was Norway's gold reserves. They consisted of 50 tons of gold that had to be transported to safety. The code name for the gold reserves was "The Heavy Baggage." The gold was first transported by trucks from Norges Bank in Oslo and then onwards to Lillehammer, where it was then loaded onto the train to try to get all the gold safely onto a boat at Åndalsnes, at the end of the railway line. All the gold was transported by train on the Rauma Line, on exactly the train route you are experiencing now.

Bjorli is a small mountain village with one of the country's most snow-safe ski resorts, and is a playground for everyone who loves snow and ski activities. Up on the mountainside to the left, you will soon see the ski lift, and surrounding the lift, there are many cabin villages. There are almost twice as many residents here in the winter season as at other times of the year. In summer, you can experience nature up close from a bicycle or on hikes deep into the mountains. Tourists found their way to Bjorli early on. In 1925-1927, a restaurant was built with space for 700 people, intended for cruise passengers from Åndalsnes. Here, they were served traditional Norwegian food. During "Operation Heavy Baggage" on the Rauma Line in 1940, the restaurant was unfortunately hit by a bomb and burned down. It was never rebuilt. In Bjorli, you can still see the foundation of the building that once stood there next to the station building. Inside the station building on the left side, there is a small exhibition with items from the Gold Transport operation in 1940.