But for some reason, it's not the trains carrying tons of extremely heavy iron ore 24/7 in one of the most challenging climates on Earth between the mines of Kiruna, Sweden and the harbor of Norwegian Narvik that recently has been under pressure. These deliveries always work well and have done so for 107 years now.
Instead, it is the high speed passenger trains between Stockholm-Gothenburg, Stockholm-Malmö and many other ones in the southern parts of Sweden (where the climate is considerably milder) that, for two winters in a row, have appeared as severely unreliable means of transportation.
Perhaps rail engineers of today (and engineers in general) have something to learn from how work was done half a century ago..
Some basic info concerning the ASEA Da locomotive (ASEA later merged with Swiss Brown, Boveri & Cie forming one of the World's largest companies in the area of power and automation technology):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SJ_Da
21 years ago, the ABB high speed train of the X-2000 was introduced. Among other interesting features, ABB presented a high speed train that ‘tilted’ its way through curves at speeds much higher than those of competing constructions. Yet, by today, many people here in Sweden feel this train is obsolete:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_2000
The legendary Swedish/Norwegian Iron Ore Line; for over 100 years one of the heaviest trains struggling with one of the toughest climates on Earth:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Ore_Line
These perpetual shipments of iron ore once ended up in the hands of the Nazi-German arms industry. Luckily enough, the Allies finally convinced the Swedish government they had to go elsewhere (today, this magnificently pure iron ore sooner is found in Scandinavian made cars, trucks, planes, ships, submarines etc than in the weapons of Fascist nations):
Were some of those old locomotives made in Sweden? My guess is German