This railway was build by
private initiative at the beginning of the 20th century to join the Citi of
Colle Val D'Elsa, on top of an hill, to the station of Poggibonsi, on the Empoli-Siena-Chiusi railway.
This railway was build by
private initiative at the beginning of the 20th century to join the Citi of
Colle Val D'Elsa, on top of an hill, to the station of Poggibonsi, on the Empoli-Siena-Chiusi railway.
The railway was very short, 8 km only, and had only one station, the terminal at colle Val d'Elsa, whete there was also a spur to a local grain elevator and a very small depot.
When it was built it was hoped that the line could continue to Volterra to be joined to the [rack] line going there ...
This was never done and the 8 km remained 8 even after
the acquisition by the FS and until the closing in 1986. also ... it had to be
eventually shortened too !
The line departed from the railway
station of Poggibonsi (FS) with a switch on the irst track, whith a sharp
curve (the tightest in Toscana).
[note: this picture has been taken in 1987, a few months after the closure of
the line and show the track connnected
At present (1999) the switch have been removed so the line is virtually
isolated by a 10 m gap without any track].
Soon after having left the station the track crosses four grade crossing and go around the city of Poggibonsi from north, beginning a climb with a gradient of 10-15 to go to Colle di val d'Elsa, following closely the Elsa river, that crosses with three bridges..
These grade crossing had automatic activation by pedals
actionated by the train. When i was there in 1991 the pedal was still working
and as soon Itouched one (see picture at side) the barriers went down ... (In
my 1999 recognition the barriers had been removed)
There were in origin one stop at "La Rocchetta" , a small group of houses in a rather appartate place. On the picture below you see the stop as it appeared in 1991, after 5 years of closure (but since 1980 no train stopped there), when I visited again in 1999 vegetation had covered completely not only the track but even the small one store building.
The line then follows the val di cecina Road (SS68) .
When the line was closed in 1986 it was expected to have it closed for a couple of years. In fact was expected that some underpasses were built, and a nev 1500 m tunnel be perforated to join the line from Colle vad d'Elsa to the line to Siena, reducing the line lenght from 8 to 3.5 km but allowing in this way to have faster direct service to Firenze or Siena (the was never done before).
The works began, the underpasses were built, but no
train passed over them. You see above how the underpasses were in 1991 (note
the new fences!).
The reason for this: it is at the far right of the image ... after
about 60 m of tunnel were dug, there were some problems on the highway passing
above it .. since even money were short, ant a new wave of shutting low
traffic lines were in the air, works were suspended and no longer went
ahead.
So the line has remained a quiet one.
Officially have never been abandoned, and just to reaffirm their "property" FS operate one run with bus just to carry students.
The line anyway althought in origin was part of a very minimal (8km with one station) network was complete, and about 500 m east of the station of Colle Val d'Elsa the were a spur to the Consorzio Agrario, that in origin was used to load grain and other product.
The tracks and equipment are still there, as you can see in pictures below, of april 1999:
It is intersting in this image the structure on the right, so
cart could discharge the load by gravity in railway cars below without need of
cranes (Note amso that one of the ramp, the one to be used when dircharged, is
steeper than the other.
The track to this storage split from the main line on
the other part of the road. The railway have been severed when the road have
been repaved, and in picture on right you can see the track from poggibonsi,
wit a tie crossed on it, as top avoid cars to go past the track (althought the
line is severed also on the other end), on pictures below you see the junction
with the lights still present.
Arriving in Colle val d'Elsa, in piazza Arnolfo, the first thing that appear is the station:
This is a nice building that is built in the same style of
the surrounding buildings, and is considered one of the bettere examples of
station in an old city.
But when one go to look a closer look find some things interesting, as the validating machine in perfect state and having the correct time too, but when looking at the building one begin to see something strange:
Let's go to the back of the station ....
This is what one see .
Better ... what one cannot see!!
Not only the tracks have been removed, but there is a
giant hole.
The explaination is that there is in costruction an underground parking, under the site of the railway yard.
It is not clear if they will be relaid or not ... but you should have patience.
Now there is the idea: An association has had the idea of using this stretch of line for "railroad bicycles".
Personally I like the idea a lot but I think that it
have a large drawback: since all the line is single track the users of this
short section would have to either exchange the vehicles or remove one from
tracks, also the line is too much short for such usage (I would see the lines
around Collesalvetti better suited for such usage, there you have more than 80
km of tracks !)
Anyway you can go on their site to
have other information ...
Here I give you other pictures: The one on left is the
would-be exit of the parking, the arch you see about on the center of the
image is where the railway ended.
About the images below: on the left the other end of the station, with a grade
crossing of which still stand the support of the barriers (behind the
bicycle).
The railbed you see is the same of the image at beginning of Colle, where
tracks have been removed to make space for a public park.
Likely would be left one track ... if not for other to load/unload
bicycles.
The image on right is a particular of the grade crossing, stil retaining the 5
tracks that the station had in origin ....
