Valletta – Mdina railway line
Map with all coordinates: | Valletta-Mdina | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 A train leaves the Floriana station
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 Location of the railway line
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| Route length: | 11.1 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1000 mm ( meter gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 25 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Valletta – Mdina railway was the only railway line in Malta . It was single-track , built in meter gauge and in operation from 1883 to 1931.
history
Since 1870 there have been proposals to connect the capital of Malta, Valletta , and the former capital Mdina with a railroad . This should reduce the travel time from three to half an hour. There were concrete plans since 1879, which were made by the engineering office Wells-Owen & Elwes, London . Due to difficulties in expropriating land for the railway line, the work dragged on until 1883. On February 28, 1883, the route was then operated by the Malta Railway Company Ltd. to be opened before Mdina.
Deutsche Bahn's finances have always been problematic. In 1890 the Malta Railway Company Ltd. Bankruptcy and the operation of the railway was temporarily stopped on April 1, 1890. As a result, the government of Malta bought the railway, invested in the railway infrastructure and resumed operations on January 25, 1892.
Since 1895 work has been done to extend the line to the newly built barracks in Mtarfa . This line extension went into operation in 1900 beyond the old town of Mdina.
On March 31, 1931, the railway was given up as unprofitable. A company founded in 1903 operated trams since 1905 , some of which connected the cities of Valletta, Żebbuġ and Ħamrun in parallel traffic and were replaced by omnibuses after 1929 . The railway tunnel, which led out of the city under the fortifications of Valletta, served as an air raid shelter during World War II . A significant part of the railway line was converted into a street. Some of the high-rise buildings are still standing.
route
The route connected Valletta and Mdina as well as a number of other localities. The first two train stations, Valletta and Floriana, were built underground. The route increased by 150 meters (500 feet ) over its entire length of approximately 11 kilometers (7 miles ). The maximum gradient was 25 per thousand. There were 18 level crossings , 14 of which were secured by posts that blocked the crossing road with a chain when a train approached. Originally were rails of strength 45 pounds / yard (20,4 kg for by 91.4 cm ) is used, the heavier after acquisition locomotives are replaced by rails of strength 60 pounds / yard had.
vehicles
Locomotives
A total of ten locomotives have been procured for the railway over the years. They came from the British manufacturers Manning Wardle & Co. Ltd., Leeds , Black, Hawthorne & Co. Ltd., Gateshead and Beyer, Peacock & Co. Ltd., Manchester . Most of them were machines with the axis sequences 1'C1 'and 1'C2'. They were painted olive green, the frame black. None of the locomotives have survived.
dare
The cars for the transport of people consisted of wooden structures on a metal frame. The benches were arranged on the long sides of the car. The original candle lighting was replaced by battery-powered electrical lighting in 1900 . When the company was closed, there were 34 passenger cars. First and third class were offered in passenger transport . A third-class carriage is obtained, it was restored and is now, after vandalism, however, still in 2013 badly damaged state, next to the former station building of the station Birkirkara .
business
Initially, a passenger train usually consisted of four or five cars, with trains that drove over the maximum gradient in front of Notabile only had four cars. After more powerful locomotives were put into service, trains with up to twelve cars could be driven. During the First World War , even longer trains were formed to transport troops, which were then transported with two locomotives.
The travel time for the entire route was uphill, inland, 35 minutes, in the direction of Valletta, i.e. downhill, 30 minutes. Even at the opening, there was a tight timetable, which provided for 13 pairs of trains over the entire route and two or three pairs of trains each between Valletta and Attard , Valletta and Birkirkara and Valletta and Ħamrun. Later the number of trips was increased. In 1929, 24 pairs of trains ran on weekdays and even more on public holidays. The fare for the total distance was 1907 3 d in the first class, 1½d in the third. In 1929 the prices were 8d and 4d.
The depot and depot were in Ħamrun.
museum
Since 1998 there has been a small, private museum about the railway in Attard. In addition to photographs, documents and other memorabilia from the railway, eight sections of the former railway are set up here as models on a scale of 1: 148 , which Nicholas Azzopardi built between 1981–1985. The museum can be visited, but registration by telephone is required.
Curiosities
After a bombing raid by the Italian Air Force on Malta in 1940, Mussolini boasted of destroying the Maltese rail system - nine years after it had ceased operations.
literature
- Maarten Asscher: The train station. In: 'The lighthouse keeper'. Munich 1999 | btb |, pp. 7-29, ISBN 3-442-72301-9
- Karl Baedeker: Italie Méridionale, Sicilie, Sardaigne, Malte, Tunis, Corfou. 14th edition Leipzig 1907.
- Karl Baedeker: Lower Italy, Sicily, Malta, Tripoli, Corfu. Guide for travelers . 16th edition Leipzig 1929.
- Joseph Bonnici, Michael Cassar: The Malta Railway . Revised Edition. Malta 1992 (English).
- Railway Atlas Italy and Slovenia. Atlante ferroviario d'Italia e Slovenia . Schweers + Wall 2010. ISBN 978-3-89494-129-1
Web links
- Homepage Museum (English)
- Fan Page (English)
- Railway archaeological information
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c The place names Città Vecchia, Notábile and Mdina all denote the same place, the historical capital of the island of Malta.
- ↑ a b c Railway Atlas Italy and Slovenia , SX
- ^ Joseph Bonnici, Michael Cassar: The Malta Railway . Revised Edition. Malta 1992, p. 29 (English).
- ↑ a b Baedeker (1929).
- ↑ Baedeker (1907).