Why do Anten-Gräfsnäs Järnväg exist?
Why is it a strange gauge - 891 mm - and how did it look for a century ago?

Answer to these questions and some others we hope you will find here. We will tell you about the history of the society, of the railroad behind. Follow us into a historical voyage that starts in the end of the 19^th-century and and is still going on.

Anten - Gräfsnäs Järnväg (AGJ) is the remaining part of the former "Västgötabanan", Västergötland - Göteborgs Railroad (VGJ). The railway company built in the end of the 19th-century a narrow gauge railroad from Göteborg up trough Västergötland. At the end they reached the small town Gårdsjö, located on the main railroad from Göteborg to Stockholm, about 39 km east of Mariestad. Västgötabanan were in the main line about 222 km and together with connecting railroads a little bit over 400 km.

Västgötabanan was built for transport agriculture products, bricks, woods, lime and cement from Västergötland to Göteborg and fish, coal, oil, artificial fertilizer and textile products in the other direction. In the beginning of the 20^th-century the poverty was decreasing and the purchasing power among the population increased. People started to travel more and sometimes the went to amusement trips to the railroad restaurant in Björboholm or to the Castle of Gräfsnäs.

The railroad between Göteborg to Skara was built for a speed of 45 km/h, and it was the fastest narrow gauge railroad in Sweden in the beginning of the 20^th-century. Opposite many other narrow gauge railroads VGJ early separated the engines for freight trains or passenger trains. VGJ, as the first narrow gauge railroad company in Sweden, acquired tender locomotives with large water and coal supplies to avoid stops along the railroad to refill the supplies.