The White Falcon - 07.12.1973, Side 8

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grams . RAdm S. M. Cooley Jr
It’s
your
business

Mark Twain once said, "I
gratified to be able to an
promptly, and I did. I said
didn't know." This may not be a
good answer for all occasions,
but it is a good reply when peo-
ple ask you sensitive information
concerning your duties. Guard
against loose talk. Protect sen-
sitive information.
Disclosure of classified in-
formation is punishable by a
$10,000 fine, imprisonment up to
10 years or both.
r
A Short History of the Icelandic National Railways
Most people know that Iceland is one of the
few, if not the only, modem Western nations with
no railways. This is the story of what should have
happened and didn't.
Initially, the question of railroads in Iceland
was brought up in an unusual manner. A member of
Parliament, Valtyr Gudmundsson, after having sug-
gested consideration of the matter in the Althing
and receiving little attention, established a mag-
azine. In order to get and hold the Icelanders'
attention, it dealt primarily with literary crit-
icism and intellectual matters. Bait aside, the
true nature of its mission was clearly indicated
by its name, "Eimreidin," meaning "The Locomo-
tive." Considerable space was given to arguments
about the value of a railroad to Iceland.
The magazine began in 1895, and continues to
the present day as a literary periodical. The idea
was blocked by one thing—Valtyr's intentions
were for a railroad (or system) that the Iceland-
ers would build for themselves, for their own
benefit. Unfortunately, in the years that Iceland
was still a colony, capital investment was almost
non-existent.
The next nibble at the railroad line was of
foreign origin. A British company which operated
a sulfur mine near the north coast considered a
six-mile railway to the port of Husavik. The pro-
ject was based on some rather fanciful prospec-
ting—the supposed discovery of lead ore and the
wild rumor of gold "in them thar" volcanic hills.
The railroad turned out to be as real as the gold
mine.
Since Iceland's preoccupation has been with the
sea, it seems quite fitting that maritime naviga-
tion was the boon that finally made Iceland's
railroad a reality.
In 1912, the Icelandic government signed a con-
tract with a Danish firm for the building of a
breakwater and harbor in Reykjavik. Up until that
time, Reykjavik was a rather poor natural harbor—
in fact, cargo from larger ships had to be taken
ashore in lighters. More than once, storms forced
ships to sail around the Reykjavik peninsula to
the naturally protected harbor at Hafnarfjordur
for protection.
The Danish firm determined that a great deal oi
fill would have to be moved, and decided that a
railroad would be the most suitable means. As a
result, a narrow-guage railroad was laid from the
harbor site to Oskuhlid, the hill now bearing the
hot water tanks. The tiny four-wheeled locomotive
arrived in Reykjavik by ship on April 17, 1913,
and the railroad was officially taken into use.
The inaugural trip was celebrated in grand
style and heralded as the beginning of a new era
in Iceland—brass bands played and hundreds of
people were carried over the two-mile lengtn of
line. Of course, a contractor's railroad has lit-
tle use for passenger cars, so the throngs of cur-
ious Icelanders rode in the little four-wheeled
dump cars.
Progress and danger
Not all was sweetnesi and light, however, and
Iceland achieved the status of full-scale railroad
nation about a month later when the first accident
occurred. Sharing a ride with a load of gravel,
a girl attempted to get down from one of the dump
cars while the train was moving; she slipped, fell
beneath the wheels and suffered a broken foot.
Such are the dangers of progress.
When the harbor project was completed in the
fall of 1917, the railroad was left to stand. The
ensuing years brought various ideas for extension
of the short track. One of the serious proposals
called for an extension of the line to connect
with Keflavik. A city plan map drawn in 1927
clearly shows the location of the railroad station
and engine facilities, near the present site of
Austnrbaejarbio. The high cost of building a
track across the lava of Reykjanes thwarted the
plans.
The last gasp of railroad planning in Iceland
was also the most grandiose. A foreign investment
group announced in 1927 that they planned a gigan-
tic generating plant on the Thjorsa River. The
company's master plans called for 70-80 miles of
railroad network and a large manufacturing com-
plex. The eight-million Kronur project never ma-
terialized.
Iceland's little wooden railroad cars finally
rottea and the rusty rails were ripped up for
scrap iron. All that remains of four decades of
dreams is one small locomotive, sitting desolate
and rusted in the museum at Arbaer.
Iceland#
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