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One hundred years of gardening for public service: the horticultural heritage of
the Swedish State Railways
Charlotte LagerBerg FogelBerg
a
& Fredrik FogelBerg
b
a
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences , Uppsala
b
JTI – Swedish Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering , Uppsala
Published online: 19 Dec 2011.
To cite this article: Charlotte LagerBerg FogelBerg & Fredrik FogelBerg (2011) One hundred years of gardening for public service: the horticultural heritage of the
Swedish State Railways, Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes: An International Quarterly, 31:4, 343-354, DOI: 10.1080/14601176.2011.601902
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One hundred years of gardening for public service: the horticultural heritage of the
Swedish State Railways
charlotte lagerberg fogelberg & fredrik fogelberg
Despite being a sparsely populated nation of little more than three million
inhabitants in the mid-1800s, Sweden invested significantly in railway commu-
nications. The introduction of the railway consequently began a period of
extensive construction of private and public railways. Swedish State Railways
(SJ) was founded as a public authority in 1856 and was one of many actors in the
railway construction business. Initially it was mainly occupied with the trunk
lines between the cities of Malmo¨ and Stockholm and between Stockholm and
Gothenburg.
The Swedish railway net was built by private enterprise and the public
authority SJ working in parallel. In 1875 the public railway system amounted
to 1500 km, while the entire railway net encompassed 3680 km.1
In the 1940s
the majority of the private railways were incorporated into the public railway
net, owing either to poor profitability or to the state more or less compulsorily
nationalizing the private companies.
The new transportation system affected the natural environment and small
communities in many ways and as early as 1862, SJ employed special staff to
landscape the environment surrounding the railway stations, while healing the
wounds left by this new means of communication in the landscape.
The rapid development of the railway resulted in many new parks and
plantations along the lines and at stations throughout Sweden. Between 1858
and 1906, 433 railway station plantations were laid out by SJ alone.2
It is likely
that the private railway companies made similar efforts to improve the environ-
ment as the state railways, but it can be assumed that these private operators had
less money to spare than SJ, resulting in less ambitious plantations. According to
the annual report of the Director of Horticulture in 1910, about 800 000
ligneous plants and close to nine million herbaceous plants were planted by SJ
between 1888 and 1910.3
At the beginning of the twentieth century SJ planted more than 500 000 plants
annually, most of which were from its own nurseries.4–8
During the 1950s a gradual reduction in railway gardening activities started,
partly associated with the closure of some Swedish railways. The increase in
transportation by private cars, cuts in SJ staff and the decreasing interest in
activities perceived to lie outside the core business accelerated this process and
the entire gardening organization was closed down in 1973.
We know from preserved documents that the SJ gardening organization
included plantations along the railway lines, station parks and gardens of linemen
and other employees. The reason for the railway establishing its gardening
organization was primarily to restore the landscape after railway construction
and later also to spread culture and education. Before 1862, when the first
Director of Horticulture was employed, landscape restoration existed but
under less organized conditions and with few plans for maintenance.
Moreover, there were no permanent employees assigned to the establishment
and maintenance of green areas.
Along the railway line and around the railway stations, hedges were planted
for protection from wind, snow and sparks from the steam engines. The hedges
were also a living fence to protect the railway from farm animals. Another
expressed aim was to spread knowledge to rural inhabitants about the plants that
could be used to create a beautiful environment.
issn 1460-1176 # 2011 taylor & francis vol. 31, no. 4 343
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In the late nineteenth century, SJ was clearly the leading actor in horticulture
and landscape design in Sweden.
The plantations of SJ attracted much attention during the international
garden exhibition in London in 1928. The SJ exhibit was mentioned by the
Dutch journal Buiten, for example, which wrote:
Among all countries Sweden gained the most attention. One received a very good
overview of its exhibition some photographs showed the gardens of Linnaeus as they
still look today. .. . Is it perhaps the spirit of Linnaeus that lives on in the great love for
nature that all Swedes seem to hold, and that results in that all their achievements are
good and liberated from all kinds of stiltedness. . . . However, what was noticed
above all at the garden exhibition in London was the gardens of the Swedish railway
stations. The state railways make extensive use of plantations. The building architect
collaborates with his fellow colleague possessing garden expertise, together aiming at
creating a harmonious overall impression. . . . Here Sweden gives a good example of
how we in Holland at many stations also could create harmony between buildings
and environment. . . . Sweden’s exhibition gave the impression that those in the
North know how to create their own style and atmosphere.9
Unfortunately the SJ archives were thoroughly cleared of documents associated
with the gardening organization before they were donated to the National
Archives of Sweden. It is unclear when this clearing took place and whether it
was carried out in accordance with some official criterion. However, it is clear that
a tremendous amount of material about plantings of parks and gardens were lost,
including hundreds of detailed plans for flower beds, parks and ornamental details.
Consequently, part of the Swedish common cultural legacy was lost forever.
The SJ gardening organization dealt with issues regarding choice of plants,
social and cultural aspects, architecture and exercise of public authority during
the period when modern Sweden was being developed. The horticultural
heritage represented by SJ cannot be described in detail in this paper.
However, we present a brief introduction to the garden ideals of the Swedish
railway company and its contributions and connections to the development of
society. In this paper the expression ‘the railway’ is synonymous with ‘Swedish
State Railway’, ‘Swedish railway’ and ‘SJ’.
Horticultural ideals of Swedish railway
Several objectives were included in the concept of public service of the SJ
gardening organization. One constituted public service in the sense of supplying
peaceful and appealing environments for rail travellers and for the inhabitants of
the developing towns and villages. There was also an explicit objective to supply
good environments for the employees, as expressed by Director of Horticulture
Go¨sta Reuterswa¨rd in 1940:
We live, however, in a time when development is taking rapid strides. All kind of
simplification becomes a more and more conspicuous need. As a result of the stress
of our time our senses demand peace and harmony. Functionalism, as we call it, is
an expression of this need. The demand for simplicity is more salient in a garden,
regardless of whether it is the garden of a small house or a plantation in front of a
station building.10
The self-imposed missions of SJ included yet another side of public service,
carrying the purpose of enlightenment and education, i.e. to inspire and show
the public how gardens could be designed and how different plants could be
used in different parts of the country. This was further emphasized by posting
signs with the names of the plants in the railway gardens, thereby informing the
public about the varieties used.11
It is not clear how long these signs were
actually used, but some were still in place in the early 1960s (figure 1).
Consequently, SJ played a significant role in spreading horticultural knowledge
throughout the country. In the early 1900s the public authority also played an
important role in stimulating self-sufficient living. There was an early ambition
that the railway should not only constitute a means of transportation, but also
function as a cultural spearhead in exposing the general public to cultural ideals
intended to improve the nation.
The SJ gardening organization accurately reflects the ideals of the time.
During the 1800s the railway was meant to bring culture and enlightenment.
By constituting a forerunner and showing good examples, it would teach the
rural population how to enhance their outdoor environment. This also applied
to buildings, where being a good forerunner included demonstrating that it was
as simple to build beautiful functional buildings as less attractive types. The
public authority was expected to encourage what was perceived as good taste
and enlightenment.
The authority recognized its importance in food production and distribution,
as reflected by this statement in 1916 in Svenska ja¨rnva¨gstidningen (Swedish
Railway Journal):
The new age indeed comes riding along the railway but not as the many-headed
monster of industrialism, but as the apostle and protector of agriculture.12
studies in the history of gardens and designed landscapes: lagerberg fogelberg & fogelberg
344

The appointment of Olof Eneroth (1825–1881), who was a famous writer,
horticulturist and pomologist, as the first Director of Horticulture at SJ in 1862
demonstrated the ideals that SJ wished to pursue. Eneroth argued that educated
people had a responsibility to share knowledge and the railway, representing
modern knowledge, should be a means to show the public ways to improve
their lives, both in terms of living conditions and good taste:
But now the crofter’s cottage — when will the housewife therein have means and
interest and sense to potter about its exterior, plant one or two climbing plants along
the window and so on? — When the landowners want it. — And the farmer . . .
when will he be able to keep it tidy outside his door, when will he have living trees
instead of firewood for decoration in the yard, when will he be able to tell the
farmhand and the maid, look here you have one fruit tree each to harvest fruit from
for yourselves, but then also leave mine alone? . . . and when will he realize that a
cottage of beautiful proportions is not more expensive than a clumsy one of the old
style? The answer is close at hand: — when his conditions have become good
enough, when the elementary school has taught him both to count and draw, both
to calculate and understand a drawing, — and when those who are better off have
started to set good examples. But today . . . no style of architecture, no style of
gardens, no system. And now amid all this the railway arrives. It’s an entire stream of
culture, suddenly breaking its way through our countryside, and on this stream taste
comes rushing. Behold these railway cottages, ever so small . . . how harmonious in
colour and shape! Behold how they hardly are completed until small plantations
arise around them, and this amid the wilds! . . . It is called railway style . . . .13
The authority perceived itself as an integrated and important agent of development
of society. It is clear that SJ took pride not only in delivering goods and passengers,
but also in improving its employees and their living conditions. For example SJ
took part in the own-your-own-home movement in the early 1900s, by building
modern flats and homes for its employees. The minimum floor area of a one-room
flat with kitchen was specified as being at least 43 square metres.14
Furthermore, SJ
encouraged its employees to cultivate utility plants and ornamental plants by
distributing surplus plants and bushes, and by doling out seed portions to interested
and diligent employees. Sundius15
reports that the linemen in the southern part of
Sweden were given one elderberry bush each, while in the north linemen were
given some rhubarb plants. In 1911 every lineman and station-hand in southern
Sweden received 7–8 seed portions each, while 1848 seed portions were distributed
to linemen in the Stockholm district. This amounted to 6000 seed portions in total,
while surplus flowering plants from the railway stations were handed out to the
linemen’s cottages along the Malmo¨–Na¨ssjo¨ line.16
Moreover, the growth of the
Swedish allotment movement was closely associated with the public railway
system. This movement is believed to have started in Germany in the mid-1800s
in order to give the working class the opportunity to develop a healthier life, thus
balancing the densely populated urban areas of industrialism. On land supplied by
SJ along the railway lines, allotments for vegetable, fruit and flower cultivation
were established. During 1931 these allotments amounted to about 70 hectares
throughout the country.17
The societal commitment was further reflected by, for example, schools for
employees,18
courses in Esperanto promoting international communication
among railway staff, and the collection and supply of aid to European railway
workers in distress after the First World War.
Due to the food shortages in the First World War, SJ promoted increased
cultivation of root crops. In 1917 the Director of Horticulture reported that SJ
staff had produced potatoes to support 50 000 people.19
Even the lineman at
FIGURE 1. Plantations at Ervalla station in the early 1960s, presumably 1963. The picture was
taken by Harald Johansson, garden manager of the O¨ rebro district. The workers are most likely
garden assistants of the district.
the horticultural heritage of the swedish state railways
345

Tegelbacken in the centre of Stockholm had 31 potato plants at his railway
crossing. The Royal Board of Railway Transportation issued a circular in which
SJ employees were granted a few days leave of absence for cultivation of potatoes
on the grassy strips along railway lines.20
In order to help staff and their families
cope with the post-war food shortages, there was a system for education and
advice regarding food issues and other domestic problems.
In 1916 the Royal Board of Railway Transportation, the central body which
gave permission to build railway lines, argued that new railway lines in the
northern part of Sweden should be located in districts where the most positive
effects on agriculture, food production and distribution could be achieved.21
This again reflects the active role of SJ in the development of Swedish society.
In spite of increasing rationalization, SJ took part in and encouraged activities
for the responsible development of society. We can see this clearly in a book for
SJ staff: ‘SJ can in its role as a public utility company not only have a businesslike
view on its operation’.22
This may be the reason why in 1957, on the initiative of
its staff, SJ established a library service in the most remote parts of northern
Sweden. This service quickly became very popular among the inhabitants. On
one day per month books were distributed by train or inspection trolley, while
SJ staff sometimes served as librarians.23
The utility aspect of gardening mentioned earlier was strongly adopted in the
linemen’s cottage gardens. From the opening of the first railway lines, track
maintenance relied on linemen working and living along the lines. To house
these linemen, cottages were built directly alongside the line, a few kilometres
apart. These dwellings were provided with gardens with a pronounced demand
for utility. In 1906, 2166 linemen’s cottages and other dwellings had been
provided with planting areas.24
The lineman needed to grow vegetables for his family and sometimes also
used the land along the line to feed his cow, horse or goat. The lineman’s cottage
garden naturally did not display the same floral splendour as the station park, but
only contained fruit trees, berry shrubs and a few flowering shrubs (figure 2).
FIGURE 2. Drawing of a lineman’s cottage at Aneby in 1919. Note the large areas for utility
gardening. Potatisland = for potatoes and tubers, ko¨kstra¨dga˚rd = for vegetables, ba¨rbuskar = berry
shrubs, frukttra¨d = fruit trees, blomsterland = flower bed, bersa˚ = arbour, syren = lilac, liguster =
privet, hagtornsha¨ck = hawthorn hedge, gra¨splan = grass. Drawing found in the National Archives,
District Archive of Gothenburg.
346

The garden may also have had an arbour and some minor perennial flower beds. A
garden plot of about 100 to 150 square metres was used for root crops such as
potatoes and carrots, and also for other vegetables such as onions and cabbage. In
areas where fruit trees could not cope with the climate, the area close to the house
was used for ornamentals and some land was left for cultivation of oats, rye or
grass. For winter storage of root crops, jam, lemonade and other homemade
foods, an earth cellar was used. This cool storage was the main type of food storage
until the introduction of electric refrigerators after the Second World War.
In 1886, the Horticultural Society of Uppsala wrote to the Royal Board of
Railway Transportation asking:
. . . that the Royal Board will at suitable places along the railway line have fruit
trees planted, especially apples, pears, cherries and plums.25
The Horticultural Society emphasized the role of Swedish railways in
enlightenment:
One does not need to travel very far on the railways of our country to perceive the
good influence the railway plantations and buildings exert on the vicinity through
their beauty and orderliness. The country people are not unteachable when they
with their own eyes see something new and useful and in all probability many small
farmers living close to the railways would learn from this and soon get their own
fruit trees.26
SJ itself recognized its role in spreading horticulture in Sweden by showing
people good examples of garden design and plant choice.27
The Director of
Horticulture Sundius wrote in the 50-year anniversary book of SJ that:
In many regards the state railways have given good examples, and by their
plantations they should have had an educating effect on the people in those
areas affected by the railway. This fact has been recognized both privately and
publicly. ‘People follow the example’, consequently one has seen how beautiful
plantings have been arranged at homes and farms where the railway passes.28
The interest of SJ in the green environments surrounding the railway stations
was well in line with the contemporary interest in creating public parks and
thereby healthier environments for workers and their families. During the
decades following 1860, a large number of new parks were laid out in
Sweden. Diseases were to be controlled by healthier homes and outdoor
environments. The park was also considered to offer a more suitable environ-
ment for children than streets and markets.29
At the same time as the railways
were built in Sweden, horticultural and agricultural societies came on the scene
with the aim of disseminating knowledge on cultivation to both rural and urban
populations. Olof Eneroth, later the first Director of Horticulture at SJ, was one
of the leading proponents of public parks in the mid-1800s.30
Together with
N. J. Ericsson and Daniel Mu¨ller, Eneroth was an important writer and com-
municator of ideas relating to gardening, healthier living and general moral
improvement.31
Becoming the Director of Horticulture for SJ in 1862 most
likely gave Eneroth the opportunity to combine his personal ideas of parks for
the people with the aims of SJ to spread horticulture in Sweden. The railway
could offer towns and villages a public park regardless of policy or of the
financial situation of these towns and villages. In small communities, the railway
park was still often the only public well-kept green area in the 1960s.32
Besides being a proponent of public parks, Olof Eneroth strongly supported
school gardens. According to Eneroth the school garden would provide practical
experience and knowledge of gardening, while developing a sense of aesthetics.33
The Directors of Horticulture and their gardens
We have already mentioned some of the Directors of Horticulture (table 1), but
let us now look into how the railway plantations changed under the different
directors.
As mentioned earlier, the first Director of Horticulture for SJ, Olof Eneroth,
was a well-known horticulturist. Due to health reasons he resigned in 1872. His
successor, Frey Hellman, was a military judge-advocate and head of the music
corps at the Royal Kalmar Regiment. Hellman had studied music, garden
architecture and art during his studies in law. Because of his position and interest
in gardening, we can assume that Hellman was acquainted with the work of
table 1. Directors of horticulture for the gardening organization of Swedish
Railways.
Olof Eneroth 1862–1872
Frey Hellman 1872–1887
Agaton Sundius 1888–1910
Enoch Cederpalm 1910–1938
Go¨sta Reuterswa¨rd 1938–1960
External consultant Henning Segerros 1961–1973
347

Eneroth. Few documents written by Hellman can be found today. Remaining
notebooks from inspection travels in western Sweden 1885–1886 (figure 3)
reveal suggestions for plantations and Hellman also notes that some of the
stations were poorly managed and needed extensive weeding.
When Hellman died in the summer of 1887, SJ appointed Agathon Sundius as
its next Director of Horticulture. At that time he was working as a lecturer on
gardening at the teacher training college in Linko¨ping. It is somewhat unclear
whether the position as Director of Horticulture was a full-time job. During his
employment, Sundius still seems to have lived and worked in his home town.
The annual reports on railway gardening activities are signed in Linko¨ping and
he published books stating that he was both a lecturer in gardening and Director
of Horticulture at SJ. He also carried out some commissions as a garden architect
for private and public parks alongside his employment at SJ.
His background in horticultural production and school gardens is probably
one reason why Sundius oversaw the widespread plantation of utility plants at SJ
during his 20-year employment. In a book on gardening for seminars and
schools, farm schools, farmers and horticulturists, he stated that the school
garden should be a model of a simple country-house garden and provide the
children with knowledge on how such a garden was to be managed, while
arousing their interest to do so.34
Moreover, he stated that every child upon
leaving school should be allowed to bring home one or two of the fruit trees he
or she had tended during their time at school. Sundius’s desire to combine
functionalism (food production) and cultural education (aesthetics) can be seen
in that during his term as Director of Horticulture, SJ planted roughly 22 000
fruit trees and 40 000 berry shrubs.35
Furthermore, in 1906 Sundius was respon-
sible for planting 540 000 flowering plants.36
Sundius died in 1910.
The traveller’s first impression when entering a station in the late 1800s was
that the area was surrounded by deciduous trees. Most likely there was a central
deciduous tree in front of the station building, e.g. a weeping form of ash or
lime. Furthermore, the traveller would most likely encounter complex planta-
tions, so-called ‘flower tapestries’, made with annual and perennial plants. These
kinds of plantations were generally used in parks from the 1870s to the early
1900s. The plantations were mainly designed in the German style, having
meandering paths and numerous arbours. There are unfortunately only a hand-
ful of drawings from railway station parks preserved from the period 1856–1900.
Furthermore, these drawings are seldom signed and sometimes not even dated.
We believe that these early railway parks were not much different in style from
other parks of this period. However, many stations and their parks were laid out
on virgin land or on the outskirts of existing villages and cities. Consequently, SJ
probably seldom needed to adapt to the existing architectural style of either
buildings or parks.
A station park during the early 1900s contained a number of trees and shrubs
that are still used today; beech, birch, oak, maple and mountain ash were
common trees, as were bushes of lilac, elder, hornbeam, guelder-rose, hazel
and mock-orange.
The flower tapestries were expensive to maintain and gradually disappeared
during Sundius’s regime. Sundius seems to have placed great emphasis on
utilities such as fruit and berry production, hedges for living fences and hedges
for snow and fire protection. He seems to have taken less interest in advanced
flower tapestries.
FIGURE 3. Copy from Hellman’s notebook showing the Director of Horticulture’s inventory
and notes on suggested measures of different stations in 1885–1886. From the private archives of the
Hellman family.
348

Like Hellman, Sundius died in his post and was succeeded by Enoch
Cederpalm in 1910. Cederpalm lived and worked in Stockholm and seems to
have held his position of Director of Horticulture as a full-time post, although
he also carried out some garden architectural commissions for private individuals
and organizations. Cederpalm had previously had his own nursery company in
Trondheim, Norway. Ms Marit By,37
landscape architect at the Norwegian
Railway Maintenance organization suggests that some of the plantations and
parks along the Hamar–Trondheim–Fauske line were designed by Cederpalm,
but this opinion has not yet been confirmed by documents.
Roses and Virginia creeper (or hops in northern areas) were often used in the
station parks and plantations during the time of Cederpalm. He paid great
attention to the preservation of existing trees and tried to preserve the natural
landscape elements when he designed a railway garden. He believed that the
existing nature should be incorporated into the garden in order to create an
entity between existing terrain and garden. Cederpalm began to use perennials
and climbing plants to a greater extent than his predecessors. In the flower beds
of the buffer stops more rockery plants were used instead of annual plants
produced in greenhouses. In contrast to Sundius, Cederpalm seems not to
have been particularly interested in planting fruit trees and berry bushes in the
station parks. In 1918 detailed instructions on the maintenance of plantations
were published, including instructions on lawn mowing, weeding, animal
husbandry, pruning, irrigation and other measures.38
After Cederpalm’s death in March 1938, Go¨sta Reuterswa¨rd was employed as
Director of Horticulture at SJ. Reuterswa¨rd was by then already a famous
garden architect39
and developed the idea of parks as green waiting rooms
available for travellers, railway staff and inhabitants in the villages and towns.
He clearly emphasized the function of the railway parks for the public and his
directions for the plantations at the stations indicate this ambition:
As the railway stations actually are to be considered as public parks, no other plants
should be used there than those the general public can obtain. Moreover, from an
educational point of view, all plants should be labelled. That is the best way to gain
benefit from the general educational work of SJ.40
His plans and motives for simplification and functionalism are also indicated by
his words from 1940 cited earlier in this paper.
Through Reuterswa¨rd’s extensive modernization during the period
1940–1950, with new flower beds, ponds, fountains, flowering shrubs and
seating areas, the plantations provided better comfort and became more attrac-
tive to users (figure 4). The old arbours were removed and replaced by seats and
perennial flower beds. Huge quantities of roses, bulbs and annual flowers were
planted every year for the public benefit. At the end of the 1940s, about 700 000
plants were distributed every year to the railway gardens from the central
production sites. We note in the preserved documents an evident pride in the
gardening organization of SJ. Dahlias, lobelias, begonia and petunias were
transported from the plant depots to flower beds and waiting rooms of the
stations. Plants were also distributed to offices, railway restaurants, railway travel
agencies and railway ferries all over Sweden.
The outdoor waiting room, i.e. a seating area in close proximity to the station
building, became a common element in the parks in the 1940–1960s. Paths using
limestone as paving, simple benches of stone and wood, open lawn areas and
roses in abundance were typical of the period and could be found from the south
to the north of Sweden. Various urns and annual pot plants (figure 5) were used
outdoors and in the waiting rooms of the stations. Lobelia, petunia, Indian cress
and pansies were commonly used.
FIGURE 4. Detail of a typical railway plantation designed by Go¨sta Reuterswa¨rd in the mid-
1950s. The site, Mo¨rlunda, in south-east Sweden, is unfortunately not preserved today. Drawing
found in the National Archives, District Archive of Gothenburg.
349

In December 1960, at the age of 68, Go¨sta Reuterswa¨rd left SJ at his own
request. In 1961 Henning Segerros, an external horticultural consultant, became
head of the SJ gardening organization. Unfortunately, SJ’s interest in its gardening
organization had already begun to decline in the late 1950s. During the 1960s,
outdoor seating became simpler in style. The introduction of cast concrete instead
of limestone resulted in a more stereotypical environment. The cast concrete urns
were used in abundance. However, the gardening staff had complaints about urn
weight (about 150 kilograms) and about the urn plantations being of low quality in
an artistic sense. The urns were often planted with small annual plants such as
petunia and lobelia, giving the flower arrangement a somewhat less well-
composed appearance. Segerros partly exchanged the urns for wooden flower
boxes (figure 6) in order to keep some annual flowers at the stations.41
In general,
perennial plants such as Rosa rugosa and Potentilla fruticosa and coniferous bushes
such as Juniperus dominated the plantations in an attempt to reduce maintenance
costs. Segerros was the last Director of Horticulture at SJ. In 1973, SJ closed down
its central gardening organization and handed over decisions about plantations,
but no economic means, to the local station manager. Some districts kept their
gardeners for some years, but the majority of the staff retired or were transferred to
other tasks, such as chemical control of brushwood alongside the lines.
From travelling to transport
During the 1960s SJ became less interested in its horticultural heritage. At that
time Sweden experienced widespread closure of railway lines and stations as bus
traffic and private cars were favoured. The winding down of the gardening
organization during the 1960s reflected the increasing focus on rational handling
of passengers and goods. Unprofitable lines were shut down and the travellers
FIGURE 5. Cast concrete urn designed by Go¨sta Reuterswa¨rd about 1943. It was still in use in
the 1960s. This picture of a Fuchsia fulgens was taken on 29 September 1960 at the small station
Degero¨n, central Sweden, by Harald Johansson, garden manager of the O¨ rebro district.
FIGURE 6. Typical wooden flower boxes designed by Segerros in order to replace the older
concrete urns. This picture of Hallberg station in 1962 was taken by Harald Johansson, garden
manager of the O¨ rebro district.
350

were directed to bus lines or their own private cars. Private cars became available
to the common man to such an extent in the mid-1960s that the environment
around the railway stations had to be changed to accommodate parking and the
railway plantations were changed accordingly. In the new SJ organization,
which was launched in 1964, investments were directed to time-saving technical
devices at the cost of plantations and gardening. The main focus of SJ shifted
from travelling to transportation.
Segerros summarized the direction of the new organization thus:
Despite our so-called wealth, it seems that our economy goes from bad to worse.
It is a general opinion that anything that doesn’t give value for money in principle
should be abolished.42
The view displayed in this quote is in sharp contrast to the previous views of SJ as
a multifunctional actor serving society not only by providing transportation, but
also, for example, by providing travelling experiences, including aesthetic and
educational elements. Several examples of the variety of functions of SJ are given
at the start of this paper. The railway organization spread and established the
ideals of the time. When the ideals of society changed to focus strictly on
rationality and efficiency, the railway had no option but to introduce a brutal
change in its business.
When SJ began to focus on rationality in the 1960s and to look for utilities that
could be measured in economic terms, the gardening organization had difficulty
finding a new role. We found no documents in the archives showing that the
Director of Horticulture argued that his organization was a necessary part of
SJ. On the contrary, the director seems to have understood that SJ had to abolish
parts of its organization that had little value in economic terms.
Attempts to adapt to a down-sizing of the organization were made by the
Director of Horticulture, who shut down plant nurseries and increased peren-
nial plantations instead of annual flowers. Remaining drawings from this period
clearly show how the simplification of plantations was achieved. Plants with a
low need for maintenance such as Rosa rugosa, Potentilla fruticosa and Juniperus sp.
replaced annual plants and roses. Grass lawns are another way to provide green
areas and these often replaced flowerbeds and low hedges.
The adaptation to a rational, more efficient railway organization started back
in the 1950s and has continued to the present day. The magazine of SJ reported
in 1953 that:
We must focus all our efforts on the removal of unnecessary and useless work and
all doubled work where it occurs. In all areas we must seek to make use of labour-
saving machines and machine aids at the fastest possible pace, all with the purpose
of bringing down the need for human labour, which tends to become more and
more expensive.43
An evident and, from a horticultural perspective, tragic example of how these
ideas were realized even in the mid-1990s is that of Sko¨vde station in south-west
Sweden. In the mid-1960s the site was still a well-kept and typical example of
Director of Horticulture Enoch Cederpalm’s ideas of a railway plantation in the
1930s. Pictures from 1963 and presumably 1964 show a colourful seating area
with benches and a splendid view of the railway tracks (figure 7). Today the
station has been turned into a travel centre, with the focus on being a connection
point between trains and buses (figure 8). The green areas within the station site
have been removed.
We should not forget that Sweden as a whole went through a massive change in
the 1950s and 1960s. This was the period of modernization and motoring. Many
city centres were completely torn down and centuries-old buildings were replaced
FIGURE 7. Sko¨vde railway station in 1963 or 1964. The picture was taken by district gardener
Birger Hagneryd.
351

by concrete, multi-storey complexes for living and business. Some especially
criticized projects in Stockholm, for example, have been compared to the effects
of the aerial bombing of Germany during World War II. In the light of con-
temporary ideas on modern life and society, the railway plantations and their
proponents were bound to lose the battle. Efficacy won over aesthetics. In practice,
the gardeners of SJ were retired or redeployed in weed management or goods
handling. The age of travelling was over and the age of transport had arrived.
Future prospects based on a horticultural heritage
During the late 1800s and further on into the mid-1950s, the idea of the railway
plantations was to provide both a place to relax in before or after a train stop and
a signal that the state was a reliable partner in a mutual agreement between
passenger and railway. A tidy and decent station was part of the concept of the
railway, showing an organization able to keep to the timetable, behave correctly
towards customers and at the same time educate visitors in basic manners (be
punctual, be tidy) and horticulture (these plants are suitable for your garden).
We can only speculate whether the railway at that time also had economic terms
in mind or considered questions such as ‘attractiveness’ or ‘marketing’ in their
ambition of providing well-kept plantations.
Would it be possible to use the horticultural heritage of the railways of the past in
our modern society? Beautiful flower beds and well-kept green environments still
send the message of a well-managed and well-functioning transportation system.
It can of course be argued that waiting in a green outdoor environment is
merely a waste of time, an unproductive use of time, and that this time has no or
little economic or societal value. Glenn Lyons and John Urry44
discuss the
matter of travel time use in train transport and have challenged this point of
view. They argue that there but are few activities during rail travel that can be
considered unproductive. Reading, sleeping, listening to music/radio, enter-
taining children, etc., all offer a positive value to the individual, even if not
always in economic terms. A subsequent study by Glenn Lyons, Juliet Jain and
David Holley45
showed a substantial incidence of positive utility of travel time
use, especially for business travel but also for commuting and leisure travel. We
believe that their reasoning is applicable to green outdoor waiting areas, some-
times integrated into the travel experience.
Rebuilding green areas around stations, intended for waiting, would enhance
the positive value for passengers waiting for their train or for other citizens
waiting for relatives, friends or business associates to arrive by train.
Furthermore, we believe that the attractiveness of an area close to a
railway station could be improved by plantations and that this, in turn,
would make waiting for train arrivals and departure a more positive
experience. In 2007 the town of Uppsala celebrated the 300-year anniver-
sary of Carl Linnaeus by laying down a temporary plantation in front of
the railway station (figure 9). It soon became evident that this area, in
general used for passing only between the station and the streets leading to
the city centre, was being used an outdoor waiting room and for various
activities such as personal conversations, reading, looking at plants, eating/
drinking, people-watching, resting and making telephone calls. The planta-
tion added a value to the area that had been lost for decades and today,
FIGURE 8. Sko¨vde railway station in 2006. The picture was taken by Fredrik Fogelberg at about
the same place and angle as figure 7.
352

after the construction of a new railway station, has again been lost. In this
case SJ and other railway actors had the opportunity to regain part of their
horticultural heritage but were unable to seize the moment.
Looking back at the ideals of the SJ Directors of Horticulture, it is
obvious that they did not consider waiting time at stations to be a waste of
time, but a positive value for the passenger as well as for the railway
organization. Today, it is our belief that a change in the perception of
waiting time as being merely ‘killing time’ could be achieved if it were
possible to set an economic value on waiting time. Such a change would
probably open up new opportunities for society and railway companies to
reintroduce plantations and actually make use of the horticultural heritage
for the comfort of passengers in a modern context.
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank the Swedish Board of Railway Maintenance for financing the
project ‘Att a˚terskapa banvaktstugans tra¨dga˚rd – en kunskapsbank fo¨r framtida
offentlig gestaltning’ Banverkets dnr S04–3118/AL50, and especially landscape
architect Johan Bergkvist for kind support throughout the project. BSc Maria
Flink generously shared her knowledge and professional skills on ornmental
plants and their habitats.
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala
JTI – Swedish Institute of Agricultural
and Environmental Engineering, Uppsala
notes
1. Henry Kjellvard, Det bevingade hjulets folk (Stockholm:
Victor Petterssons bokindustriaktiebolag, 1949),
pp. 41, 364, 367.
2. Agathon Sundius, ‘Planteringar’, in Gustaf Welin
(ed.), Statens ja¨rnva¨gar 1856–1906: Historisk-teknisk-
ekonomisk beskrifning (Stockholm: Centraltryckeriet,
1906), pp. 584–609.
3. Enoch Cederpalm, Tra¨dga˚rdsdirekto¨rens a˚rsbera¨ttelse
1910, pp. 1–5.
4. Agathon Sundius, Tra¨dga˚rdsdirekto¨rens a˚rsbera¨ttelse
1905, 27 April 1906.
5. Enoch Cederpalm, Bera¨ttelse till Kungl.
Ja¨rnva¨gsstyrelsen anga˚ende tra¨dga˚rds- och planterings-
va¨sendet vid Statens Ja¨rnva¨gar 1911, p. 7.
Ja¨rnva¨gsstyrelsen anga˚ende tra¨dga˚rds- och
planteringsva¨sendet vid statens ja¨rnva¨gar 1915,
pp. 1–7.
Ja¨rnva¨gsstyrelsen anga˚ende tra¨dga˚rds- och planter-
ingsva¨sendet vid statens ja¨rnva¨gar 1925, p. 2.
FIGURE 9. The plantations outside Uppsala railway station in 2007. The plantation was a part
of the 300-year celebration of Carl Linnaeus.
353

8. Enoch Cederpalm, Till Kungl. Ja¨rnva¨gsstyrelsen.
Ang. planteringsva¨sendet vid Statens Ja¨rnva¨gar
under a˚r 1935, p. 1.
9. Enoch Cederpalm, ‘Sveriges deltagande i internatio-
nella utsta¨llningen av tra¨dga˚rdskonst i London den
17–24 oktober 1928’, Lustga˚rden 10, 1929, pp.
179–190. The original quote in Swedish has been
translated by the authors.
10. Go¨sta Reuterswa¨rd, ‘Riktlinjer fo¨r planteringen vid
statens ja¨rnva¨gars stationer’, Statsbaneingenjo¨ren, feb-
ruari, 1940, pp. 38–40. The original quote in Swedish
has been translated by the authors.
11. See note 10.
12. ‘Da¨r Inlandsbanan bryter bygd’. Svenska
Ja¨rnva¨gstidningen (no. 46, 1916), p. 3. The original
quote in Swedish has been translated by the authors.
13. Olof Eneroth, Tra¨dga˚rdsodling och naturfo¨rsko¨nings-
konst. Tredje samlingen (Stockholm: P. A. Nyman,
1863). The original quote in Swedish has been trans-
lated by the authors.
14. Utredning anga˚ende uppfo¨rande af bosta¨llshus vid statens
ja¨rnva¨gar af 1911 a˚rs byggnadskomission. Meddelande
fra˚n Kungl. ja¨rnva¨gsstyrelsen no 7 (Stockholm:
Centraltryckeriet, 1911), p. 6.
15. Agathon Sundius, Tra¨dga˚rdsdirekto¨rens a˚rsbera¨ttelse
1906, 26 April 1907, p. 2.
16. See note 5.
17. Enoch Cederpalm, ‘Statens ja¨rnva¨gar som pionia¨r fo¨r
tra¨dga˚rdsodlingen’, 1935, in Tra¨dga˚rdsodlingen i
Sverige: Hyllningsskrift tilla¨gnad Carl G. Dahl pa˚ sex-
tioa˚rsdagen den 17 juni 1935 (Stockholm: Saxon &
Lindstro¨ms fo¨rlag), p. 322.
18. ‘Skolor fo¨r jernva¨gsma¨n’. Svensk jernva¨gs-tidning (no.
13, 1893), pp. 99–100.
19. ‘Rotfruktsodlingen vid S. J. Tra¨dga˚rdsdirekto¨rens
redogo¨relse fo¨r sko¨rderesultatet 1917’. Svenska ja¨rn-
va¨gstidningen (no. 11–12, 1918), p. 5.
20. See note 1.
21. ‘Inlandsbanan och de norrla¨ndska tva¨rbanorna’.
Svenska ja¨rnva¨gstidningen (no. 36, 1916), p. 3.
22. Anonymous, Er bana – ja¨rnva¨gen. En orientering om
verksamheten vid SJ (Tomteboda: Statens ja¨rnva¨gars
tryckeri, 1950).
23. ‘Trivselta˚get bokta˚get’. SJ-nytt (no 5, 1957), p. 2.
24. See note 4.
25. Axel Pihl and Jakob Eriksson, ‘Tva¨nne framsta¨llnin-
gar till Kongl styrelsen fo¨r Statens Ja¨rnva¨gstrafik ro¨r-
ande plantering af frukttra¨d utefter statens ja¨rnva¨gar’,
Svenska Tra¨dga˚rdsfo¨reningens tidskrift, 1886, pp. 40–49.
The original quote in Swedish has been translated by
the authors.
26. Axel Pihl and Jakob Eriksson. ‘Tva¨nne framsta¨llningar
till Kongl styrelsen fo¨r Statens Ja¨rnva¨gstrafik ro¨rande
plantering af frukttra¨d utefter statens ja¨rnva¨gar. Svenska
Tra¨dga˚rdsfo¨reningens tidskrift, 1886, pp. 120–121. The
original quote in Swedish has been translated by the
authors.
27. ‘Pionja¨rga¨rning’. SJ-nytt (no. 23–24, 1960), p. 2.
28. See note 2. The original quote in Swedish has been
29. Catharina Nolin, Till stadsbornas nytta och fo¨rlustande:
Den offentliga parken i Sverige under 1800-talet (Laholm:
Trydells tryckeri, 1999), pp. 52, 324.
30. Olof Eneroth, Tra¨dga˚rdsodling och naturfo¨rsko¨nings-
konst. Andra samlingen (Stockholm: Joh. Beckman,
1859), pp. 37–46.
31. See note 29.
32. ‘Krokus blommar i sno¨n hos avga˚ende tra¨dga˚rdsdir-
ekto¨r’. SJ-nytt (no. 23–24, 1960), p. 2.
33. Petter A˚ kerblom, ‘Footprints of school gardens in
Sweden’, Garden History, 32/2, 2004, pp. 229–247.
34. Agathon Sundius, Handbok i tra¨dga˚rdssko¨tsel, fo¨r semi-
narier och folkskolor, landtmannaskolor, landtma¨n och tra¨d-
ga˚rdsodlare. Andra upplagan med 46 tra¨snitt och 3:ne
fa¨rglagda planritningar (Stockholm: Fr. Skoglunds
Fo¨rlag, Seelig & C:is Fo¨rlagsfirma, 1901).
35. See note 3.
36. See note 15.
37. Marit By, 2010, personal communication. In spring
2010 Ms Marit By, the Norwegian State Railway
Maintenance, claimed that there are examples of
stations parks along the railway between
Trondheim and Oslo that have been designed by
Enoch Cederpalm.
38. Fo¨reskrifter och anvisningar ro¨rande anla¨ggning och under-
ha˚ll av Statens Ja¨rnva¨gars planteringar, odlade och gra¨sba¨r-
ande mark. Sa¨tryck 22, 1918.
39. Eva Gustavsson, Garden Ideals and Views of Knowledge.
A Study in the Expression of Meaning, with Examples
from the Work of Go¨sta Reuterswa¨rd and Ulla Molin
(Alnarp: Swedish University of Agricultural
Sciences, 2001).
40. See note 10. The original quote in Swedish has been
41. Henning Segerros, Tra¨dga˚rdsverksamheten vid
Statens Ja¨rnva¨gar, Rapport omfattande kalendera˚ret
1961, 15 January 1962.
42. ‘A¨ ven stationer ma˚ste a˚ldras vackert’. SJ-nytt (no. 18,
1970), p. 14. The original quote in Swedish has been
43. ‘Vi ma˚ste rationalisera’. SJ-nytt (no 1, 1953), p. 3. The
original quote in Swedish has been translated by the
authors.
44. Glenn Lyons and John Urry, ‘Travel time use in the
information age’, Transportation Research Part A, 39,
2005, pp. 257–276.
45. Glenn Lyons, Juliet Jain and David Holley, ‘The
use of travel time by rail passengers in Great
Britain’, Transportation Research Part A, 41, 2007,
pp. 107–120.
354

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