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The ex Äänekoski-Suolahden Railway H.K. Porter steam locomotive made its first moves at Minkiö depot on Saturday evening 18. of June at about 18.30 after standing still almost 40 years. Test runs at Minkiö station continued for about an hour. Also first tests to pull a train were made when the locomotive moved a six carriage long train.
The runs went well and the over 100 years old locomotive worked quite well. There were some minor steam leaks and one of a bearings of a rear wheel set heated up a little bit. However this bearing problem leveled out when test runs continued the following day.
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The ex Ääänekoski-Suolahden Railway H.K. Porter locomotive which has undergone a very long renovation was steamed up for the first time in 39 years on Saturday the 11th of June. The locomotive which has been in steam last time in 1966 had the fire lighted up at 9 o'clock Saturday morning and it was by early afternoon the steam pressure was at maximum of 12 kg/m2.
The heating of a locomotive built in 1901 in the United States went fine according to the Chief Mechanician Juha-Pekka Viitanen. Some difficulties came of the broken o-ring gasket of the right hand side cylinder which made it impossible to make a test run with the locomotive. There were similar problems already more than hundred years ago when the locomotive was first tested at Äänekoski-Suolahden Railway. The new date for the test run will be on the second half of June.
The locomotive will be taken in use at the Minkiö Steam Festival on Sunday 31st of July. Then the public has a possibility to take footplate rides in the locomotive.
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The American made H.K. Porter steam locomotive undergoing a long overhaul and renovation at Jokioinen Museum Railway passed hydro tests on Tuesday 24.5. After this operational tests and tuning of the locomotive can be started. The H.K. Porter locomotive was built in the United States of America in 1901 and it served all its life at Äänekoski-Suolahden Railway. The locomotive will be taken in service during the Minkiö Steam festival on Sunday 31.7. 2005. People will then have a possibility to take footplate rides on board the oldest operational steam locomotive in Finland.
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The Museum Railway Association has elected a board for 2005. The annual autumn meeting of the association was hold at Minkiö on Sunday the November 27th.
Teemu Virtanen (28) from Lahti is continuing as a president of the association. Tuomas Myllylä (24) from Vantaa was elected as a new secretary and Tapani Havia (28) from Vihti as a new board member. Other board members were re-elected.
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The track work started in September to correct and level track in worst places was completed in October. Jokioinen Museum Railway received earlier this year a 30 000 € grant from the Ministry of communications and transport for track maintenance. The track work was contracted to VR-Rata Oy.
At the same time with the track work also few small stone culverts have been renovated. During the years the frost has been moving stones and braking culverts. In the renovation the stones have been put back in their place and structure of culverts has been protected against further humidity and frost damages.
Railway ties on a bridge cross river Jänhijoki were replaced on one volunteer weekend. Old ties from the 1980's started to be at the end of their life span. The brand new ties were donated by Finnish Rail Administration RHK.
In September and October new ballast was added in many places on the Humppila-Jokioinen main line. The work was done using ex-VR broad gage gravel hopper put on top of narrow gage transportation flat.
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The operating season 2004 of Jokioinen Museum Railway ended on Saturday September 11th with the annual Autumn Colors Train and the Starlight Train. For the first time the Autumn Colors Train was running on the same day as the Starlight Train. The Starlight Train was operated with two train sets, starting from the evening of that day and continuing close to midnight.
The three operational steam locomotives and all the passenger carriages of Jokioinen Museum Railway were prepared for winter and taken to their winter storage on Sunday 14th of September. The autumn of Jokioinen Museum railway continues to be very busy, because after a good operating season the rolling stock needs service and maintenance. Before winter there is also a lot of track work to be done, the sleepers on the Jänhijoki railway bridge have to be replaced and at least one more culvert rehabilitated.
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When autumn is getting closer the track maintenance work will effect the charter train traffic. This week from Monday 9.8. until Friday 13.8. the Minkiö-Humppila line will be closed for all traffic because of reparation and rebuilding of the brick works culvert. The work will not effect scheduled train traffic and the steam trains will run on Sundays until end of August.
Later on the track work will continue on all the line, but it will not effect the charter trains already reserved for groups.
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There is an exhibition "About the birth and history of Jokioinen railway" in the house of Salo at Kauppilanmäki museum in the town of Valkeakoski. The exhibition tells the history of the Jokioinen railway, and the museum railway with many photographs. It is open from 12 to 5 PM from Tuesday to Sunday until the 30th of August. At the same time it is worth to pay a visit to other museums of the old Valkeakoski paper mill area. You can find more information at: http://www.valkeakoski.fi/english/tourism/iNahtavyydet.htm.