SF ''Ammonia'' is a

steam-powered A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be tra ...

railway ferry A train ferry is a ship (ferry) designed to carry railway vehicles, as well as their cargoes and passengers. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to th ...

Lake Tinn A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...

Telemark Telemark () is a Counties of Norway, county and a current electoral district in Norway. Telemark borders the counties of Vestfold, Buskerud, Vestland, Rogaland and Agder. In 2020, Telemark merged with the county of Vestfold to form the county o ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The ferry was one of the four railway ferries on Lake Tinn that connected the

Rjukan Line The Rjukan Line (), at first called the Vestfjorddal Line, was a Norwegian railway line running through Vestfjorddalen between Mæl and Rjukan in Telemark county. The railway's main purpose was to transport chemicals from Norsk Hydro's plan ...

with the

Tinnoset Line The Tinnoset Line () was a long Norwegian railway line that went from Tinnoset to Notodden in Telemark county. The railway was part of the transport chain used to transport fertilizer from Norsk Hydro's factory in Rjukan to the port in Skien. ...

. This system was used by

Norsk Hydro Norsk Hydro ASA (often referred to as just ''Hydro'') is a Norway, Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. It is one of the largest aluminium companies worldwide. It has operations in some 50 countries around th ...

to transport chemicals from

Rjukan Rjukan () is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town in Tinn Municipality in Telemark county, Norway. The town is also the administrative centre of Tinn Municipality. The town is located in the Vestfjorddalen valley, between the lakes Møsvatn ...

to the port in

Skien Skien () is a municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Grenland, although historically it belonged to Grenmar/Skiensfjorden, while Grenland referred the Norsjø area and Bø. The administrative ...

. The ferry is one of four remaining steam-powered railway ferries in the world, and can still be seen docked at Mæl,

Specifics

''Ammonia'' is capable of carrying 17 railway cars, totalling 630 tonnes, on 120 metres of track – double-track

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

, in addition to 150 passengers. She has two steam engines each of 300 kW (400 hp), and can achieve a speed of 12 knots (22 km/h).

History

''Ammonia'' was the third railway ferry built for

Norsk Transport Hydro Transport AS was a railway company, railway- and List of ship companies, shipping company responsible for the transport of chemicals from Norsk Hydro Rjukan. A subsidiary of Norsk Hydro, the company was founded in 1907, operations ceased in ...

; when she was ordered in 1928 the two older ferries ''Rjukanfos'' and ''Hydro'' were too small. She was in reality an alternative to extending ''Hydro'' by at least twenty meters. Diesel traction was considered, but at the time diesel was not optimal for ships. She was built by A/S Moss Værtft & Dokk at the docks on Lake Tinn and launched on 18 June 1929 and cost NOK 932,000 to build, of which Norsk Transport paid NOK 829,485. She quickly became the main ferry; in 1939 she was in service 340 days, while ''Hydro'' operated 32 days and ''Rjukanfos'' 18. After the

sinking Shipwrecking is any event causing a ship to wreck, such as a collision causing the ship to sink; the stranding of a ship on rocks, land or shoal; poor maintenance, resulting in a lack of seaworthiness; or the destruction of a ship either intent ...

of ''Hydro'' in 1944, ''Ammonia'' had to do the main hauling across the lake, and by September 1944 she was performing eight round trips each day. In 1951 the

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centra ...

s were replaced with petroleum-fueled ones.Payton and Lepperød, 1995: 90–92 When the

diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine ...

-powered MF ''Storegut'' was launched in 1956 ''Ammonia'' was down-graded to a reserve ship, mainly serving when ''Storegut'' was for repairs. She also portrayed ''Hydro'' in the 1965 film ''

The Heroes of Telemark ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

''. In the 1970s Norsk Transport considered rebuilding her to diesel-power She was taken out of service when the railways ceased operating in 1991, but remains docked at Mæl in operational condition.

References

Other sources

External links

Postcard showing SF ''Ammonia'' being launched on June 18, 1929
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ammonia Ships built in Moss, Norway Ferries of Norsk Transport 1929 ships Steamships of Norway Cultural heritage of Norway