An
old railway ... for most of people that is reading this page it is specially
fascinating ...
But not always it is easy as here (Poggibonsi-Colle val
d'Elsa, closed
in 1982) where the tracks are in site, and even well discernible, leaving
an active station on a clear path (Such as happens for lines closed
, opposed to abandonated, for wiche the railway have to do some
clearong, and that could occasionally use).
Sometime the only thing that remains of a line is just some memory, some lines that had run for just a few years could even not ever appear on a present map ... as an example the S.Ellero-Saltino line that operated from 1892 to 1924, since it was used too much shortly. (incidentally there is a project to rebuild it, but i think it would end as many other, even more useful,. ones).
You can sometimes find the line in old maps, in which case you have a great help, but sometimes such old maps could be not easily accessible, or just you have no idea on what you are searching. There are many short spur that have had not even the memory.
Local people sometime can help you, but is difficult to find a people whose memory is longer than the remains on the field.
And
after you have identified to old trackage could be difficult to locate
exactly on the field, since not only the maps, unless at a a very small
scale, have a limit of accuracy, but also for error and changes in the
area.
This serie of articles will explain some ways to locate old railways and ofter retrieving some good images, and/or finding railway artifacts. It is divided in three parts, about finding on maps, finding in the op[en country and finding in the cities.
Most of the images used in these pages refer to
single articles in my pages, so if you click on the image you will go not
to the nest of the articles about "Searching old tracks" , but
to an article to one particular line.
Again, most of the particular of maps have been taken by the series of
maps "Carta dei sentieri e Rifugi" of Edizioni Multigraphic,
via G.Campani 64, 50127 Firenze, that are the standard maps for excursions
in Toscana.
Since these maps are sometimes based on older bases, it is possible that
in some aread retains the old railroads, while in other have been updated.
(Due their purpose these maps are quite well updated for new roads, but
usually reatain almost always older, even abandoned, ones)
On right you find the most ideal situation: You
see the station of Avenza, with the current railway, and, making a curve
toward NW the older Ferrovia Marmifera.
Beside being well marked in the map that section of railway is even well
marked on field, being on a long viaduct. and the first 300 m are
stil tracked since are used to store empties. After a littre, just
NW ot that large black square, the dashed line is halted, you can see or
right bank of the railbed the sympol for embankments. Usually finding one
of such symbols on a curve is an hint for a railway.
Goping further north the dashed line of abandoned railway end. And there
begin a double light dashed line, it is a field road. Its alignement, that
cuts other paved (the ones in yellow) roads should say something. It is
the old railbed now used as a road.
There are other two hints in this map: I have put
it in purple squares (as all other particulars on this page).
The first one is on upper right corner: Observe the road that have that
inverted U shape: Its shape is due of the need to cross at level the railway,
that in that place was along tha slope of the hill.
In the same square you can see that on lower left corder, where the railway
were, there are no symbols on the map.
The rails have been removed, but nothing have been built there.
The second Hint of this page is on the other small purple box: That lines
across the road are the symbol for a tramway line. Actually that line was
closed in the forties, but since it is harder to remove that symbol than
other, they are easily found even in quite recent maps.
Let's end with such "Ideal situation"
and observe this other map:
This map below of the area near Ponte Stazzemese, in the mountain part
of Versilia show other ways you can find "explicitely" an old
railway.
On the rectangle bottom-left you see the symbol for a tramway, or railroad
on the road, and after the junction a track north of the southern leg of
the road. It is even more evident going east. (Note: the symbol on the
map is for a "narrow gauge or tramway" . Actually it was standard
gauge, closed in 196, used for carrying to the pier of Forte dei Marmi
the marbles coming from Arni quarries.
On the smaller rectangle above it another hint for a former railway: A tunnel. It is quite rare on this kind of roads to find such manufacts. You can find on more recent roads, but on roads buiolt in the twenties is less lkikely to do. The fact that the road (and the map too) is old is from the symbol K. 3 in that font. It is the 3rd km-post . Newer maps use a sans-serif font, and also updates on older maps use the same font.
The third hint is in the larger rectangle at right.
The curve called "Risvolta" is very large (for a road), actually
it is about 25 m of radius, that is very large for a mountain road,
but absolutely the minimum for a tramway.
The name of the place remember it. Other common names for some point of
roads are "regresso" and , althought this one is rare "Raddoppio"of
course about particulars on the tracks ...
A final note about usage of that line is seen in the square at extreme right: the line is going toward south, but there is the symbol of the track along the road for about 150 m. It give you indication on the fact that in that place there were a backup and also on the possible lenght of trains on the line. (Important note: The grid on all maps is 1 km spaced, level curves are 25 m spaced, main one ever`y 100 m )
The following example come from the Ferrovia carbonifera
di montebamboli, build circa 1860 and closed around 1900.
There are many remnants of the line, such the bridges abutments and some
of the pier (the trestle itself being oak wood has long time gone), only
breidges remaining are the ones all stone)
Here there is no indication of a railway. The symbol dash-dot-dot is the
one for a mule trail (althought for most of the part is now an unpaved
road).
How can we know that there wera a railway there ?
Watch
at the alignement: it has no narrow curves, a costant gradient and more
important a number of bridges extremely high: On the main river there are
3 brigses, and in 5 km 7 bridges in total, the particular on left show
a plece where you have 3 stone bridges in 400 m, and many earth works.
Would this be necessary for a mule trail ? No,
but for a railway such that one (that was not based on locomotives, but
the loaded cars come from Montebamboli to Carbonifera, on the sea, just
by gravity, and were carried empty back by horses) having a constant gradient
line was a must. So we have found on our map another railway.
A note if you scroll to extreme right: Near the place Fonte Petrocchi the
line stayed on left bank of the river (flowing west). The line went est,
touching the bridge at quote 136 right of the word Petrocchi. Thge river
eroded the bank and now that is the hardest place to walk along. Guides
suggest to stay IN the river or on the other bank, althought that one is
one of the nicest places of this former railway)
Now
we are ready for the final test: Finding a railway that do not appear in
full on the maps, and that have no trails on it.
I went further south and choose the Ferrovia Massa Follonica.
This line was closed in 1944 and never reopened.
The map I had was based on an older base, but was fully updated. So it
did not carry any indication for the railway, except for buildins, that
are almost all in place.
I want there some weeks ago for a vistit and to exprlore it. Beside a "local" guide i got the map and by careful observation i redraw all the map. This could be an exercise in examinating maps.
Of course the first thing to do is starting from a known place, but i will show some thing that could help you to statrt even from intermediate points.
I started from southern terminal, Follonica, and fron there from the old station. Here I had some help since I knew that the station was in front of the current one. I had a local expert, but I could have been able to look at the itinerary myself. Let's go in examinating the map:
Along
the Livorno-Grosseto line there is the station,
it is on left corner of the long rectangle on left.
If you observe below it there is a white space. This "land of noone"
is infat the old railbed of the line. Tghe isolated building about 3/4
the space is the old secondary locomotive deposit (still standing).
Going east in the small square you see a bridge on a small stream, with
nothing passing upon it. The collapse of this bridge was one of the reason
why in 1944 the line was closed, but on the map it is shown as standing
(maps, at least here, add new particulars, but rarely remove old ones).
As an important sidenote when going somewhere to explore note even such
particular. Even if this remains could not be of a great importance, it
is worth to note the style of the building and the kind of material, since
often these indications can be a suggestion that some other building built
with the same materials and/or with the same style you see around could
be part of that line.
In general, seeing on maps a bridge that does not carry anything is an
hint for a past railway (as is , see later, a road bridge over nothing).
Going
east in the other large purple rectangle you can observe that there is
a road that make a large curve. Note there are sign of a ditch along it.
It is the place where the railway had its
track, to underpass main line. North of that line you can see on the map
sono light signa: when the railway was removed from the map, the work was
not very clean, so some traces remained. Useful.
In
the picture at right you can see, better on the ground than on the map,
that sometimes a sign of a past railway could be the presence of all buildings
very far from the road, althought this is not usually the case, in this
case (soon north of the mail line) it is due that the unpaved area between
the road and the buildings is still property of the closed railway so it
could not be used.
A similar thing can happen when one of the shoulder of a road is abnormally
large (not easy to see on maps, but easily on ground). (This could be even
a provision for eventually enlarging the road, and remember that often
roads have been built on the site of a former railway, or even that during
the works had been decided not to complete the railway and build a road
instead).
Always
on the same line here are other very conclete hints for redrawing the path
of a line: On the section on left we can see three important hints: The
first is on top (the hand written grey line is the recostructed path -I
had to draw it while in a car, so it is not very smooth ...) is a road
overpass over nothing. Of course even if the rails have been removed, no
one care of removing the bridge over which the road was.
The second is trivial: Thre is the symbol and also written "station" so it is a point where your line had to pass. Usually stations even in removed lines remains, since are sturdy building, and can be easily rented for residential purposes.
The
third is more subtle. If you observe [note: these excerpts from maps are
about 6 times the real thing on a 15" monitor] the lines that form
the road you see that a segment is thinner than the others. This have been
redrawn after removing the tracks. Of course this particular cannot be
seen if the map have been completely redrawn.
Then we are going to the map on right: Again three particulars: on top there is the sign of cliffs where the railway had a level lower than the land. Note also that the [225 m] curve of level is interrupted since it would follow the railway to reapper under the mark 223. The deleted the railway, but not redraw the level curve.
The second particular is evident, but also on the ground: apart the name "Casello" that explain well that sometime there were a railway, you should note the road, tha while being twisty without a single straight segment , it is straight just over the past grade crossing. This since it is not convenient to have a grade crossing in a curve.
The third, again is a particular due to a poor cleaning of the map, there are no trees there (that along a railway there are no trees is just an opinion).
Another
tiny fragment of a map: Usually tunnels are the last ones to be removed,
both from ground and from maps: on this map the arrow point to a tunnel
that is often an useful hint for abandoned railway (althought in this case
after the map have been printed the railway
had been rebuilt)
This final excerpt (bottom right of the page) form
the same map contain some of the particular 
you
should now recognize: If you are unsure on your solution just select with
the mouse the part between the two lines, and the solution will appear.
- The "Casello"
- the road that make an u to cross the railway at grade
- the cliffs (note the little arrow in the same direction, the road was
mid hill)
- The curve of level 175 that end on the building on lower square, and
resume again under 1 of 177
- The path below that make a curve to cross the railroad othogonally
All but the fourth you can see also live, on the
ground.
A further note must be given about searching old
railways:
this does not locate the tracks, but can be a suggestion for the search:
Look for bus transport companies that have in its name a reference to railways
... Usually these in origin had a railway, eventually transformed in a
bus line, so try to search there.
