Järnvägen tågar in i Lerum : Konsekvenserna av Västra stambanan för Lerums sockens utveckling i relation till övriga Sverige

Sammanfattning: Most of the research regarding the impact of railroad systems is conducted at a national level and seeks to generalise the consequences that it had for the county villages. There are researchers that delve deeper and wish to explore these consequences at a more local level. However, this naturally presents an issue. Due to the sheer number of railway station villages and endless variables in terms of preconditions, these local dives can’t possibly hope to explain and represent the impact of the railroad systems. Studies conducted at a national level fail to explore the local differences in impact, and the local studies can’t explain the consequences at large due to the local variances and limits with regards to time and space. The purpose of this essay is to aid in the study of the local consequences of the railroad systems for the county of Lerum and the railway station village that was established in conjunction with the installation of the railway, and to see whether Lerum’s development was abnormal or perfectly in line with the norm for such a village. I primarily explore the consequences for the population development, commercial and industrial life as well as the human geography, and compare it to Sweden at large as well as in comparison to other railway villages. Despite Lerum’s somewhat odd and unique development within certain niches, I found that it remained in line with how most similar villages generally developed after the introduction of the railway.