Photo: Marcel Schütz
On the wide western coast of the Norwegian archipelago Svalbardlies the settlement of Ny-Ålesund. Today, it is an international research hub and one of the northernmost permanently inhabited places on Earth. Yet among modern measuring stations, simple wooden buildings, and endless tundra stands a silent witness to a very different era: the historic locomotive of Ny-Ålesund.
This locomotive tells a story of hard labor, technical challenges, and the human determination to extract resources even under the most extreme conditions. At the beginning of the 20th century, Ny-Ålesund was not a place of science but a remote mining settlement. Coal mining dominated everyday life, and a small railway line was built to transport this valuable resource from the mines to the harbor. At the heart of this system was the locomotive, which pulled heavy coal wagons day after day.
However, its story begins far away from the Arctic. The locomotive was built in 1909 in Berlin by the renowned German manufacturer Borsig, one of the leading producers of steam locomotives in the German Empire at the time. After its completion, it was first used in northern Norway, specifically at Salangsverket in Troms, between Tromsø and the Lofoten Islands, at an industrial facility.
In 1917, the mining company Kings Bay Kull Compani A/S acquired the locomotive. The company had been founded in 1916 to systematically develop coal mining in Ny-Ålesund. On 12 July 1917, the locomotive finally reached its destination. It was transported by ship across the Barents Sea to the Kongsfjord and brought to Ny-Ålesund. There, it became one of the first vehicles of the new industrial railway, transporting coal directly from the mines to the loading facilities at the harbor.
In Ny-Ålesund, the locomotive was given the nickname “Toa.” It was part of a small narrow-gauge railway whose tracks were only a few hundred meters long but of crucial importance to mining operations. Despite icy temperatures and months of winter darkness, the locomotive performed its duties reliably. For the miners, it was more than just a machine – it symbolized work, supply, and connection to the outside world.
However, the history of mining in Ny-Ålesund is marked by tragedy. Several serious mining accidents claimed many lives. Eventually, coal mining was permanently discontinued in 1963. With this, the railway lost its purpose, and the locomotive came to a halt.
Instead of being scrapped or forgotten, the locomotive was preserved. As the only surviving locomotive relic of the Ny-Ålesund railway, it became a monument to this past era. It continues to remind visitors of the men who worked under extreme conditions and the high price paid for the development of this region.
In the 2010s, the locomotive was carefully restored. In 2016, it was transported to mainland Norway for refurbishment before returning to its historic location in Ny-Ålesund in the spring of 2017. Today, it stands quietly by the harbor, surrounded by Arctic scenery and an almost unreal silence.
The Ny-Ålesund locomotive is more than a technical artifact. It is frozen history made of steel, a symbol of human ambition, industrial pioneering, and life at the edge of the inhabited world. Anyone standing before it sees not only a machine, but a piece of the past that continues to tell its story.
PolarJournal – Marcel Schütz