Jönköping - Gripenbergs Järnväg

Built 1894 - 1900, closed 1935, length 44 km.

This railway had quite a heavy local passenger traffic between the cities of Jönköping and Huskvarna, situated at the southern end of the large Lake Vättern, but it also connected them with the forest and agricultural district outside.

JGJ was meant to continue eastward and connect with the SJ southern trunk line at Gripenberg, but it never reached that far. Freight traffic from the once world-famous Huskvarna Machine & Weapons Works to the standard gauge interchange at Jönköping was an important source of income for the line, which was affectionately known as the ”cotton reel train” locally. In the 1920s two of its bogie coaches were motorized and helped to keep competition from buses and tramways at bay for a number of years - but after about 1932 the JGJ led a shaky life…

Its motive power roster comprised no less than nine engines, the first three of which were 0-4-4-0 Mallets. The final engine supplied to the JGJ by a Swedish builder was identical with NAEJ no. 4, which is today running on ÖSlJ.

ÖSlJ today has a number of coaches and wagons from the JGJ. One is the “sewing machine coach”; this is a bogie flat wagon with unglassed window openings and semi-permanent coach body, which was used for passengers in heavy summer traffic and for hauling crated sewing machines in the winter.

Model builders should perhaps take special notice of the fact that our new historical book on the JGJ includes a large number of beautiful drawings of every type of rolling stock this line ever had!

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Jönköping - Gripenbergs Järnväg 1894 - 1935