Uusi junankuljetusmetoodi

valtionrautateiden ensimmäiseen sähköveturihankintaan johtaneista teknillisistä ja poliittisista tekijöistä

Authors

• Teppo Moilanen

Abstract

"A new method for moving trains": The technological and political factors behind the first purchase of an electrical locomotive for the State Railways

The article concerns the electrification process of Finnish railways, and particularly the technological and political background of commissioning electrical locomotives. The research is based mainly on professional journals, newspapers, and parliamentary papers, as well as minutes from the meetings of trade unions and political parties.

Several studies about electrification were commissioned and conducted over the twentieth century. Early on, these studies were intrinsically linked with developing Finnish electricity production. There had been a wide consensus over producing rolling stock domestically. Locomotive factories adopted foreign methods, and developed their own products alongside licensed production. Valmet Oy and Strömberg Oy designed an electric locomotive that was, however, never produced. After intensive discussion, the locomotives were commissioned from the Soviet Union in 1970.

Realising the plans took a long time. However, there were benefits to being a relative latecomer into electric railways: the adopted system had proved itself both economically and technologically the most viable, and it remains in use practically unchanged. It was argued that commissioning a Finnish locomotive would help develop a new domestic industry with a chance to export. Finnish electric locomotives and underground trains were high quality, but exporting rolling stock would have been difficult; Valmet was not equipped for extensive production. In the late 1960s, when the economy was weak, the metal industry expected commissions. These could most readily be obtained through bilateral trade with the Soviet Union.