Exhibition hall Festen at Swedish Railway Museum in Gävle.
Photo: Swedish Railway Museum/SMTM. CC-BY

Celebration

Welcome to the opening ceremony! The feast is laid out, the mayor has his speech ready, and the magnificent steam locomotive Prins August is in place. Through sound and video, visitors are introduced to how people experienced the time when the railway came to Sweden.

A group of people are standing in front of a big steam locomotive in a exhibition hall Photo: Lovisa Brämming/Järnvägsmuseet CC-BY

Inauguration of the railway

In 1854, the Swedish Parliament decided that the state should build mainline railways. The first stretch to be opened to public traffic and steam locomotives in Sweden are the private railways between Örebro and Nora in June 1856.