Forsby-Köping limestone cableway

The Forsby-Köping limestone cableway, commonly referred to in Swedish as Kalklinbanan, is a 42 km aerial tramway running from Forsby in Vingåker municipality to industrial town Köping in central Sweden. Its final destination is the factory at the port of Köping, where cement was manufactured until 1978, and later various limestone derivatives. The cableway was Europe's longest at the time of construction. It was later superseded by a handful of longer cableways, notably the Norsjö aerial tramway, all of which were demolished during the 1960s–1980s. It was taken out of service in 1997 but kept in working order. By that time all longer industrial cableways had been demolished making it at present the world's longest cableway in working order.

Despite its officially affirmed value as cultural heritage the cableway is being demolished starting June 26, 2013. The fully functioning cableway will be run one last time as carriages are removed from the track and sold for scrap. Cables will be removed later during the year and poles demolished towards the winter of 2013/14.

The cableway was built in 1939 by AB Nordströms Linbanor for Skånska Cement AB in concert with the construction of its Forsby limestone plant and cement factory in Köping. A 300 people workforce completed the installation at a pace of 2,1 km/month. The choice of a cableway was determined after evaluation of a number of modes of transportation, and special care was taken not to interfere with the surrounding landscape, particularly at the lake Hjälmaren strait.

The system consists of three types of stations: Power Stations with 135 hp (101 kW) electric motors, powering one or both connecting sections. Terminal stations in Forsby and Köping where the limestone was loaded/unloaded also functioned as power stations. Angle stations lack motors and only change the angle of the cable track by splicing together two sections powered from their respective other sides. Station buildings have an iron frame, wooden walls and roof constructed from asbestos cement. The pulling cables go in endless loops between stations, and kept taut by counterweights in towers in the power stations. The heavier carrying cable is divided into four runs along each section, connected by tension stations. These stations are comparatively small, simple structures regulating cable tension along the way.

...
Wikipedia