Tertitten is Norway's oldest museum railway, running 3.6 kilometers of narrow-gauge track at Sørumsand. The nickname plays on two things: the line was a so-called tertiærbane (tertiary railway, the cheapest class), and tertitt is the local dialect word for great tit, the bird.
The original Urskog-Hølandsbanen opened in stages between 1896 and 1903, eventually stretching 57 kilometers from Sørumsand on the Kongsvingerbanen mainline to Skulerud in Aurskog-Høland. It was built as cheaply as possible with a 750 mm gauge. Norway had three such tertiary railways; the Sulitjelmabanen in the north (1892, converted to wider gauge in 1915) and the Nesttun-Osbanen near Bergen (1894, closed 1935). Tertitten was the last 750 mm line to operate in Norway.
The railway carried timber, farm goods, and passengers through the forests east of Oslo. At Skulerud, the line connected with boat traffic on the Haldenkanalen. This made possible a once-famous round trip: train from Oslo to Sørumsand, Tertitten to Skulerud, steamship DS Turisten down the canal to Tistedal, and train back to Oslo. It was called Den store rundreisen.
The line was privately owned until 1945, when NSB took over and renamed it Aurskog-Hølandbanen. It closed on 1 July 1960. Volunteers began preservation work in 1961, and the first museum train ran in 1966. Today the railway has three working steam locomotives and restored passenger coaches. The Norsk Jernbanemuseum in Hamar also has a short 750 mm track where a train runs back and forth through the park, but Sørumsand is the only place where you can ride on the original line where these trains actually ran. The entire installation is heritage-listed.
The original Urskog-Hølandsbanen opened in stages between 1896 and 1903, eventually stretching 57 kilometers from Sørumsand on the Kongsvingerbanen mainline to Skulerud in Aurskog-Høland. It was built as cheaply as possible with a 750 mm gauge. Norway had three such tertiary railways; the Sulitjelmabanen in the north (1892, converted to wider gauge in 1915) and the Nesttun-Osbanen near Bergen (1894, closed 1935). Tertitten was the last 750 mm line to operate in Norway.
The railway carried timber, farm goods, and passengers through the forests east of Oslo. At Skulerud, the line connected with boat traffic on the Haldenkanalen. This made possible a once-famous round trip: train from Oslo to Sørumsand, Tertitten to Skulerud, steamship DS Turisten down the canal to Tistedal, and train back to Oslo. It was called Den store rundreisen.
The line was privately owned until 1945, when NSB took over and renamed it Aurskog-Hølandbanen. It closed on 1 July 1960. Volunteers began preservation work in 1961, and the first museum train ran in 1966. Today the railway has three working steam locomotives and restored passenger coaches. The Norsk Jernbanemuseum in Hamar also has a short 750 mm track where a train runs back and forth through the park, but Sørumsand is the only place where you can ride on the original line where these trains actually ran. The entire installation is heritage-listed.