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Train Accident At Akkavare, 1956.


Railroad bus of type YCo6.


Steam locomotive of type E2.

On Wednesday, March 28, 1956, around 12:30 p.m., a railroad bus of the type YCo6 was on its way to Arvidsjaur from Gällivare. At the same time, a local freight train drawn by an E2 steam locomotive was on its way north from Arvidsjaur. They were scheduled for a meeting at Akkavare. The rail bus driver, Göte Holmström, "forgot" the meeting with the freight train and continued from Akkavare towards Arvidsjaur. About 3.2 km southwest of Akkavare the rail bus and freight train met .The collision became violent.


Overview. The yellow dotted line shows the section of the rail between
Akkavare and Arvidsjaur. The collision occurred at the red X, near
Lundbergs Trä. Coordinates: 65°38'29"N 19°8'44"E


Detailed map of the collision site. The collision occurred at the yellow
placemark. NOTE! The image is rotated about 45 degrees in an easterly
relationship to the overview image. The intersection just above the yellow
placemark has the shape of a V.

The freight train crushed the front of the rail bus and pushed it in front of it about 150 m before it finally stopped. Sixteen people were killed and 10 injured. Among those killed were Göte Holmström. He became 40 years old. The driver of the freight train managed unharmed.


The collision became violent. Those killed sat in the front of the rail bus.


Injured and dead are carried away from the rail bus.

I have examined this event in more detail on the assumption that it is part of the war on semen.

Sixten was active as one of the leading communists at Arjeplog. This relationship had irritated the Nazis. When I examined the murder of Glenn Miller, I found that Sixten was the "Chattanooga Choo Choo". When the "accident" at Akkavare occurred, he knew it was aimed at him. When I talked to him the following day, he was quick to blame Göte Holmström. When we discussed the "accident" at one point in the 1960s, he had changed his view to "sabotage".

In 1955, the National Railways (NR) had decided to rationalize its operations. The inland line was in focus as the customer base was declining. The people along the track bought cars instead of travelling by train. This meant reducing the number of train clearers at the locations where it was estimated that traffic could be conducted safely without any clearer. It now became the task of the train drivers to clear meetings with other trains at these locations. In Akkavare there had been a clearer until 1955 but he was now rationalized away. The task of the train drivers was to set rail gears and signals correctly. In the 50s there was no signal system that automatically warned if two trains were on collision course. To manage the clearance, the telephone was used. NR had set up telephone terminals where the train drivers could call the nearest station manned by a train clearer.


 
Telephone Terminal. The upper box            Connection for NR telephone.
inside contains connection for phone.
It was provided with a locking device.

The train drivers had portable telephones that could be connected to the telephone terminals. When the lid of the connection box was opened, they could see on its inside the telephone numbers that would be dialled for clearance. When a certain clearer was called, it was his task to note the clearance in a book.

This operation carries all of the CIA's characteristics. It was difficult to plan but it was well planned. When you look at the accuracy that has arisen in the position of the planned collision site compared to the actual one, you understand that many people have cooperated. I estimate that at least about 10 people have participated to get everything in place. Here I also suggest that a voice imitator was involved. His task was to imitate the train clearer at Arvidsjaur, Rolf Ringström, and the rail bus driver, Holmström, in two telephone calls. The CIA had wire tapped Ringström's phone during the period before the "accident". Here they had connected on Ringström's line via one of Televerket's (national phone operator) switch cabinets at Arvidsjaur. They had recorded his conversation with Holmström and then let the imitator train on their voices.

1) Media has stated that Göte Holmström "forgot" to clear the meeting with the freight train. Low credibility for that claim. Both the rail bus and the freight train ran according to timetable. The freight train was travelling the route three times a week. Each time the meeting was cleared at Akkavare. It was a routine that was not suddenly "forgotten" by Holmström.

2) Anne-Marie Lundberg was one of the surviving passengers on the rail bus. She had joined the bus at Ravenjaur, which is located about 6 km north of Akkavare. She testified that the rail bus stopped at Akkavare.

3) Ringström cleared the departure of the freight train from Arvidsjaur railway station. The driver was Lennart Andersson. The distance from the Arvidsjaur railway station to the collision site is about 7 km. If the freight train maintained an average speed of 70 km / h on the route up to the collision site, the collision would have occurred about 6 minutes after the departure from the station. Ringström would not have cleared the departure of the freight train if he had not received clearance from Akkavare. In the same way, Holmström would not have continued the journey towards Arvidsjaur if he had not received clearance from Arvidsjaur.

4) It is now that the CIA comes into the picture. Considerable knowledge had been developed in the area of ​​telephony when monitoring the communists in Norrbotten. My assumption is that the CIA has used stolen portable NR telephones intended for connection in telephone terminals. With the help of these telephones they have connected on appropriate terminals. When Holmström called from Akkavare to Ringström, he was cleared by the person who imitated Ringström. When the call came from Holmström Ringström's line was disconnected and the imitator was connected to the line. The imitator called from a telephone terminal. The message Holmström received was that the freight train was delayed and that he would therefore not wait for a meeting at Akkavare.

5) Ringström has subsequently received a telephone call from the imitator. He now imitated Holmström. He announced that everything was ready for a meeting at Akkavare.

After the collision, locomotive driver Lennart Andersson run over to the nearby wood products manufacturer Lundbergs Trä. There he called for help.

The "accident" has been investigated but nothing has been published. With the design that the operation had, it became impossible to publish any details. Here the NR and the country's politicians chose to stay low..


A memorial has been erected at the collision site.

YouTube Video:
Glenn Miller – Chattanooga Choo Choo
Little Eva - Loco-motion (1962)