Old iron ore loading tunnel, Dalarna, Sweden

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Old iron ore loading tunnel

Ore has been mined in this area on and off since 1630, but the production really swinged into action in 1910 when the mine was bought by a German company.
During the first and second world war the Germans had a high demand for iron ore and it's a safe bet to say that a lot of the iron ore from this mine was used for
German weaponry. In 1921 the construction of this train tunnel started, aiming to ease the process of transporting the ore from the processing plant down to the
barges that would ship it onwards. Now the processing plant and most traces of the mine are long gone, but this old 600 meter long train loading tunnel remains.

Although I visited this tunnel in spring there was still a lot of ice.	It's pretty cold in there and probably very little air circulation if any.	After the ice scuplters the water was no longer frozen.	An interesting shaft, either for loading or ventilation, that I'd like to take a closer look at with some climbing gear.	The actual loading point which I assume is right under where the processing plant used to be.
A counterweight to assist the loading of the train wagons.	And eventually all good things come to an end.