Dansk:
De første planer om en jernbane tværs over Fyn, kom frem på et møde
i Åbenrå 1 1844. I første omgang blev planerne sat i bero, da hele
projektet var afhængig af fuldførelse af jernbanen på Sjælland. Den
10. marts 1861 blev der vedtaget en lov om anlæggelse af en
jernbane over Fyn. Regeringen lavede en kontrakt med det Engelske
firma Peto, Brassey & Betts. Engelske teknikere stod for
bygningen af strækningen, assisteret af lokal arbejdskraft - de
såkaldte banebørster. Det kneb med at skaffe dansk arbejdskraft
nok, så svenske arbejdere blev hentet hertil. Banebørsterne var et
råt folkefærd, der havde tradition for at føre et hårdt liv med
drikfældighed og slagsmål. De var et nødvendigt onde der blev tålt,
men så heller ikke mere. Den nye jernbane blev indviet den 7.
september 1865, og fik navnet "Dronning Lovises jernbane", da den
blev indviet på Dronningen 48 års fødselsdag. Hvad mon den var
kommet til at hedde, havde den blevet indviet dagen efter?
De gamle jernbanearbejdere har fortalt følgende: Man havde ikke på
det tidspunkt teknikken til at hamre spunsvægge i, som man ville
have gjort i dag, da man anlagde jernbanen gennem mosen. Teknikken
gik ud på at der blev fyldt skærver ud i mosen. Et spor blev lagt
ud ovenpå, så toget med tipvognene kunne komme længere ud.
Efterhånden som skærverne sank ned i den bløde mosejord, fyldte man
efter og hævede sporet. Det var en farlig proces, da der var risiko
for at søjlen af sten skulle kæntre, indtil den havde nået fast
bund i bunden af mosen. Og det var lige netop hvad der skete. Toget
og tipvognene vippede af sporet, og forsvandt for altid ned i mosen
sammen med den svenske togfører.
Der er optegnelser over arbejdsulykker under konstrutionen af de
danske jernbaner. Men da jernbanebørsterne var en ugle set
befolkningsgruppe, er de nærmere omstændigheder ikke beskrevet. Man
var fra bygherrens side langt mere optaget af mistet materiel. Der
er ingen håndfaste beviser, så om historien er 100% sand kan man så
stå og funderer over mens cachen logges.
Det skal lige nævnes at selvom mosen er betydeligt tørrer i dag end
dengang, fyldes der stadig jævnligt skærver på. En overgang var man
oppe på at fylde det der svarer til 1 meter på om året.
English:
The first plans of a railroad across Fynen, was
made on a meeting in Åbenrå in 1844. First the plans were put to
rest, due to the dependency of the completion of the railroad
across Seeland. On march the 10th 1861 a law of constructing a
railroad across Fynen was accepted. The goverment contracted with
the British company Peto Brassey & Betts. English technicians
build the tracks assisted by local workforces - the socalled
"banebørster". There was a shortage of local danish workers, so
railroad workers from Sweeden ware brought in. "Banebørsterne" were
tough people with a tradition for the rough life with drinking and
fighting. They were a nessesary evil, tolerated but not more than
that. The new railroad were opened on september 7th 1865 and
recieve the name "Queen Lovises railroad", as it was opened on the
48th birthday of the Queen. What would have been the name, if it
had been opened the day after?
The old railroad workers has told the following story: At the time
of laying the tracks thru the fen land, the technic of ramming
sheet piles were not available as it is today. The used technic was
based on filling pitcher onto the fen land. A railroad track was
constructed on top of the pitcher, so the train with cradle cars
could get further out into the fen land. As the pitcher sank into
the soft pen land, more pitchers were stacked on top and the track
was raised. This was a dangerous process, as the risk of the column
tipping over was very high, until it reached solid ground on the
bottom of the pen land. And that was excactly what happened - the
train with the craddle cars tipped off the track and disappeared
with the Swedish driver into the pen land forever.
There are memorandums of accidents during the construction of the
Danish railroads. But as "Banebørsterne" had a bad reputation, no
further details were noted. The awarding authority were much more
concerned about loosing material. There are no hard evidence.
Wether this story is 100% true, you may wonder about it, while you
log the cache.
Note that even that the fen land is much more dry today than at
that time, pitchers are still added at regular intervals. At a time
one meter of pitchers were added a year.