I had an hour in the town of Skien some days ago, I'm not much familiar with that place, I didn't know much about it except that it's pronounced somehow like "Sche'en", that it's very close (and connected with a river) with the neighbour town Porsgrunn (a place I visited briefly in the early summer), that it's the end-stop on the train line "Vestfoldbanen", and that it's a completely different place than Ski. I was surprised that the train station was a kilometer outside the center of the town - particularly considering that this is indeed the end-stop. I first walked downtown without taking any photographs, then back to the train station.

Here is Bryggevannet ...

position: geo:59.207096,9.610535 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:12:38 localtime - full quality

What is it actually? According to the name it's a lake, it looks more like a bay, but there is a lot of movement in the water, very unlike a bay or a lake ...

position: geo:59.206123,9.610778 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:14:10 localtime - full quality

The water seems to be coming from under that building. A former (or current?) power station? I couldn't find anything through a very quick internet search, but I suppose it was for a mill producing flour from wheat.

position: geo:59.206123,9.610778 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:14:14 localtime - full quality

I took some 5-6 shots here, planning to make an animation. Note to self: remember to keep the camera/phone completely still when making an animation of water in movement ... duh.

position: geo:59.206161,9.609845 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:15:10 localtime - full quality

At the upper side it's Hjellen/Hjellevannet, a dammed lake. Looking at the boats there, probably it's possible to get up there through some locks (checking Wikipedia ... yes, this is the starting point of Telemarkskanalen, the biggest out of two Norwegian inland waterways with locks connected to the sea. I should have known)

position: geo:59.20623,9.608201 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:16:51 localtime - full quality

To get up to the train station one should pretty much follow a valley. I went down following the east side of the valley, up again on the west side. Valleys typically feature a river or a stream; this one has none, but a bit of googling, and I found that there has been a small stream there - lortebekk (aka Kverndalsbekken). Today it's been dug down. Perhaps it's contributing to the visible water flow in Bryggevannet. The name "lortebekk" comes from the fact that a lot of waste and sewage found its way into the stream, so it was dirty, polluted and stinking (source). Allegedly, some people in the neighbour town Porsgrunn still use the derogative word "Lortebekk" for Skien.

position: geo:59.20829,9.606918 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:19:19 localtime - full quality

I do like the decoration at the wall. Nice church, too.

position: geo:59.208713,9.6076 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:20:26 localtime - full quality

The church is quite big indeed ... and it has a wikipedia entry as well.

position: geo:59.209651,9.605576 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:22:28 localtime - full quality

Norges Bank is the national bank of Norway. According to the right-hand blue sign it was build in 1846-1849, and was serving the national bank until 1986. By now it's apparently an art museum.

position: geo:59.209968,9.605366 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:22:48 localtime - full quality

Just a random street photo.

position: geo:59.213378,9.6029 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:37:42 localtime - full quality

Chr. Bjørgs Karosserifabrikk - so they produced coachworks for buses.

position: geo:59.214031,9.603159 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:38:52 localtime - full quality

According to a quick web search, the company still exists, they are doing service on damaged buses and lorries, metal repairworks and varnishing. More on lokalhistoriewiki and digitalt museum. Apparently the building has been expanded, here is an older photo (from digitalt museum):

"Sameiet Fortuna" ... meaning that the apartment building is collectively owned by the apartment owners. On the building it says "Fortuna sko". It's pretty obvious that this was a former shoe factory, now turned into an apartment building. There is more information at Lokalhistoriewiki, so apparently "Fortuna sko" was not the name of the factory itself, but one out of several trademarks produced there. There still seems to be shoes produced with the brand name "Fortuna", but probably with no relationship to the ones that were produced in Skien.

position: geo:59.214466,9.603418 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:39:55 localtime - full quality

Another random street shot ... same place, a bit different angle.

position: geo:59.214466,9.603418 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:39:59 localtime - full quality

position: geo:59.215442,9.604238 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:42:05 localtime - full quality

Some other car repair shop ...

position: geo:59.216194,9.602998 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:43:36 localtime - full quality

... seems like they are collecting old Volkswagens

position: geo:59.216232,9.603852 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:43:48 localtime - full quality

Quite amazing that the grass is still green here by this gate, "protected" by the dense trees.

position: geo:59.216876,9.603272 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:44:59 localtime - full quality

Train station.

position: geo:59.218357,9.602289 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:47:41 localtime - full quality

Oh. Inside the train station there is a poster with some suggestions on what to do and what to see in Skien. Too bad I'm seeing it when leaving the town. Well, I'll be back sooner or later, probably in June.

position: geo:59.21891,9.603255 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:50:01 localtime - full quality

Of course, I had to google a bit on the train stations as well. So, Vestfoldbanen was established in 1881/1882 (as Grevskapsbanen or Jarlsbergbanen), it was originally narrow-gauge (converted to standard gauge in 1949 and electrified in 1957). Originally the tracks ended at a station very centrally located right by Bryggevannet. Then another line was built, Bratsbergbanen in 1916. One of the main purposes of this line was to connect factories of Norsk Hydro at Rjukan with the harbour at Menstad/Borgestad (between Skien and Porsgrunn). This was a standard-gauge line, and they established a new railroad station Skien N (N for new) at the current location. Between Skien N and Menstad the track consisted of three rails, so both narrow-gauge and standard-gauge trains could use the rails. Skien N was used as the end-line of Vestfoldbanen between 1917 and 1927 - due to public pressure, the old station was again reopened and used for passenger traffic until it was permanently shut down in 1963 (I haven't been able to find out why).

While Skien is the end-stop of Vestfoldbanen (going from Oslo ... or, today it's R11 going through Oslo), there is also another more local line here, going between Porsgrunn and Notodden. The trains were meeting here as I came to the station, the T69 to the left has stopped at the station and should continue to Porsgrunn, the T70 to the right has just left the station and is heading for Notodden.

position: geo:59.219512,9.603617 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:51:28 localtime - full quality

View towards Porsgrunn

position: geo:59.218921,9.604007 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:52:07 localtime - full quality

Illegal to cross the tracks ... but definitively quite easy and faster than going through the station. It's quite strict in Norway, and most places there would be quite much more fences stopping people from just crossing the tracks.

position: geo:59.218837,9.604021 (geohack) - 2018-12-10 13:52:17 localtime - full quality

Selected photos available in original quality on IPFS QmcfE9mbGEqrnZnXpFnK5zo4m5FPpkSSW2LWooLo1nriGK. All photos taken available in original quality on IPFS QmaHNDwPDVn7SUFRDw27xvjFZdkCZwgRv21QT71AcVALtb. The CC BY-SA 4.0 license applies on both my photos and the article

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