Carl Abraham Pihl

Infobox Person
name = Carl Abraham Pihl


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birth_date = birth date and age|1825|01|16
birth_place = Stavanger, Norway
death_date = 1897
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nationality = Norwegian
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known_for = Railway pioneer
education =
alma_mater = Chalmers University of Technology
employer = Norwegian State Railways
occupation = Engineer
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spouse = Cathrine Ridley
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children = 11
parents = Thomas Bugge Pihl
Fredrikke Wivicke Margrethe Løvold
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Carl Abraham Pihl (16 January 1825, Stavanger – 1897) was a Norwegian civil engineer and director of the Norwegian State Railways (NSB) from 1865 until his death. Pihl was one of the main architects behind use of narrow gauge railways in Norway.Bjerke and Stenersen, 2002: 9]

Biography

The son of Thomas Bugge Pihl and Fredrikke Wivicke Margrethe Løvold, he started off as a seaman, but soon chose to attend Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg (1841–1844).He then wen to London and worked as an office engineer; working on many cases related to railways, including many of those by Robert Stephenson. After two years he started with field work, with a management position at a site in Suffolk until 1850. While working in England he also learned the art of photography. His collections remain a unique collection of Norwegian railway heritage, dating back to 1862.

Pihl returned to Norway in 1850, and started working for the road office at Norwegian Ministry of the Interior, but by 1851 he was hired as an engineer on Norway's first railway, Hoved Line where he worked with the section from Christiania to Lillestrøm. After the completion in 1854 he moved back to England for a year, but returned to work on the Telemark Canal, and later as county engineer in Akershus. Since he was the most prominent railway engineer in Norway at the time, he was in 1856 hired to work on the projections for several of the first railways in Norway, the first being the Kongsvinger Line, Hamar–Grundset Line and Trondhjem–Støren Line. In 1858 the office "Statens Jernbaneanlægs hovedkontor" was created to mange the state railways, and Pihl was hired as director. [Bjerke and Stenersen, 2002: 9–10] [Holøs, 1990: 34]

After the reorganization of the state railways in 1865 Pihl was appointed the first director-general of the state railways. When this was transformed to the Norwegian State Railways in 1883, Pihl was appointed director of the fixed-stock division—a position he held until his death. During his last fourteen years he was considerably less influential than previous, but he remained the highest payed civil servant in Norway at the time. He was offered a job in Toronto for the Grand Trunk Railway, but refused despite being offered twice the wage; he even insisted the offer remain confidential so it was not seen as a matter to press up his wage with the Norwegian authorities. [Bjerke and Stenersen, 2002: 12–13]

He married Cathrine Ridley, and had 11 children from 1854 to 1875.

Gauge controversy

When Hovedbanen had been built by Robert Stephenson, he had built the line after British standards with standard gauge and overdimensioned bridges and curves; this line was very expensive and Pihl felt that it would be possible to build cheaper lines if narrow gauge was instead chosen. After studying foreign designs, C. W. Bergh initially concluded with 1016 mm would be suitable, but Pihl argued for some more width and opted for RailGauge|1067. Through his influential position in the department he convinced the politicians that all new railways should be built in narrow gauge—except those that would connect with the Swedish system, where standard gauge had become the norm. During the railway construction boom of the 1870s and 80s all but the Kongsvinger Line, the Meråker Line and the Østfold Line were built as narrow gauge, leaving Norway with two incompatible systems. [Bjerke and Stenersen, 2002: 10]

At the time it was not considered probable that the railway system would become connected, but by the turn of the century large-scale projects like the Bergen Line and Sørland Line were connecting all the loose railways; transshipment costs were becoming a drain on resources for the railways and all narrow gauge lines were either closed or converted from 1909 to 1949, at a cost many times larger than the initial savings of building them narrow. During the 1880s the issue of gauge reappeared, with the majority claiming to broad gauge; it was soon shown that standard gauge railways built on the same premises as narrow gauge could be constructed at the same cost. [Bjerke and Stenersen, 2002: 10–13] Pihl commented in his late years that while he realized that narrow gauge had become outdated, at the time it had been a choice between building narrow and cheap, or not building at all. [Bjerke and Stenersen, 2002: 13] The final death of narrow gauge came the year after Pihl died when parliament decided to build the Bergen Line as standard gauge.

The narrow gauge developed by Pihl is the only notable rail transport export from Norway; through his international travels he convinced other rural countries to build cheaper narrow gauge systems, and the 1067 mm system soon became one of the major systems in the world—many colonies like South Africa and New Zealand opted for the gauge.Bjerke and Stenersen, 2002: 11]

References

Notes

Bibliography

*cite book |author=Bjerke, Thor and Stenersen, Roar |year=2002 |title=Rørosbaneboka |publisher=Norsk Jernbaneklubb/Norsk Jernbanemuseum |location=Hamar |isbn=82-90286-24-4
*cite book |last=Holøs |first=Bjørn |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Stasjoner i sentrum |year=1990 |publisher=Gyldendal Norsk Forlag |location=Oslo |isbn=82-05-19082-8
*cite book |author=Owen, Roy |year=1996 |title=Norwegian Railways: from Stephenson to high-speed |publisher=Balholm Press |location=Hitchin |isbn=0-9528069-8

External links

* [http://www.my-scandinavia.de/articles.asp?ID=2 Norwegian Railroad History] de icon
* [http://www.jrtr.net/jrtr31/f33_sai.html CAP-Spur in Japan (with biographic sketch of Pihl)]