Biasca Acquarossa Railway

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Biasca Acquarossa Railway
Railcar BCe 4/4 No. 4 in front of the train station in Biasca
Railcar BCe 4/4 No. 4 in front of the train station in Biasca
Route length: 13.8 km
Gauge : 1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Power system : 1200 V  =
Maximum slope : 35  ‰
Minimum radius : 133 m
Biasca – Acquarossa railway line
Legend
   
 0.0 Biasca FFS 292  m above sea level M.
   
 1.0 Biasca Borgo 304  m above sea level M.
   
 Vallone
   
 3.4 Loderio 353  m above sea level M.
   
   
 4.8 Leggiuna 365  m above sea level M.
   
 5.6 Brugaio 359  m above sea level M.
   
 6.5 Malvaglia Chiesa 366  m above sea level M.
   
   
 7.7 Malvaglia Rongie 380  m above sea level M.
   
 9.6 Motto - Ludiano 441  m above sea level M.
   
 10.4 Marogno 452  m above sea level M.
   
 11.5 Dongio 479  m above sea level M.
   
   
 12.6 Corzoneso 505  m above sea level M.
   
 13.8 Acquarossa 538  m above sea level M.

The Biasca-Acquarossa train , abbreviated BA , Italian Ferrovia Biasca-Acquarossa , even Bleniotalbahn , Ferrovia Elettrica Biasca-Acquarossa (-Olivone) or sun valley railway known, was a private narrow-gauge railway in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland . It had a 13.8-kilometer-long, meter-gauge route between the villages of Biasca in the Riviera and Acquarossa-Comprovasco in the Blenio Valley .

history

Share for 250 francs in Società per la Ferrovia Biasca-Acquarossa (Olivone) on March 31, 1908

After the most important north-south railway connection in Switzerland was not - as planned - over the Lukmanier Pass into the Blenio Valley, but rather over the Gotthard route, the valley fell into the shadows of traffic. In order to connect the Blenio valley to the existing SBB line via the Gotthard and to bring the valley the hoped-for modernization, the joint stock company Società per la Ferrovia Biasca-Acquarossa S.A. was founded on September 4, 1906 . founded. 1/5 of the 1600 shares at the beginning , with a total amount of CHF 400,000, were paid up . The shareholders were mainly the municipalities of Malvaglia , Leontica , Corzoneso and Dongio , as well as numerous wealthy private individuals from the Blenio Valley and its diaspora z. B. in England, Scotland, France, Italy and Belgium. 13 board members were elected. Including three engineers and 10 local politicians and judges, among them, as president, Giuseppe Pagani, majority owner of the chocolate factory Cima Norma and mayor of Torre . Together with the engineer Ferdinando Gianella (1837–1917), driving force of the company.

Timetable 1963/1964

With a financial participation of the Canton of Ticino of 30%, the railway line was opened on July 6, 1911 between Biasca and Acquarossa in the central Blenio valley . The Società per la Ferrovia Biasca-Acquarossa S.A. was from 1917 to 1964 under the management of Tomaso Marioni (1890-1969), who had joined the company in 1908 and came from a family of textile industries in Claro . Plans to extend the route up the valley to Olivone came to nothing due to the poor general economic situation in January 1914 when several banks in Ticino went bankrupt. However, after some initial difficulties, the narrow-gauge railway developed satisfactorily, including especially the transports for the in Dangio-Torre is settled chocolate factory Cima Norma contributed. The 1940s and 1950s saw a surge in traffic. In 1966 the company had 19 employees. With the advent of the car, the situation deteriorated from 1968 onwards. On September 29, 1973, rail operations were stopped, the track systems demolished and the vehicles sold or scrapped (see below). Since then, the Biasca – Acquarossa – Olivone route has been served by buses from the successor company Autolinee Bleniesi SA .

Route

First section: Biasca – Acquarossa

The "first section", which began on June 22, 1908 and was officially opened on July 6, 1911, from the station square in front of the SBB Biasca station via Loderio, Brugaio, Malvaglia , Motto , Dongio and Corzoneso to the health resort Acquarossa was the only section that remained in Was put into operation. The depot facilities were also located in Biasca (see below) and thus the operational center of the railway. The line, electrically operated with 1200 volts direct current , was 13.8 km long and rose by 235 m. The maximum gradient was 35 per thousand. The route had a 21 m long tunnel through the rockslide cone Buzza di Biasca and several bridges, e.g. B. over the river Brenno . The longest bridge at 43 m was north of Dongio. In the Castello di Pozzo zone near Corzoneso-Piano , the passage through the rock had to be blasted free. At Valserino between Malvaglia and Motto-Ludiano, a railway line heaped up in the river bed of the Brenno was laid.

Second section: Acquarossa – Olivone

Although there were concrete plans for the years 1914-15 and a concession for the continuation of the line via Lottigna , Dongio- Torre and Aquila to Olivone, this section of the route was never built. Possibly the railway could have become much more important in this more densely populated part of the valley. This meant that the chocolate factory also had to forego a direct connection; it was served by truck from Acquarossa.

Third section: Olivone – Disentis

The plan for a Lukmanier Railway was discussed as early as 1850, but was later rejected in favor of the Gotthard Railway. However, there have been repeated efforts to continue the railway from Olivone over the Lukmanier Pass to Disentis in the canton of Graubünden and to connect there to the existing meter-gauge network of the Rhaetian Railway and the Furka-Oberalp Railway (today the Matterhorn-Gotthard Railway ). However, at no time did any concrete plans exist for the third section.

Rolling stock

The railcars BCFe 2/4 (numbers 1–3)

The three electric multiple units 1 to 3 built by SWS / BBC went into operation in July 1911. The green and white painted vehicles had an output of 118  kW . Only two of the four axles were powered . If the railway over the Lukmanier had been built, more powerful engines would have had to be retrofitted. There were 8 seats in the second and 24 in the third class , plus 10 standing places. All of the cars remained almost in their original condition throughout their service life in the Blenio Valley. Of the three vehicles, railcar 3 survived first, which stood for a long time in Acquarossa as a memorial at the former train station, but was finally demolished. Cars 1 and 2 were scrapped as early as 1973.

The railcars BCe 4/4 (numbers 4–5)

In 1948 and 1963, a further type BCe 4/4 railcar was added to the existing railcars. The locomotives supplied by SWS / SAAS were characterized by an output of 280 kW and an all-axle drive. The luggage compartment was dispensed with, so that 56 seats were available. From then on, the new wagons took on most of the transport tasks, with wagons 1–3 being used in addition. After the cessation of rail operations, both railcars were sold: Today, car 4 runs as the Be 4/4 1002 on the Montreux-Berner-Oberland-Bahn (MOB) and number 5 was used as the Be 4/4 80 on the Aare Seeland mobile (ASm ), used on the route network of the former Oberaargau-Jura-Bahnen (OJB) and the Biel-Täuffelen-Ins-Bahn (BTI) as Be 4/4 521. In the meantime it is again stationed near its home as railcar 5 at the Ferrovia Mesolcinese in Ticino. Both cars are still in good condition.

dare

When it opened, the railway owned two small passenger cars, three covered and four open freight cars and one flat car, all built by the SWS. In 1932 she bought two used mail / baggage cars, and in the 1950s two more passenger cars (three-axle, previously Brünigbahn ) and some freight cars were added. In addition, the railway had company cars to maintain the track systems and the catenary .

building

Old depot building in Biasca

The first depot building was near the train station in Biasca. The electricity was also fed into the overhead line here . The building with the attached workshop offered enough space for the railcars in a three-track garage. Since 1927 the administration and two service apartments have been housed here. Since the newly built bypass road separated the depot from the route after 1962 , the vehicles had to be serviced for several years in the Acquarossa train station. The old depot facilities were sold in 1969, later demolished and a shopping center built over them.

New depot building in Biasca

Malvaglia-Rongie stop

The new building, inaugurated in 1967, was built not far from the old one on the other side of the bypass road. Its conception made it possible to use it as a bus depot after a possible dissolution of the railway. It still serves this purpose today.

Railway stations and other structures

The former train station in Acquarossa

In the course of the construction of the route, additional buildings and facilities were built along the route. The largest train station on the line (in Acquarossa-Comprovasco) had, in addition to the receiving building for the railcars, also sheds and sheds. The main building was replaced by a new building for bus operations, a remise for railcars that was integrated into an extension has been preserved.

literature

  • Jürg Aeschlimann: Abandoned railways in Switzerland , VRS (Association of Rolling Material Directory Switzerland), Winterthur 1996.
  • Ralph Bernet: Swiss Railways: 1950s, Colorful Times of the Economic Miracle, Lan Verlag, Bäretswil 2017. P. 25f.
  • W. Kummer: The electric train Biasca-Acquarossa . In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung 58 (1911).
  • Hans Waldburger: Ferrovia elettrica Biasca-Acquarossa . In: Swiss Railway Review 5/1982 and 1/1983.
  • Hans Waldburger: Biasca-Acquarossao BA. In: Eisenbahn Amateur 6, 2011, pp. 290-294.

Web links

Commons : Biasca-Acquarossa-Bahn  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article Hans Waldburger: Biasca-Acquarossao BA. In: Eisenbahn Amateur 6, 2011, pp. 290-294
  2. ↑ Marco Marcacci, Fabrizio Viscontini: La Valle di Blenio e la sua Ferrovia - L'ingresso nella modernità . Salvioni arti grafiche, Bellinzona 2011, ISBN 978-88-7967-283-2 , p. 94 f., 99 f., 104 ff., 116 f., 129, 147, 160 .