Sustainability work
Every choice makes a difference. At the Swedish Railway Museum, we work systematically with environmental concerns and sustainability. The Swedish Railway Museum has been environmentally certified according to ISO14001 since 2020.
Waste sorting
Waste sorting stations are located in several places within the museum area for the sorting of food waste, paper, plastic, metal, clear glass, coloured glass and residual waste. The waste sorting stations can be found indoors near the restaurant and outdoors on the restaurant's outdoor terrace, by track 2 and next to the “Kalasvagnen” party carriage.
Sustainable shop
As you step through the entrance, you will find a small shop with a carefully selected range of sustainable products. Everything in the shop is related to railways and the Swedish Railway Museum. Some products can only be found in the shop. In the summer, there is a small secondary shop in the Train Hall vehicle storage facility that sells books, ice cream and second-hand products. Whatever product you choose, you can be sure that it has been produced in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner. Please do not hesitate to ask us if you would like to know more about our products.
Sustainability and train traffic
The Swedish Railway Museum operates historic trains, around 90 percent of which are pulled by electric locomotives.
Steam locomotives and coal
The museum’s steam locomotives are built to be fuelled by coal. At times, oil, diesel, peat, peat powder and wood have also been used. The coal that is most suitable for our locomotives is known as bituminous coal. This type of coal contains a certain amount of gases that enable it to burn properly and with the best output. When coal is burned, it releases carbon dioxide, sulphur oxides and nitrogen oxides. One tonne of coal burned emits 2.54 tonnes of carbon dioxide. When a steam locomotive is in operation, you can see smoke coming out of the chimney. The smoke is mostly the white water vapour consumed by the steam engine. What may turn the water vapour grey are the flue gases generated when the coal is burned.
Diesel-powered locomotives and railcars
Several of the museum’s vehicles built from the 1950s to the 1980s have diesel engines. These are light shunters (small locomotives) used for shunting in Gävle, railbuses and larger locomotives used to pull Vildmarkståget (the Wilderness Train) and the like.
What is the Swedish Railway Museum doing to reduce emissions?
Among other efforts, we use special briquettes for our steam locomotives, in which a proportion of the coal is replaced with crushed olive kernels. This fuel works well when operating locally in Gävle or when exhibiting locomotives. At this time, there is no solid fuel that can completely replace bituminous coal in normal operations out on the line. Birch and beech wood can also be used for local operation after certain adaptations.
The Swedish Railway Museum owns three locomotives built to run on oil/diesel. We plan to test operating these using pine oil mixed with Ecopar Bio 100. If this mixture proves successful, we will have locomotives powered by fossil-free fuel that can handle normal operations. We have also purchased an electric preheater for our steam locomotives. This makes it possible to heat up the water in the boiler without needing to have a fire going, which reduces fuel consumption when starting up the steam locomotive. As regards our diesel-powered vehicles, we have been operating our light shunters on the fossil-free fuel Ecopar Bio 100 for a few years now, and will also be operating our railbuses on this fuel beginning in the summer of 2024.
One of our long-term goals is to work with the Swedish Transport Administration to electrify a track in the railway yard at the Train Hall. This will enable us to use electric museum vehicles to provide transport between the museum and the Train Hall.
Comparison of carbon dioxide emissions
Steam locomotive
A type B steam train travelling at 180 km between Stockholm and Gävle burns about 22 kg/minute. This equates to a total of 3 tonnes of coal, emitting 7.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide. If the train has 400 passengers, that is 18 kg per passenger, or 106 grams of carbon dioxide per passenger per kilometre.
Passenger car
A mid-size diesel car emits 167 grams of carbon dioxide per vehicle kilometre. If we take an average of three people per car, this equates to 55 grams per passenger kilometre (source: Klimatsmart, mode of transport calculation)
Finland ferry
226 grams of carbon dioxide per passenger kilometre (source: Klimatsmart, mode of transport calculation)
Charter flight
118 grams of carbon dioxide per passenger kilometre (source: Klimatsmart, mode of transport calculation)