ABC Wednesday, F for Flåm Railway, Norway

When we were in Bergen in 2005, we decided to travel to Flåm. First by an ordinary train and we had to change trains in Myrdal and wait there for the Flåm train. We were glad when it arrived for it was cold waiting in the snow.


When I think of the Flåm Railway in Norway,I think of the number 20. It took 20 years to build the railway, it has 20 tunnels and it's 20 kms long.
Travelling in this train we passed waterfalls and the Kjos Fall was especially very spectacular.We stopped there for a while to take photos. There was a woodnymph, dressed in red singing, trying to lure all the male passengers away.;)

The Flåm Railway, which passes through the beautiful, narrow Flåm valley, is regarded as a masterpiece of Norwegian engineering. Work was started in 1924, the railway was finished during the war.
The most time-consuming work was on the tunnels. These were excavated manually. Only two of the twenty tunnels, which have a total length of 6 km, were excavated using machines.
The steep mountainsides were a major challenge, the solution being to build hairpin tunnels in order to equalise the big differences in altitude on the steep mountain. The danger of avalanches and rock falls also constituted a problem. To avoid these hazardous stretches, the line crosses the river and valley three times during the journey, but it does not cross the river on bridges. Instead, the river is led through the mountain in tunnels underneath the railway line.


With thanks to Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC.For more interesting ABC posts click on the logo in the sidebar or Here. This week we are looking for words beginning with F.