Steam & Excursion > Finland Steam 1

Following my brief stop over in Kiev, I joined a 5 day photo charter in Finland, thus adding my 61st country to the list. Of those, I have ridden trains in 49 of them. We saw 5 different locomotives in steam on three different lines. One narrow gauge and two Finnish (same as Russian) broad gauge.  The visit to a fourth railway was scrapped only a week prior do to the failure of their only operational steam locomotive. That necessitated a last minute scramble to change hotels. Two long car rides were needed to reach one of the lines in eastern Finland near the Russian boarder. As you will see, the weather was not nearly as cooperative as in South Africa. Finland is much like northern Michigan. Trees, lakes, and more trees and lakes. There, the government seems to control much of people lives. Speed cameras, installed at tax payer expense, are frequent on most roads making the travel time between railways even longer. Even rural ones with little traffic have speed cameras. And if you get a ticket, you pay based on your income. So that's fair.  

The first railway we visited was the preserved narrow gauge line that runs from Jokionen to Humpplia...a two hour drive from Helsinki. 

First photo is at the Minikion station, about the half way point on the line and headquarters of the railway. Locos are 2-8-2 No. 6 and blue tank loco 2-8-2 No. 5. Second is our charter train being flagged into the Minikion station. Last is 0-6-0 No. 1 built by Porter in the U.S. which was steamed for shunting in the station area. Tomorrow, the first of the two broad gauge lines we visited. 

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Interesting photos, thanks for posting. What gauge is the narrow gauge, 760 MM?

Close. It's 750mm according to the tour organizer.