Arriving to this open place north of Nøklevann in such a nice weather was wonderful, for a moment I wanted to just give up civilized life and settle down here, building a shed and starting homesteading ... it should probably be possible to survive somehow. There has been a small farm here earlier.
position: geo:59.897022,10.873937 (geohack) - 2018-10-18 10:59:07 localtime - full quality
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Nøklevann looks a bit like a key on the map, and that may be the reason for the name - "nøkkel" means key. It's a reasonably big lake, 3 km long. It was used as a drinking water reservoir from 1903-1983, and is still a stand-by reserve reservoir.
The train tunnel between the Oslo central station and Lillestrøm and the Oslo Airport (Gardermoen) is located under the lake, there was big problems with big water leakages into the tunnel. They were trying to stop the leakages with Roca-Gil - as they were doing the works, there was a big scandal in Sweden as toxic compounds leaked into the water supply - so they had to stop using Rhoca-Gil at once, making it even harder to stop the water. At the worst there was more than 4000 liters of water per minute running into the tunnel. It was a big mess, big cost overruns, one smaller lake (Nordre Puttjern) almost disappeared completely. More than 50 houses was written off due to the ground moving, even more got economical compensation for damages. It was a big question if they were to try opening the tunnel as planned at the same time as the airport opened; eventually they spent two more years trying to reduce the leakages - and still they didn't succeed completely, they have installed pumps to keep the water level from falling too low. For those reading Norwegian, there is an article at Aftenposten.
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position: geo:59.893894,10.876685 (geohack) - 2018-10-18 11:08:18 localtime - full quality
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position: geo:59.892375,10.878733 (geohack) - 2018-10-18 11:10:59 localtime - full quality
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Then I came to some ruins - it was quite amazing. Two big structures. There were information boards there, so I learned that the name of the place was Sarabråten. The biggest building was bought up by the municipality and torn down because they considered the activity there as incompatible with the lake being a drinking water reservoir. THe other building burnt down in 1971. There seems to be a wordpress site dedicated to this place, https://sarabraaten.wordpress.com/ (norwegian).
position: geo:59.892345,10.878733 (geohack) - 2018-10-18 11:11:10 localtime - full quality
position: geo:59.89188,10.878764 (geohack) - 2018-10-18 11:11:46 localtime - full quality
I don't believe the cellar was used as a prison, and I don't believe burglery was such a great problem out here, still those windows looks quite fortified ...
position: geo:59.889232,10.863716 (geohack) - 2018-10-18 11:12:15 localtime - full quality
position: geo:59.891952,10.87921 (geohack) - 2018-10-18 11:12:35 localtime - full quality
Here are the ruins from the other building, that burned down in 1971.
position: geo:59.891952,10.87921 (geohack) - 2018-10-18 11:12:47 localtime - full quality
position: geo:59.889232,10.863716 (geohack) - 2018-10-18 11:16:12 localtime - full quality
This is how the place looked like in the 1880s:
Photo by Axel Theodor Lindahl (1841-1906). Sources: Nasjonalbiblioteket, Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
The white building was moved and expanded with one floor as the big house got built
This is how the big house looked like (built 1903):
Sourced from Oslo Bymuseum via Wikimedia Commons, photograph unknown
Sourced from Oslo Bymuseum via https://sarabraaten.wordpress.com/ - unknown photograph
That's really an amazing building, and such a shame that it was torn down! Silly politicians! The timber was sold for constructing some other house. Possibly after an election (didn't find details on that), there was made attempts to buy back the timber so the house could be reconstructed again - but that was of course far too late.
This is how the smaller house (the old house that was moved and expanded) looked like before it burnt down:
Sourced from sarabraaten.wordpress.com, https://sarabraaten.wordpress.com/kuskeboligen/ - Ulf Berntsen
They also had three boats on the lake - Sara, Dragen and Marie. The photo below is from 1897, today such bouys are made of plastic - in earlier times glass balls were frequently used for keeping fishing nets. Looks like wooden barrels are being used on this photo.
Sourced from the national library via https://sarabraaten.wordpress.com/hjulbaten-sara/ - foto: Marthinius Skøien
The biggest boat (Sara) was with hand-driven paddle wheels. Two persons driving the wheels and capacity for 20 (!) passengers (I suppose that by todays security standards, the official capacity would be downgraded to a handful of passengers). Those photos are from 1903 and 1874:
Sourced from https://sarabraaten.wordpress.com/hjulbaten-sara/, unknown photograph(s) - full quality (14MB)
A memorial from the war (in Norway, "the war" refers to WWII).
position: geo:59.889232,10.863716 (geohack) - 2018-10-18 11:19:16 localtime - full quality
Nine members of the resistance movement killed just a month or three before the end of the war - what a bad luck.
position: geo:59.892265,10.880167 (geohack) - 2018-10-18 11:20:56 localtime - full quality
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I continued this way
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This was the drinking water reservoir for Sarabråten
position: geo:59.873226,10.808648 (geohack) - 2018-10-18 11:41:31 localtime - full quality
With such a heap of rottening leaves in the bottom of the reservoir, I wonder how adviseable it is to drink the water.
position: geo:59.889915,10.881643 (geohack) - 2018-10-18 11:42:37 localtime - full quality
position: geo:59.889934,10.881425 (geohack) - 2018-10-18 11:43:04 localtime - full quality
This water tube was going down to the houses at Sarabråten. The construction would typically be full of water with the stream overflowing from the top of the construction, ensuring there would always be enough water when opening the taps in the house - and probably this dam is usually full, that's easy to see from the dark surface on the stones. Now when studying the photos, I can see that the water level on the inside is quite much higher than the tube - the tube is probably partially blocked by leaves, constraining the flow.
position: geo:59.889934,10.881425 (geohack) - 2018-10-18 11:43:19 localtime - full quality
Here is the source of the water in the stream
position: geo:59.889232,10.863716 (geohack) - 2018-10-18 12:00:00 localtime - full quality
position: geo:59.891448,10.885992 (geohack) - 2018-10-18 12:00:30 localtime - full quality
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Selected photos available in original quality on IPFS Qme1LfBop6nSAQnRtSpwVQ8BsXBfc77ARkDz1vf18dVmKG. All photos taken available in original quality on IPFS QmZ5UGH8Dnz5KmHgP9vC4CXWFcLhoGARBm6QG41xBJVPv2. The CC BY-SA 4.0 license applies on both my photos and the article
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