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Spring has again arrived and snow melted so the annual track work can begin on the 15 km main line of Jokioinen Museum railway. Because of the track work all the people are advised to be very careful when crossing tracks on level crossings. Work trains are running almost every day, so remember to stop, look and listen before crossing!
One of the largest jobs for this spring was the renovation of Saustila stone culvert located just north of Minkiö station.
Saustila stone culvert is the largest of all stone culverts at Jokioinen Museum Railway. Built in 1897-98 this dual culvert is six meters high. It is difficult to estimate the height of the culvert when looking at the level of the tracks, but if you go down by the creek running under the tracks you can see how high and steep the embankment is.
On Friday 15.4. the embankment of the culvert was dug with an excavator and new protecting layer of clay and crushed rock was installed on top of the stone decking. The old clay layer had been eaten by high water when a damn was constructed down stream without authorization of the railway. The dam was removed several years ago, but the culvert could be repaired only this spring.
After this there is still a lot of work to lift and tamp the track crossing the culvert. The track will be fully ready by Thursday 28.4. when the first charter train of year 2016 will run.
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In 2015 there were a record number of trains running at Jokioinen Museum Railway. Total of 749 trains were operated, out of which 324 were passenger trains and 425 work trains mainly for summer track work. Number of trains operated was bigger than in 1971 -the most quiet year of the original Jokioinen railway when only 729 trains were running.
Trains were running on 167 days meaning that a train was running almost every second day of the year. Steam trains operated total of 2078.2 km and diesel trains 2360.7 km. This makes total of 4438.9 km which is a lot for a railway with line length of just 13.9 km.
The track work will continue this year so it is possible that this record of year 2015 will be broken.
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The largest event of the travel trade in Northern Europe, the Nordic Travel Fair MATKA, presents foreign and domestic destinations at Messukeskus, Expo and Convention Centre Helsinki on 21-24 January. You can find the Forssa region and Jokioinen Museum Railway at MATKA Fair. Come and meet us at our stand 6m91!
The Travel Fair will be open on Thursday for travel trade professionals only and from Friday 22.1. to Sunday 24.1. for General Public.
Welcome!
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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 is craning down the Krauss steam locomotive which was for many years on display at Haapamäki steam locomotive park. He has just one problem. He is trying to put the meter gauge locomotive on 750 mm gauge rails at the new Jokioinen track extension. He is even been puting some pieces of wood to make the gauge wider. He just does not know that a special one meter gauge track was constructed at Humppila to accommodate the Krauss steam locomotive...
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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A new shelter for hand car riders was installed at the Gravel Pit Spur picnic area. The shelter was constructed this autumn in the Minkiö workshop and transported by train to its location at the Grave Pit Spur on Thursday 10.12. It was lifted by the rail crane on top of railway sleepers and pulled with a rope pulley to its final location.
The shelter is a great improvement for the small picnic area constructed in the early 2000s. The shelter will be later completed with wooden benches and a camp fire place.
The shelter and the picnic area can be only accessed by train or railway hand cars and it is meant for the use of train passengers and hand car riders. Hand cars can be rented at Minkiö station by prior reservation or in summer season also straight at the Minkiö station. Also the scheduled trains will stop on request at the Gravel Pit Spur (Soravaihde).
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Santa would like personally thank everybody who rode this year's Santa Claus Train at Jokioinen Museum Railway. There were really many people riding the train and we hope that everybody was able to meet and talk with Santa. We also made the all time passenger record of a single train. There were more than 330 passengers onboard the midday nine carriage train. Total number of passengers carried during the day was as high as 1697!
Even the heavy rain in afternoon did not spoil the day and onboard the last train some of Santa's elves started wildly dancing. Santa himself wants to wish Happy Christmas for everybody who rode his train and he promised to visit all of you at Christmas!
Finally we like to remain everybody that our charter traffic starts in spring 2016 as soon as weather permits. The scheduled Sunday traffic starts on Sunday 5.6. 2016 with the Minkiö Veteran Car Day!
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Christmas is coming but before it there will still be a possibility to ride a narrow gauge trains! At the same time you have a chance to meet the Santa Claus before he is too busy in delivering all the presents. It is often that at the Christmas he is too busy to stop for a chat, only the presents left under the christmas tree show he has been passing by.
On Saturday the 5.12. a special Santa Claus Train is running on Jokioinen Museum Railway having the Santa himself onboard as an invited guest. The nice kids and even bigger ones might have a chance to get candy from the Santa and all paying passengers will receive hot juice and biscuits at Minkiö Station!
For more information on the Santa Claus Train please check our event calendar!
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The summer at Jokioinen Museum Railway ended with a Star Light Train and a spectacular fireworks show in beautiful autumn weather. Thank you for everybody who took part to the event. There was something special in the evening when the oil lamps were lit and steam trains kept running. There was a broad interest to the Star Light Train with guests coming as far as from Japan when a Japanese TV crew visited us when filming a documentary.
You can still rent railway hand cars until snow blocks the rails and the last steam train of the year will be the Santa Claus Express on Saturday 5th of December. We ate also still selling charter trains, so if your group wants to take a train ride check our charter train pages!