This study examines the railway navvies own views on their working and living conditions asit is described in interviews, the navvy´s own accounts and navvy songs and poems, inNorrbotten during the period from the 1880s to 1937. The study also compares the resultswith contemporary investigations on working and living conditions. This study utilizes both aqualitative and a quantitative method in order to answer the questions of the thesis. Previousresearch indicates that the railway navvies had positive views on their lives, this is valid both nationally and internationally. The result of this study confirm this result. The navvies demarcated deliberately from their surroundings but there are also factors outside their own control that affected class.