The Old Voss Steam Railway Museum is run by volunteers and consists of several activities groups. There are no "strict" boundaries between our activity groups. Some prefer to show more interest to groups focusing on their hobbies and interests, and some participates across several activity groups. Whatever your liking we find that participation in several groups supports good team spirit and a good working environment. Many of our volunteers does not have work experience from the railway, instead they come to us from a wide range of professions. Our driving force is our common interest. Interested in joining us? Please contact us at and take a tour of what we are doing. 

Museum operations group

The museum needs volunteers to help with the operations of the museum. We have positions on the trains and on the stations. We also need help with marketing, sales, promotion, booking and museum politics. Please contact for detailed information.

The locomotive groups

Consists of three groups focusing on three different locomotive types. 

«255-group» (Steam): This group consists of about 10 people with varying experience and education. The oldest ones learned operating the engine from the last steam personnel of the National Railway. The younger ones have learnt it from volunteers. The engine shed has some large tools. For example, the engine can be lifted and wheels taken out.  But for larger work we use special workshops in Norway and Germany. The very largest repairs have been the new boiler in 2008 and new axle bearings in 2014.

”The shunting group” (diesel): This group consists of 4 people who are interested in diesel and maintains the two diesel shunters from 1938 and 1952. A more modern diesel shunter will be repaired later.

”The DMU group”: This group consists of 2 people who are restoring a DMU from the 1950s with a Roils Royce motor.

The car groups

Consists of two groups; one of passenger cars and one for freight cars.

Passenger cars group: Consists of a master who leads the maintenance work with 3-7 volunteers. The group do all kind of work on our cars to keep them in working order. The Old Voss Steam Railway museum has many passenger cars, all of them with teak exterior. Some cars are in use, some stored, some under repair. 

Freight cars group: Consists of 1-3 volunteers who aims to stop the decay and restore a freight car to working order. The Old Voss Steam Railway museum has freight cars used for storing or other purposes. 

Building Maintenance

The museum is responsible for the maintenance of nine buildings along the 18 kilometer track between Garnes and Midtun. One person employed is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the outdoor areas.

Railroad department

One person is employed as a manager for the department and one volunteer is responsible for the tracks. The department has also five to ten volunteers working the railroad.

The Old Voss Steam Railway has since its start-up performed a great deal of maintenance work on the railroad section between Tunestveit and Midtun with the efforts of volunteers. Experienced technicians have given our volunteers valuable training building up their expertise. Their skills allows them do perform work on the tracks independently. Maintenance has primarily consisted of exchanging worn sleepers, adjusting railroad and ballast, cleaning ditches and culverts and attempts to clear vegetation along the line so ensure visibility. In recent years, the museums have received grants from the Norwegian National Rail Administration to maintain the railroad. This makes it possible to hire external entrepreneurs to take a larger share of the maintenance work allowing us to focus on small parts of the railroad. A popular winter activity is “indoor” tunnel work focusing on sleeper changes, cleaning ballast and replacing track.

A large part of maintenance is exchanging sleepers. In the beginning sleepers were excavated by hand and changed manually. This was a long and arduous process that gave our volunteers a lot of good exercise. In recent years, we have obtained machines performing much of the heaviest jobs. They have been invaluable to get the work done. After receiving grants from the state external entrepreneurs are hired to change sleepers. The track under the museums care is approximately 21 kilometres with an average spacing of sleepers at about 60 cm. That amounts to 35.000 sleepers. To this date sleepers on 8 kilometres of track has been changed over the last 10 years. The rest is over 40 years old but is checked on a regular schedule.

The Old Voss Steam Railway Museum is run by volunteers and consists of several activities groups. There are no "strict" boundaries between our activity groups. Some prefer to show more interest to groups focusing on their hobbies and interests, and some participates across several activity groups. Whatever your liking we find that participation in several groups supports good team spirit and a good working environment. Many of our volunteers does not have work experience from the railway, instead they come to us from a wide range of professions. Our driving force is our common interest. Interested in joining us? Please contact us at and take a tour of what we are doing. 

Museum operations group

The museum needs volunteers to help with the operations of the museum. We have positions on the trains and on the stations. We also need help with marketing, sales, promotion, booking and museum politics. Please contact for detailed information.

The locomotive groups

Consists of three groups focusing on three different locomotive types. 

«255-group» (Steam): This group consists of about 10 people with varying experience and education. The oldest ones learned operating the engine from the last steam personnel of the National Railway. The younger ones have learnt it from volunteers. The engine shed has some large tools. For example, the engine can be lifted and wheels taken out.  But for larger work we use special workshops in Norway and Germany. The very largest repairs have been the new boiler in 2008 and new axle bearings in 2014.

”The shunting group” (diesel): This group consists of 4 people who are interested in diesel and maintains the two diesel shunters from 1938 and 1952. A more modern diesel shunter will be repaired later.

”The DMU group”: This group consists of 2 people who are restoring a DMU from the 1950s with a Roils Royce motor.

The car groups

Consists of two groups; one of passenger cars and one for freight cars.

Passenger cars group: Consists of a master who leads the maintenance work with 3-7 volunteers. The group do all kind of work on our cars to keep them in working order. The Old Voss Steam Railway museum has many passenger cars, all of them with teak exterior. Some cars are in use, some stored, some under repair. 

Freight cars group: Consists of 1-3 volunteers who aims to stop the decay and restore a freight car to working order. The Old Voss Steam Railway museum has freight cars used for storing or other purposes. 

Building Maintenance

The museum is responsible for the maintenance of nine buildings along the 18 kilometer track between Garnes and Midtun. One person employed is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the outdoor areas.

Railroad department

One person is employed as a manager for the department and one volunteer is responsible for the tracks. The department has also five to ten volunteers working the railroad.

The Old Voss Steam Railway has since its start-up performed a great deal of maintenance work on the railroad section between Tunestveit and Midtun with the efforts of volunteers. Experienced technicians have given our volunteers valuable training building up their expertise. Their skills allows them do perform work on the tracks independently. Maintenance has primarily consisted of exchanging worn sleepers, adjusting railroad and ballast, cleaning ditches and culverts and attempts to clear vegetation along the line so ensure visibility. In recent years, the museums have received grants from the Norwegian National Rail Administration to maintain the railroad. This makes it possible to hire external entrepreneurs to take a larger share of the maintenance work allowing us to focus on small parts of the railroad. A popular winter activity is “indoor” tunnel work focusing on sleeper changes, cleaning ballast and replacing track.

A large part of maintenance is exchanging sleepers. In the beginning sleepers were excavated by hand and changed manually. This was a long and arduous process that gave our volunteers a lot of good exercise. In recent years, we have obtained machines performing much of the heaviest jobs. They have been invaluable to get the work done. After receiving grants from the state external entrepreneurs are hired to change sleepers. The track under the museums care is approximately 21 kilometres with an average spacing of sleepers at about 60 cm. That amounts to 35.000 sleepers. To this date sleepers on 8 kilometres of track has been changed over the last 10 years. The rest is over 40 years old but is checked on a regular schedule.

The Old Voss Steam Railway Museum consists of both rolling stock and permanent infrastructure forming the national heritage railway between Garnes and Midtun. While other museums consist of small items in glass cases, the museum face challenges of a significantly different magnitude. An average museum object with us is 20 meters long, 3 meters wide and weighs 35 tons. In total the museum own or disposes more than 1.000 tons of locomotives and carriages, with an overall length of almost 700 meters.

The museums focus area is the 18 kilometres between Garnes and Midtun, but the lines between Tunestveit to Trengereid and Midtun to Nesttun is also in the museums interests. In a wider spectre everything owned by the national railway is of interest of the museum. Protection zones in both directions are defined by Bergen municipality plans dating from 2011. This is important to prevent unwanted densification in the national heritage area.

The museum runs a heritage train every Sunday from mid-June to mid-September between Garnes and Midtun stopping at Arna and Haukeland stations along the way. Sunday trains are open to the public and are run on a fixed schedule. During the summer season on some Sundays there are special happenings for the passengers to enjoy.

The museum also runs special trains by appointment and charter trains. The museum can cater to groups between 20 and 300 people. The train can run to and from all stations between Garnes and Midtun and must be chartered within our operating season between June and September. In addition, the museum can arrange for a dining car on the train. The car can cater for groups between 20 and 96 people and seats 48 guests. Large groups are split into two seatings. Our restaurateur can arrange for a two-course lunch or a three-course dinner. The dining car is fully licenced. 

Rutetider, priser og program for 2014 blir lagt ut så snart det er klart!

Damplokomotivet på Gamle Vossebanen fyller 100 år i 2013!

                                              Damplokomotiv 18c 255 med flaggpryd, september 2008.   Foto: Gekka.

Damplokomotiv 18c 255 ble bestilt av Norges Statsbaner den 23. April 1912 og ble overlevert 12. Mars 1913. Etter bare 5 dager testing ble 255 satt i drift. Dette tyder på at lokomotivet var av en velprøvd type og at det var godt utført arbeid på fabrikken.

Damplokomotivene av type 18 var Bergensbanens første høyfjellslokomotiver. Til åpningen av prøvedriften i  1907, ble det levert seks maskiner. Etter offisiell åpning av Bergensbanen ble det levert ytterligere fem lokomotiver av denne typen. Denne typen lokomotiver var i drift på Bergensbanen fram til 1949.

Type 18 var meget driftssikre og ble ofte brukt ved åpning av nye banestrekninger og ved kongetog. Dette også fordi den elegante konstruksjonen designmessig internasjonalt regnes som den vakreste. Ved åpningen av Bergensbanen 27. november 1909 var det to lok av type 18 som trakk Kong Haakons tog over fjellet fra Kristiania til Bergen. Ett hundre år senere, da Bergensbanens hundreårsjubileum var det også to lokomotiver som trakk jubileumstoget over fjellet fra Oslo til Bergen - 18c 255 og den noe større 30a 271 – begge av samme elegante konstruksjon.

Gamle Vossebanens lokomotiv 18c 255 ble først levert til Eidsvold-Otta banen og gikk der fram til 1927 da det ble overført til Drammen distrikt. Etter et kort opphold i Oslo distrikt, ble det overført til Trondheim distrikt, hvor det gikk fram til det ble pensjonert i 1969.

Etter en usikker tilværelse på Norsk jernbanemuseums venteliste, ble det i 1980 dratt til Bergen og året etter startet restaureringen i regi av Norsk jernbaneklubb. Det skulle ta hele 9000 dugnadstimer gjennom elleve og et halvt år under kummerlige forhold. I oktober 1992 kjørte lokomotivet for publikum mellom Bergen og Minde. Året etter startet driften opp på Museet Gamle Vossebanen mellom Garnes og Midttun. Således har lokomotivet levd en tredjedel av sitt liv som pensjonist ved Gamle Vossebanen og trives godt der. Lokomotivet, som fra 1913 har gått 2,6 millioner km, fikk ny lokomotivkjel i 2008 og er derved klar for innsats i de neste hundre år.

Til sammen har det frivillige miljøet i Norsk Jernbaneklubb nedlagt 225.000 dugnadstimer i Museet Gamle Vossebanen fra starten i 1981. Garnes stasjon er nå fredet og Gamle Vossebanen står på statens landsverneplan for kulturminner ved jernbanen.

Gratulerer med dagen!

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