The steamer Bjoren was built at Akers Mekaniske Verksted in 1866. She was 52 feet (16 m) long, had a 14 bhp (10 kW) engine and was certified for up to 92 passengers. In 1897, the boat was extended by 6 feet (1.8 m) and in 1914 she was further extended by 10 feet (3.0 m). She had a new boiler installed and new engine that produced 42 bhp (31 kW). Today the boat is 21 metres (69 ft) long and weighs 26 tonnes (26 long tons; 29 short tons). She is certified for up to a maximum of 55 passengers.

In the early years Bjoren was in regular use at a place called Kilefjorden, a part of the river Otra. When the Setesdal Line, a narrow gauge railroad, was opened to Byglandsfjord Station in 1896 and as a direct cause of this she was moved to her present location in Byglandsfjord, about 30 kilometres (19 mi) north in the valley Setesdal where she was in service until 1957. In the 1920s, buses took most of the traffic in the valley and eventually, when a new road was built in the 1950s, the traffic reasons for the steamer was gone. The boat was put in storage, deterioration started and eventually she sank.

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Bykle is a municipality in Aust-Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Setesdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Bykle. Other villages in Bykle municipality include Berdalen, Bjåen, Breive, Hoslemo, Hovden, and Nordbygdi. Bykle was established as a municipality on 1 January 1902 when it was separated from the municipality of Valle.

The 1,467-square-kilometre (566 sq mi) municipality is the 55th largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Bykle is the 400th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 952. The municipality's population density is 0.8 inhabitants per square kilometre (2.1/sq mi) and its population has increased by 5.5% over the last decade.

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Mosby is a village and district in the Torridal valley in Kristiansand municipality in Vest-Agder county, Norway. The village lies along the river Otra, between the villages of Aukland and Strai (to the south) and the municipal border with Vennesla to the north.

Mosby's population in 1999 was 1,950,[2] but since 2001 it has been considered to be a part of the urban area of Vennesla so separate village statistics are not tracked.

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The railway was constructed in several phases, the first section being opened in 1871 and the last not opened until 1944. While there was a continual construction work from Oslo westward as far as Moi, the Jæren Line from Egersund to Stavanger in Western Norway was opened in 1878. Up to 1913 the name used on plans and for the completed sections was the Vestlandet Line (The West Country Line).

The Sørlandet Line was completed by the German occupation force during World War II. It was opened for regular traffic on 1 May 1944. The line was an important communications link for transportation of troops, as well as war material. Long stretches of the Sørlandet Line railway are set away from the coast, instead of on the more densely populated coastline. One reason for this was to protect the line from invading forces, and also to prevent the line being bombarded by navy ships.

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