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On Saturday the 2.12. both 100 years of Finland and 100 years of the steam locomotive HKR5 Sohvi was celebrated at the Jokioinen Museum Railway. The weather was more than perfect with a fresh coat of snow and everybody seemed to have a great time. Thank you for everybody for a great 100 years party!
Also Santa wants to thank everybody travelling with him or his elves. At Minkiö tehre was a tiny christmas market and everybody could get hot drinks and ginger bread at the station cafe.
On board trains there was a christmas elf making people sing and santa with his little helpers giving candy to the small ones. Total of 2500 passanger were counted taking trains, so a big thanks to everybody who wwas over there!
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The new online webshop of Jokioinen Museum Railway is now open. You can visit the new shop by clicking the link: kauppa.jokioistenmuseorautatie.fi.
We welcome all feedback through the webshop!
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On the coming Sunday 2.7. with the people swarming the traditional Minkiö Farmers' Market, steam locomotie buffing and a vintage diesel locomotive mouring a new art exhibiton will open up at the old Minkiö Station goods shed. The Exhibition has a collection of works of PTJ Koskinen, one of the steam locomotive engineers of Jokioinen Museum Railway.
On of the perls of the exhibition are the Christmas Cards sent out by Jokioinen Museum Railway to its supporters during the past 15 years. On thos pictures you can find familar locomotives, carriages, places and people of Jokioinen Museum Railway, and of course the alter ego of the artist himshelf!
The exhibition will be open from 11 to 18 on the days when the Narrow Gauge Museum and Cafe is open at Minkiö station and from 10 to 17 on Sunadys when scheduled trains are running.
You cand look at some of the works throug a lin on the top of this page.
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The first charter train of this spring was running in sunny weather on Tuesday May 16 2017. The train was carrying a group of enthusiastic kindergarten children spotting all kind of animals alongside of the track. They did se at least hares, a deer, seagulls and a cat, but nobody saw a pheasant. Children were also admiring a cloud coming out of the steam locomotive and following the train just outside carriage windows all the voyage!
The train was hauled by the oldest operating steam locomotive of Jokioinen Museum Railway -the ex Äänekoski-Suolahti Railway H.K. Porter locomotive from year 1901. The locomotive is a saturated steam locomotive missing the super heaters which heat up and dry the steam. Because of this the locomotive will make really nice white clouds of steam in right kind of weather.
You can charter a private train at Jokoinen Museum Railway until beginning of December. The scheduled trains for public will be running on summer Sundays and special event days starting from June.
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237/5000 The Museum Railroad Association, which maintains the Jokioinen Museum Railway, received very good news from the Ministry of Education and Culture on Wednesday 3.5: Minister Sanni Grahn-Laasonen had granted a grant of EUR 25,000 for the continuation of the track renovation of the museum railway.
The railway sleeper of Jokioinen Museum Railway are in urgent need to be replaced as they are close to the ned of their service life. There are a total of 18,400 railway sleepers in the museum railway line, of which approximately 3,500 had been replaced in 2015 - 2016. In 2016, the Ministry of Education and Culture granted a total of EUR 50,000 in grants, and a total of more than 2040 sleepers were renewed and seven level crossings were refurbished. In addition, the lateral clearance areas of level crossings were improved and a historic stone culvert was repaired. The work was done as a paid work, as voluntary work, the refurbishment of the track is too much effort in addition to all other repairs and maintenance work and operating the steam trains.
The Museum Railway Association applied for a total grant of € 50,000 for the continuation of track work for 2017, but received no money targeted for the museums of the transport and communications. The unfortunate decision to not to fund the future work arrived in mid-March and caused great concern about the fate of the track maintenance project. The Museum Railway Association is annually able to invest ten to twenty thousand euros for track maintenance, but cannot invest more than that.
The grant awarded by the Minister of Education and Culture will facilitate the financial burden of the association and ensure the continuity of track work this year, up to snowfall. The repair of the railway track will ensure the continuity of museum rail transport for several tens of years ahead, while the refurbished railroad also keeps historic rolling stock in better condition.
The Jokioinen Museum Railway is located in the Jokioinen and Humppila municipalities. The museum railway is a part of the narrow gauge Jokioinen railway operated between 1898 and 1974, which traveled from Forssa via Jokioinen to Humppila. The museum rail service on this 23 km long track began as early as 1971. When the Jokioinen railway was abolished in 1974, the entire museum operation was at reisk. The dismantling of track as well as scrapping of rolling stock was started. Only six kilometers of track remained between Minkiö and Jokioinen. In 1978, the museum traffic re-started, and since then, steamtrains running on summer months have been part of the Southwestern Tavastia summer landscape.
The total length of the track is currently 14 km. The museum railway is a highly valuable and functional entity of cultural history, because the Jokioinen Museum Railway is the only original narrow gauge railroad left in Finland today.
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Willimieli, the co-operation partenr of Jokioinen Museum Railway will again host handcar tours this summer!
Come and taste the old days of railroaders at Willimieli's handcar trip on Jokioinen Museum Railway! On a trip we jump on the hand car and skim the muscular force into the trackwork of old-fashioned style! After pumping the hadcar the veined muscles get into real action when we put the shovels, hacks, and limbs to swing to change railway sleepers. After changing a few sleepers, we enjoy the old time box lunch and pump our handcars back to Minkiö, where everyone will get a diplomas of the work well done. After that, we will have a guided tour at Minkiö station and steal locomotive sheds.
The trip takes about 3 hours and is tailored to the wishes and physical condition of the participants. There will be a supervisor who will familiarize participants with the safe use of handcars and work equipment. The price includes a guided tour of the Museum of the Jokioinen Museum Railway in Minkiö. It is possible to add catering and / or coffee-making as well as sauna in the authentic railway sauna at Minkiö station.
It is enough to have sturdy boots as shoes and regular outdoor clothing. Clothes may get dirty in the track work, so it is not worth putting the best outdoor clothes on! The organizer will provide good working gloves and some water to drink in addition food served.
The price of a trip for a group of up to 10 people is € 659 (VAT 24%). As an additional service, ready heated sauna at Minkiö can be rented 125 € (VAT 24%) and meals / coffee at the agreed price. The minimum age for participants is 15 years. Excursions are arranged according to the agreement during a period when gound is not snow covered or frozen (from late April to mid-October). No excursions will be organized on Sundays in June-August, when the steam trains are in traffic.
For more information and reservations, please contact Teemu Virtanen,
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The artist of Christmas card is PTJ Koskinen, a steam locomotive engineer of Jokioinen Museum Railway. On the card the Santa Claus with his elves and a sleigh on rails is running on the at least partly renovated track of Jokioinen Museum Railway while the track worker elves are watching. On his sleigh there are in addition to normal Christmas presents the Krauss steam locomotive which left for Germany just before Christmas and some open goods wagons bought from Estonia this autumn. The track is in good condition as Santa's sleigh is really picking up speed...
You can also visit our image gallery to view Museum Railway Christmas greetings of past years. All of them are drawn by PTJ Koskinen.
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Santa thanks onece more everybody travelling with santa trains. The weather was really Christmas like with the snow and shining sun. At Minkiö tehre was a tiny christmas market and everybody could get hot drinks and ginger bread at the station cafe.
On board trains there was a christmas elf making people sing and santa with his little helpers giving candy to the small ones. Total of 2520 passanger were counted taking trains, so a big thanks to everybody who wwas over there!
Next year the Santa trains will also celebrate Finland 100 Centenary Celebration. Because of that there will be something new coming...!