Drammen-Randsfjorden · 1857 to today
Built as part of a transport chain
Randsfjordbanen did not try to make water transport disappear. It was designed to meet it, shorten the slowest parts of the journey and carry the districts' goods towards the port and markets at Drammen.
A railway for the river districts
Carl Abraham Pihl surveyed the route and presented his proposal for a railway between Drammen and Randsfjorden in 1858. He argued for a narrow-gauge system that could be built more cheaply and extended more quickly through a country with limited capital and difficult terrain. 07
The economic purpose was direct. The districts along the waterway needed easier access to markets, while Drammen wanted raw materials and traffic for its port and timber-processing businesses. Parliament approved the railway on 11 June 1863. 02 04
Bring the inland districts to Drammen without pretending that every journey began or ended beside the track.
The line opened northward
The railway entered service in stages. Drammen-Vikersund opened on 31 October 1866. The line reached Skjærdalen at Tyristrand on 1 December 1867. On 12 October 1868, the complete narrow-gauge railway to Randsfjord station opened. It was Norway's fifth railway. 03 04 08
Opening in stages made the railway useful before the whole project was finished. From Vikersund, a journey that had depended on slow road transport could continue by train to Drammen in about two hours. The final extension connected Hønefoss, the lower Begna district and the southern end of Randsfjorden to the same system. 06 08
The train met the steamship
Randsfjord station was a transfer point, not simply an end. Steamships carried passengers and goods farther along the lake, while winter traffic crossed the ice. The railway therefore extended far beyond its physical rails as part of a combined transport route into Hadeland and the districts around the lake. 04
A similar principle worked elsewhere. At Hen, passengers and goods could transfer to the steamship route along Begna and Sperillen. At Vikersund, the 1872 Krøderbanen later connected the railway to lake traffic towards Hallingdal. Before Bergensbanen was complete, train, boat and road were designed to work together. 03 08
Timber, ice and a working station
The county archive records timber, lake and river ice, livestock and other goods moving through Randsfjord station. Ice was packed in sawdust to limit melting during the long journey. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the archive reports that as many as eight freight trains could leave the station in a day, and that one exceptional train counted 105 wagons. 04
This traffic created work far beyond the locomotive cab. Station staff handled telegraphy, tickets, shunting, goods, snow and ice from early morning until late evening. Shops and services developed around the traffic route. The railway's value was measured not only in distance saved, but in the businesses and working days it made possible. 04
A railway that grew branches
The original line became the trunk of a wider network. A branch from Hokksund to Kongsberg opened in 1871. Krøderbanen opened from Vikersund to Krøderen in 1872. In 1926, Sperillbanen opened from Hen towards Sperillen. 03
The Krøderen connection became especially important to Hallingdal. In 1908 and 1909, before the final Bergensbanen section between Gulsvik and Hønefoss was ready, through travellers used trains and a lake crossing between Gulsvik, Krøderen and Vikersund. The arrangement was temporary, but it shows how the older network carried the new one before the missing rails were complete. 02 08
Rebuilt for the through railway
Randsfjordbanen opened with Pihl's 1,067-millimetre narrow gauge. Bergensbanen was built to standard gauge, so the older railway and its branches had to be converted. The rebuilding was complete in 1909. 02 03 07
The same year also changed the map north of Hønefoss. The new Roa-Hønefoss connection gave Bergensbanen a route towards Kristiania, while a better-sited station at Jevnaker took traffic from the old terminus at Randsfjord. The conversion made the railway part of a national standard-gauge network, but the new network also weakened the role of its northern end. 02 04
The name stayed while the railway changed
As new lines opened, parts of the original Drammen-Randsfjord railway acquired new operational identities. The Drammen-Hokksund section became part of the route now described as Sørlandsbanen, leaving Hokksund-Hønefoss as today's Randsfjordbanen. North of Hønefoss, passenger traffic ended in 1933, returned during the Second World War and closed for the final time on 26 May 1968. 01 02 04
The last 2.1 kilometres to Randsfjord station were removed in 1984 after the railway had been shortened to Bergermoen. The name now points to a lake the working main line no longer reaches. 02 04
The link to Bergensbanen
The present 53.99-kilometre line follows Drammenselva north from Hokksund, then continues from Vikersund along Tyrifjorden towards Hønefoss. It was electrified in 1959 and remotely controlled from 1974. Before most Bergen passenger trains were routed this way, the track was strengthened with new rails and sleepers to the same main-line standard as Bergensbanen. 01
Since the late 1980s, most Oslo-Bergen passenger trains have run through Drammen and over Randsfjordbanen rather than over Roa. The route is about 23 kilometres longer, but Bane NOR notes that the journey time is approximately the same. Today, Vikersund and Hønefoss are the line's two passenger stops, and the railway also carries part of the freight traffic to and from Bergen. 01 05 06
The railway continues beyond the boundary
Track still survives north of Hønefoss. The Norwegian Railway Directorate describes 15.76 kilometres towards Bergermoen as a shunting area controlled from Hønefoss station, with ordinary freight traffic on roughly ten kilometres. Siding and terminal functions serve timber, wood chips, wagonload traffic and industry at Follum, Begna and Hensmoen. 09
About three kilometres from Hønefoss to the Follum area were electrified in 2018. This surviving freight railway lies beyond the present Hokksund-Hønefoss main line but remains part of Randsfjordbanen's physical and industrial history. 09
The whole line in time
From lake connection to freight railway
Pihl presents the railway
Carl Abraham Pihl completes his proposal for a railway between Drammen and Randsfjorden.
Parliament approves
The railway is authorised on 11 June.
Drammen-Vikersund
The first operating section opens on 31 October.
The railway reaches Tyristrand
Traffic is extended to Skjærdalen on 1 December.
Randsfjordbanen complete
The full narrow-gauge railway opens on 12 October.
A branch to Kongsberg
The first major branch from the railway opens.
Krøderbanen
Vikersund becomes the junction for the railway and lake route towards Hallingdal.
Standard gauge and a new network
Randsfjordbanen is converted while Bergensbanen and the Roa-Hønefoss connection open.
Sperillbanen
A new branch opens from Hen towards Sperillen.
Electric operation
The present Hokksund-Hønefoss section is electrified.
A northern passenger era ends
Passenger traffic north of Hønefoss closes for the final time on 26 May.
Remote control
The present main line becomes remotely controlled.
The old terminus disappears
Track to Randsfjord station is removed after the line is shortened to Bergermoen.
Bergen trains return
Most Oslo-Bergen passenger trains begin using the route through Drammen and Randsfjordbanen.
Electric freight access
The surviving line north from Hønefoss is electrified for about three kilometres to Follum.
Sources
From Drammen towards Randsfjorden
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