Jönköping – Gripenberg railway line

Jönköping – Gripenberg
Ingaryddalen
Route number :	JGJ
Route length:	44.1 km
Gauge :	600 mm from 1935 Jönköping – Husqvarna AB: 1435 mm
Top speed:	Jönköping – Rosendala 25 km / h Rosendala – Gisebo 20 km / h Gisebo – Brötjemark 25 km / h Brötjemark – Vireda 20 km / h
Operating points and routes
Legend Jonkoping Stranda from Jönköping C (from 1935) 0 Jönköping Östra (until 1935) Austrian ranks Sandemar (from 1918: Vättersnäs Hållplats ) Sanna Huskvarnaån 5 0 Rosendala (from 1935 Huskvarna Norra ) Rosendala brygga Odengatan 1.4 Husqvarna Esplanaden (P-Verkehr until 1923) Husqvarna Stationspaviljong (P-traffic from 1923) Husqvarna AB 11 Gisebo 13 Vistacular Landsjön Kaxholmen 17th Wire rings 19th Lyckås gård Svängen (Skärstad) Berghemsvagen 23 Sirings 26th Brötjemark Ingerydsvagen 31 Bunn 33 Förnäs Bunn Dunarpsvagen 37 Stora Hultrum Kleryd kvarn Boarpsvagen 44.1 Vireda planned Gripenberg

The Jönköping – Gripenberg railway was a narrow-gauge railway in Sweden . It had a track width of 600 mm and, contrary to the original plan, remained unfinished between Vireda and Gripenberg via Hullaryd, Degela and Linderås.

First plans

The construction of a railway line from Jönköping to Gripenberg was first proposed in 1883 by Count James Hamilton, who lived on Lyckås Gård ten kilometers northeast of Huskvarna . The count sought the support of Baron Axel von Otter from Stora Hultrum and that of the manufacturer Wilhelm Tham , who had been the director of Husqvarna Vapenfabriks AB since 1877 . He tried to get a direct connection to the Nässjö – Falköping railway line, which had existed since the 1860s , but this was not possible due to the terrain. A line to be built at his own expense was too expensive for Tham, but he saw Hamilton's proposal as a new way of getting a rail connection.

First a standard gauge line was planned, but this turned out to be too expensive. Therefore, the considerations went in the direction of the Swedish Kosta system , a Swedish variant of the Decauville - light railway with a gauge of two Swedish feet . In July 1891 a delegation traveled to Kosta to gather information about the system. There were also considerations to build the Vaggeryd – Jönköping railway line as well. The two lines were to merge south between Rocksjön and Munksjön, for example at the point where the Jönköping marshalling yard is today . However, after the concession was obtained, the Halmstad Nässjö Järnvägar (HNJ) was built in standard gauge and only the JGJ was built in the Kosta system .

The connection to the Malmö – Katrineholm railway near Nobynäs, which was initially envisaged, was abandoned because the terrain appeared unsuitable. Frinnaryd was also eliminated because of a 1.5 kilometer incline at a gradient of 1:40. In June 1891 Gripenberg was set as the destination, which resulted in the name Jönköping-Gripenbergs Järnväg or Gripenbergsbanan .

Jönköping Gripenbergs Järnvägs Aktiebolag

The search for shareholders began when Jönköping Gripenbergs Järnvägs Aktiebolag was founded . There were problems especially in the northern part of the line, as there was a competing project with the planning of the Gränna - Tranås line . The communities on the future route only bought small blocks of shares, so that the largest shares were taken over by Hamilton, the city of Jönköping and Huskvarna AB. Huskvarna set certain conditions for this, such as its own factory station, the free delivery of freight wagons to a siding on the factory premises, a siding on the Rosendala pier , local tariffs no higher than that of the SJ and half the SJ tariff for the Rosendala factory station route. Hamilton bought shares for all of his fortune and his mother Stephanie Hamilton subscribed to 50 shares for sidings in the brickworks , sawmill and dairy in Lyckås and Drättinge. The necessary share capital of 500,000 crowns was thus  subscribed.

Railway construction

Once the capital was in place, construction began without prior tendering . The plans were drawn by the Axel Hummel railway office. Hamilton, the president of the joint stock company, decided that cash and bookkeeping in his Lyckås office should be handled by his accounting department . He first bought 1,500 tons of rails weighing ten kilograms per meter - this amount was much larger than was needed for the entire railway construction. Tham canceled this purchase, but a compensation sum of 15,000 crowns was due.

In February 1893 the groundbreaking ceremony for the first construction lot in Huskvarna took place. Hamilton acted on his own responsibility, because he wanted to get his goods from Lyckås by train as quickly as possible. That is why he had explosions carried out at Vistakulle. He had this procedure approved retrospectively. Hamilton always made his decisions when Tham was absent. He negotiated independently with the SJ about the threading into the Gripenberg train station and began excavating there. He also got through that the track in the direction of Jönköping Central Station was laid between the Vättern and the tracks of the SJ. He had this track laid provisionally , but before operations began, all activities ended with the financial crisis in March 1884.

Tham suspected as early as 1893 that the corporation was not being run properly. He tried unsuccessfully to check the books. He did not succeed until February 1894, at which point it became clear that Hamilton had spent 125,000 kronor without the approval of the Board of Directors. In addition, Hamilton and von Otter wanted a guarantee for 350,000 crowns, which was needed for the further construction. Tham refused this guarantee because Huskvarna AB had struggled to survive the financial crisis a few years earlier. The arms factory paid off part of the debt and took over 30 laid-off railway workers. In March 1894 a shareholders' meeting took place in Drättinge, where a provisional track had been laid. There Tham requested that an authorized body in Jönköping take over the bookkeeping. The arms factory continued to inject money and the line to Huskvarna was opened in April 1894. Since Hamilton again asked for funds, Tham continued to suspect that he had embezzled money. Nevertheless, on August 22, 1894, the line to Lyckås including all siding was put into operation.

In May 1896 another shareholders' meeting of the stock corporation followed. Hamilton had been attacked in the press by HN Laurell from the city of Jönköping and at this meeting threatened to sue the company for the loaned sum of 200,000 kroner. A further construction of the line took place in the direction of the terminus in 1898, when again a guarantee for a bank loan was signed. Bunn was reached in December 1898, and the rail line arrived in Förnäs on October 21, 1899. Here they wanted to end the railway construction for economic reasons. However, due to pressure from the municipality of Vireda, construction continued to Vireda, which was connected to the rail on December 18, 1900.

At the general meeting on May 31, 1916, Hamilton was no longer re-elected as a member of the board of directors. This was done at the instigation of the City of Jönköping and Huskvarna AB, who wanted Jönköping's lawyer, V. Graneli, to join the committee. The background was the fact that Hamilton wanted to manage the railway alone and without a board member, ignored the wishes of the employees and had no understanding of the growing transport needs for Huskvarna AB. After Hamilton's replacement, the wishes of the company management were taken into account and Jönköping Strand was designated as the reloading station for goods traffic. In order to expand the transport capacities to the company, it was planned in 1917 to install a third rail in order to be able to drive standard-gauge freight wagons directly into the factory premises. This rail was not installed until the line was shut down on August 31, 1935.

traffic

The operating workshop of the railway was in Jönköping Östra . The main traffic on the route took place between Jönköping and Huskvarna. Passenger trains ran here every hour between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. Jönköping Stranda was the reloading station to the standard gauge SJ . In Rosendala brygga the goods could be loaded directly from the ships onto the railroad.

Excursion trains, especially in summer, drove partly in open cars to the Vistakulle panoramic mountain and to the bathing areas in Landsjön and Bunn. Bunn was also a goods transhipment point, wood and pulp from the surrounding sawmills were delivered and taken to the Nynäs sulphite factory (AB Sulphitfabriken Nynäs) across Lake Ruppen by ship that could dock at the station quay. On the way back, the finished paper bales were loaded from the ship onto the train.

From Stora Hultrum in the summer months first the steamboat Svanen and later the larger S / S Ören ran across the Ören lake to Örserum. The Landsjön stop was only operated for bathers in summer.

The following vehicles were procured for the route:

Steam locomotives

number	Surname	design type	Wheel alignment	Manufacturer	Construction year	Whereabouts
1		Tender locomotive	B '+ B' 2	J. & CG Bolinders Mekaniska Verkstad , Stockholm	1/1893	+ 1913
2		Tank locomotive	B '+ B'	J. & CG Bolinders Mekaniska Verkstad, Stockholm	2/1893	+ 1911
3		Tender locomotive	B '+ B' 2	J. & CG Bolinders Mekaniska Verkstad, Stockholm	3/1893	+ 1915
4th		Tank locomotive	C 1 '	Decauville	294/1899	Type 10, built in Tubize in Belgium and assembled at JMW in Jönköping; + 1930
5		Tank locomotive	1 'C 1'	Motala Verkstad	298/1902	+
6th		Tank locomotive	1 'C 1'	Motala Verkstad	299/1902	+
7th		Tank locomotive	1 'C 1'	Motala Verkstad	371/1906	+
8th		Tank locomotive	1 'C 1'	Motala Verkstad	470/1911	+
9	NIAN	Tank locomotive	1 'C 1'	Motala Verkstad	568/1915	1935 → Aspa bruk No. 4; 1963 → Skärstad Local History Museum, currently on loan from Östra Södermanlands Järnväg

Locomotive 9 of the JGJ is still there today.

In order to be competitive against bus traffic, two passenger cars were converted into diesel multiple units around 1920 . Two other cars were prepared as sidecars . Before the shutdown, the possibility of electrifying the route was even discussed in order to prevent the electric tram from Jönköping to Huskvarna from being extended. After the line was closed, the SJ took over the section to Husqvarna AB and converted it to standard gauge. Rosendala station was renamed Huskvarna Norra.

Locomotive number 9 is still there today, it belongs to the Skärstad Museum of Local History and was in Kaxholmen until 2006. It has been restored to working condition and is in use on loan from Östra Södermanlands Järnväg until 2014 .

literature

• Lennart Welander: Jönköping-Gripenbergs Järnväg . ÖSlJ Förlag, Växjö 2000, ISBN 91-631-0334-6 ( oslj.nu ( memento of March 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive )).
• Olof Thulin: Ett stycke småländsk järnvägshistoria i ord och picture . Skärstads Hembygdsförening, Huskvarna 1983 ( bokborsen.se ).
• Gunnar Svensson and Olof Thulin: Skärstadsboken, Några commenter and notiser till boken om Gripenbergsbanan. Årsskrift 10 . Skärstads Hembygdsförening, Taberg 1980 ( historiskt.nu ).

Web links

• Pictures of the Gripenbergbahn. Archived from the original on January 30, 2011 ; Retrieved February 1, 2016 (Swedish). 
• Jönköping – Gripenbergs Järnväg (Swedish)
• Per Englund: Decauvillesystemet - från Paris till mörkaste Småland. (PDF; 211 kB) KUNGLIGA TEKNISKA HÖGSKOLAN, Avdelningen för teknik- och vetenskapshistoria, May 27, 2009, archived from the original ; Retrieved April 25, 2019 (Swedish). 
• Photos and postcards of the Gripenbergbahn, Jönköping and Huskvarna. Archived from the original on January 29, 2011 ; Retrieved February 1, 2016 (Swedish). 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Jönköping-Gripenbergs Järnväg, Stationer. Retrieved August 28, 2018 (Swedish). 
2. ↑ Company share ( Memento of March 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Timetable ( Memento of March 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ Steam locomotives, year of construction and whereabouts
5. ↑ List of manufacturers at historiskt.nu (swed.)
6. ^ Association of Central European Railway Administrations (ed.): Station directory of the European railways . (formerly Dr. KOCH's station directory). 52nd edition. Barthol & Co., Berlin-Wilmersdorf 1939.
7. ^ History of Locomotive 9
8. ↑ Description of the locomotive at ÖSJ