Attractions

Samperi’s locomotive and railway

Hugo Richard Sandberg brought engine power to the wilderness in the 1910’s. Come and explore the events of Tulppio!

Location

Tulppiontie 36
98840Ruuvaoja

A piece of savotta history

Samperi’s railway got its name from Hugo Richard Sandberg, whom the people called “Samperi”. Sandberg organized the first machine savotta in Lapland in the early 1910’s by ordering two crawler locomotives from America. The transportation of locomotives to Tulppio was a challenging undertaking. The locomotives were transported to Oulu by ship, then by train to Rovaniemi. From there the rest of the journey, 300 kilometers, the machines were pulled by 200 horses via Sodankylä all the way to Tulppio.

The first load transported with a locomotive was from Maskaselkä to the beach in 21.2.1913. The second locomotive saw action year later. Because of the technical limitations, the logs had to be transported with horses to temporary storages along the road, where they could be picked up. There the logs were cut to pieces. After the transportation the logs were rolled into the Kemijoki river. 

One of the Samperi’s locomotives was restored in 1988 by the municipality of Savukoski, and it was then moved to its current location in Tulppio, next to the old railway. The other locomotive is located in the forest museum of Rovaniemi. In Tulppio the locomotive stands on top of a concrete platform and there is a shelter protecting it. 

Railway went from Lattuna to Tulppio, and from there it split to two directions: to the edge of Maskaselkä and to the terrain of Pierkulinharju, Suurkovanselkä and Saijanvaara. The length of the road was 30-35 kilometers.

In 1916 the Great War made it difficult to find manpower. Horses were needed to transport cotton and military equipment. This paid better than the work at the log sites so that’s where the men went. The locomotives in Nuortti fell silent.

With the aid of these locomotives, from 1913 to 1916, 245 656 logs were transported from the forests of Nuortti to the Lattuna.

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