The
first railway in toscana, from Livorno S. Marco
(see its page) to the station of Pisa porta
Fiorentina and Firenze Porta al prato had not
yet completed that another project was laid, to connect Firenze to Pisa
via Pistoia and Lucca. This line called "Maria
Antonia" had its Firenze terminal in the place where now is the station
of Firenze S.M.N. and at Pisa, waiting for
the building of a new bridge on river Arno arrived where now is the station
of Pisa S. Rossore.
The present building is not original but is anyway interesting expecially for the site where is laid. It is built in the centre of a triangle made of the lines Pisa-Spezia, Pisa-Lucca and the link allowing freight trains from Lucca line to enter into the freight yard north of S.Rossore station.
So the building is not aligned with any of the three lines.
Its mostry used entrance is the one you see in the first picture, across the tracks of the Lucca Line (That is very convenient since that line account for more than half the passenger trains that stop in that station, so people just exit from platvform toward the city (the exit is more or les where there is the S. in the map)
The exit is also curious since it involve walking along main track or passing throught the strange labyrinth pictured below on right, made to avoid motorcycles entering in the station, but al the same time keeping the station area accessible.
There is a third entrance, that should be the main one, accessible from road and is pictured here:
It is a smal hexagonal bulding, now unused but that about 14 years ago hosted railway police.
There were still document laying and an interesting artifact: A timetabl;e of 1983, when that office was lat used. It show an bottom also the trains that were added on october on the then newly opened line to the Airport.
(The timetable was the one of Pisa Centrale but is anyway historically interesting, showing a lot of direct services no longer used or even no longer shown on timetables)
The Position of the station led also to some interesting uses of it: Being the station far from track (and having to cross at least 2 tracks to find a live one in every direction) and not much used there a lot of people (see above) using it as a public park, with children or staying in the shadow of the shed youst to converse.
There are 2 sets of platforms and so two set of track numbers, of course the L series are the ones from/to Lucca. (as in the usual way in italy track number count from station building (dispatcher office, to be exact, if there is one) so the sequence from south is 2L 1L 1 2 3 4
Above images are taken from 2L (the first) and from the station, even this (curved) shed althought being along the 1 track is just a "common"one , since that track is a passing one and usaully trains stop at 2 and 3.
These are the views from the station toward Spezia and toward Lucca,
in the second you see the points of the NW leg of the triangle (in
red on the map, as all freight only tracks).
In this second picture you can see the standart speed limit signal, the
first and larger figure (90) is for freight, the second (95) for passenger
trains and the third (100) for light trains (EMU). There is not a fourth
line for HST since: 1st on this line no such train are expected, 2nd such
trains have the speed limit set on engineer's timatables, since is different
according the consit, 3rd at true high speed ( > 160 ) trains are expected
to drive using Cab signalling and ATC and not by looking at signals
All taste for replenishment: Oil for dieles locos, Water for steamers and catenary for electric. BTW the wall on left is the FRONT of the station.
All shapes also for signals ... (the square ones are at right of the track)
This is the window of a nearby electric substation
But the most interesting peculiarity is that the station have been built
above the site where was the ancient roman (and before them, etruscan)
port. In 1998 during the digging for the building of the new CTC building
( central dispatching center for Roma-Genova line ) and a new pedestrian
underpass were found some remains, eventually these become as 14 ships
some of them almost complete (as june 1999 - diggings continue ... ) and
many other artifacts.
So currently the works are mostry an archeologicas site and there are project
to move the costruction of the new building otherwhere.
There is a site devoted
to this at www.navipisa.it
If you will come here I will be happy to arrange a trip together
