Trains and other things: Stångdalsbanan, Bockabanan, Jönköping

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Stångdalsbanan, Bockabanan, Jönköping

During the next 3 days, I will be travelling around south of Sweden and visiting some stations along the way. Today starting off near Linköping for a trip to Jönköping along Stångdalsbanan and Bockabanan.

First a railway crossing near Linköping.

X2 on the way to Linköpng

Linköping Cathedral - the 2nd largest in Sweden after Uppsala.

X2 from Linköping

X12 3191 and 3193 from Linköping to Sala

My next stop is at Bjärka Säby station

The station has been non operating since 15 of June 2003

Bus stop

Bjärka Säby is a junction stop for Stångdalsbanan (to the right) and Tjustbanan (to the left).

Between Linköping and Rimforsa System R automatic block signalling is used, but it has be scheduled to be updated to ERTMS Level 2 or ERTMS Regional by 2019.

Bjärka Säby barn

Bjärka Säby castle

Next stop is Rimforsa. I was hoping to see some trains, but they were unfortunately cancelled and replaced with buses this day. In fact during recent years, the amount of cancelled trains has been increasing, so a dedicated website "Fixatågresan.se" has been created.

Kisa roundhouse, now the home to the Stångdalsbanans vänner association.

Kisa station

Roundhouse is from 1902

Last stop for me today along Stångdalsbanan is Gullringen

No stop here since 2003

Stångdalsbanan continues to Hultsfred and Kalmar.

I'm switching to a nearby railway Bockabanan - also a non-electrified railway between Nässjö and Hultsfred. Regular passenger services were operating here until December 2014.

Mariannelund station has transformed into an art gallery

Today the railway is only used by freight trains operated by Green Cargo

The display is empty

Previously the line was operated by Krösatåget all the way from Nässjö to Oskarshamn. The closure of the line was due to low passenger numbers.

Ingatorp

Hjältevad - one of the few stops along the railway where two trains can meet.

Bruzaholm

Thanks to decreased traffic on the line, this small tree could grow

At Eksjö finally I see a train. After closure of the service to Oskarshamn, one short part remained, from Nässjö to Eksjö, but it looks like for not so long time. The train service will be replaced by bus during Autumn 2017.