The Old Days by Jan Sunlay

We usually drove up to Trondheim to load fish. The road from Oslo to Trondheim was 560 km long. The highest point of the road was 1024 m. Sties trucks were driving that distance almost every day.

We used 14 hours on that drive with only 2 stops. One stop for dinner, and one stop at midnight for coffee and sandwich at a filling station. 

Sties trucks were very often the last truck out of Oslo bound for Trondheim. We were waiting for cargo from our late customers. But we were usually first truck in Trondheim in the morning. We tried to start unloading at 7 o’clock in the morning. To be able to make that, the departure from Oslo had to be at five PM the day before, at the latest. But the departure then must be at 5 o’clock in the evening at the latest.

Often we were ready to start at 6 or 7 o’clock in the evening. But Stie said to us:

“You have to be in Trondheim at 7 o’clock tomorrow morning, but do not drive fast.”

Hmmm…..

From the road between Oslo and Trondheim in 1962.

Many places the road was so narrow that two trucks could not meet.

The road was very narrow and full of curves.

About 200 km in the valley and over the mountain (Dovrefjell) there are unpaved roads.

The road over the mountain Dovrefjell.

 

Dovrefjell with Snøhetta in the background.

1024 meter mile marker.  The top of the hill. Now we have to drive over the mountain plateau, a distance of about 70 km, before driving downhill again.

The road up to the mountains was so steep and narrow that we had to use about 20 minutes on the last 8 km. The road was so narrow that you could not meet another truck or car except from in the ordinary pass place. Vehicles driving downhill had to wait for the vehicle driving uphill. Trucks driving uphill could not stop because there was a problem to start up again.

Once when we were driving with the Regent up to the mountain we saw a small car behind us. The driver was very much stressed and tried to overtake us all the time. But that was impossible. We could not stop uphill.

We always saw his left light in our mirror. We were driving in the second gear and had about 10 minutes left until we could let him pass by. My co-driver was driving, and after a while he said:

Sit were you are and hold the gas pedal in the bottom when you are steering with your left hand. Then he went out of the left door, climbed up on the front fender and opened the hood. (We opened the hood from both side at that truck. You can see it at the photo.)

He pretended to fix the engine. After a long time he climbed down on the running board and went into the truck again. The driver in the car behind saw all of this.

When it was possible to pass us at the top of the hill we let him pass. But then I lied down so that people in the other car could not see me. They saw only one driver in the truck, and they almost broke their neck looking into the truck. But they only saw one driver.

Shit happens. There is only room for one truck at a time under the bridge.

Jan Sunlay