2-913-823 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Norwegian Trunk Railway - Eisvold [Eidsvoll] Station, 1854. 'The line is forty-two miles in...length, connecting the capital Christiania with the Mjosen [Mjøsa] Lake, which...by means of steamers...has brought the most populous...districts in connection with the coast; from which they have hitherto, in consequence of the difficulty of internal communication, been...excluded...What first strikes the traveller on viewing the mountainous character of the ground, is the impracticability of constructing a railway...the utmost skill has been required to overcome the difficulties, while the curves and gradients that had to be adopted, prove that these were not few...the engines - which were ...designed by Mr. Robert Stephenson, who planned the line (executed under Mr. Bidder), [and] built by his firm at Newcastle-on-Tyne - had to be specially adapted to those heavy gradients...'.From "Illustrated London News", 1854.