Cosenza – Catanzaro railway line
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Route profile: blue: adhesion sections, red: rack
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Route length: | 112.5 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Gauge : | 950 mm ( Italian meter gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Maximum slope : |
Adhesion 35 ‰ rack 100 ‰ |
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Rack system : | Strub | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Cosenza – Catanzaro line is operated by Ferrovie della Calabria (FC), a narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of 950 mm and mixed adhesion and cogwheel operation from Cosenza to Catanzaro in the southern Italian region of Calabria .
history
Before the construction of the Salerno – Reggio di Calabria railway line , the Italian legislature envisaged a standard gauge connection between Cosenza and Nocera Terinese in the province of Catanzaro. In 1895 the first part from Cosenza to Pietrafitta was already being worked on, but construction had to be stopped due to a lack of financial means. At the beginning of the new century, the previous construction plan for the Calabrian railway network was revised. On October 9, 1916, the Mediterranea-Calabro-Lucane (MCL) opened the gate from Cosenza to Rogliano . On October 11, 1922, the first section of the now discontinued branch line from Pedace to San Giovanni in Fiore and the section to Soveria Mannelli was put into service. On March 30, 1924, the section to Decollatura followed . On June 18, 1934, the narrow-gauge railway was finally passable all the way to Catanzaro Città. A year earlier, on July 10, 1933, the city was connected to the port of Catanzaro Lido, for which racks from the Strub system are used.
Until the time after the Second World War, the narrow-gauge railway enjoyed good demand, especially in suburban traffic from Cosenza and Catanzaro. At the end of the 1950s, traffic decreased, to which the outstanding modernization and neglected maintenance also contributed. This was also the reason for the serious accident on the Fiumarella Viaduct on December 23, 1961, in which 71 people lost their lives. As a result, the railway between Soveria Mannelli and Catanzaro was replaced by a bus line and the authorities withdrew the MCL's license. The railway was operated from January 1, 1964 by Ferrovie Calabro Lucane (FCL).
On December 16, 1989, the new double-track extension to the new Cosenza train station in the north of the city was put into operation to improve the development of the city center. The old station was named Cosenza Centro.
At the beginning of 1991, the fragmented network of the FCL was split up. The network starting in Bari came to the Ferrovie Appulo-Lucane (FAL), the routes from Cosenza and Gioia Tauro to the Ferrovie della Calabria (FC). Today the route described here is, along with some bus routes, the only route operated by the FC on a regular basis.
Route description
The 112.5 km long route is rich in engineering structures such as tunnels and viaducts. The mountainous terrain forced a winding route. The route crosses some landslide-prone slopes that sometimes lead to interruptions in the route. However, the gradients do not exceed 35 per thousand, except in the 1996 meter long rack section between Catanzaro Pratica and Catanzaro Sala, where the gradient is 100 per thousand. Together with the Sassi – Superga cog railway in Turin, it is the only remaining railway with a Strub rack in Italy.
Depots are in Cosenza and Catanzaro Città, the workshop is in Cosenza.
Crati bridge between Cosenza Centro and Cosenza Casali
Branching of the routes to San Giovanni in Fiore and Catanzaro near Pedace
business
Traffic is mainly concentrated on the two agglomerations at the start and end of the route. On the Cosenza – Cosenza Centro and Catanzaro Città – Catanzaro Lido sections, the line is operated as an S-Bahn ( Italian : Servizio ferroviario urbano) with connections every half hour. The timetable in Cosenza is condensed during rush hour. There are no scheduled trains between Marzi and Soveria Mannelli.
During the Madonna di Porto festival in Gimigliano on Whitsun , the FC run special trains with up to four railcars from Catanzaro Città and Soveria Mannelli to the Madonna di Porto stop.
Traction vehicles
The following locomotives were or are used on the Cosenza – Catanzaro route:
Railcars and multiple units
Some of the railcars are designed as pure adhesion vehicles . Railcars with rack drive have the letter c (Cremagliera, German rack) in the designation.
● railcars M1 and M1c
● railcars M2.120 and M2.200
● railcars M4 and M4c
● Multiple Units DE M4c.500
Diesel locomotives
● Adhäsionslokomotiven LM4
● Zahnradlokomotiven LM2.700
Steam locomotives
● Adhesion locomotives class 350
● rack locomotives class 500
literature
- Riccardo Giraldi: Il popolo cosentino e il suo territorio. The population of Cosenza and their territory. Cosenza, Publishing House Luigi Pellegrini, 2003 (Italian)
- Storia. History. Homepage of Ferrovie della Calabria, accessed on December 15, 2017 (Italian)
- Bibliografia Ferroviaria Italiana. Italian railway bibliography . Chronological overview of the railway lines opened from 1839 to December 31, 1926, February 6, 2014 (Italian)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Addio alle linee taurensi? Farewell Tauro Lines? , In: I Treni No. 339, Verlag ETR, July 2011, p. 9
- ↑ Southern Italian SLM push locomotives are being converted. In: Swiss Railway Review . No. 7/2010. Minirex, ISSN 1022-7113 , p. 362.
- ↑ Orari Servizio Ferroviario draft Catanzaro | Cosenza | Gioia Tauro train timetables on the Ferrovie della Calabria homepage, accessed on December 15, 2017 (Italian)