Unique Swedish Narrow Gauge
 

Have you ever heard the story about the Swedish railway that got its unique gauge by accident? Well, it went down like this: a narrow gauge railway, Köping-Uttersbergs Järnväg (KUJ), was to be built in the mid 1860s for hauling iron ore from Bergslagen to the shipping harbour of Köping. It was decided that the gauge would be three-and-a-half English feet (1067 mm) like in Norway and many other countries. The line was built, but when ordering the steam engines the English feet were recalculated into appr. 3.59 Swedish feet. Now the steam engine builder thought they meant English feet, so the steam engines ended up with 1093 mm gauge = appr. 3.59 English feet. Since rebuilding the steam engines was found to be more expensive than re-gauging the railway line, the latter was done.

This railway was closed in the late 1960s, but one steam engine and a couple of passenger coaches remain, and a hardcore bunch of enthusiasts are working hard in order to get them rolling on 1093 mm tracks once again.

You can read more about this unique railway and its loving enthusiasts at http://kujmf.se/en/!

Rgds,
Daniel

Daniel,
Welcome to the Forum and thanks for that fascinating story.
The KUJ website looks very interesting :)

Thank you, it's good to be here :)

And the Swisstrains website is a real keeper too with all those great pics; I tagged it a favourite the first time I saw it.

Very interesting story Daniel. Welcome to the forum.

Adam