Ferrovia Decauville a Valona

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Ferrovia Decauville a Valona
The Ferrovia Decauville a Valona (bottom left) and the road from Vlora to the port built by the Italian armed forces with rails of the horse-drawn Vlora – Skela
The Ferrovia Decauville a Valona (bottom left) and the road from Vlora to the port built by the
Italian armed forces with
rails of the horse-drawn Vlora – Skela
Route length: 30 km
Gauge : 600 mm ( narrow gauge )
Legend
   
 0 Selenica mines
   
 Peshkëpia route to Mavrova
   
 Shushica
   
 Babica
   
 Qafa e Koçiut
   
 Cement plant
   
 30th Skela port of Vlora
   

The Ferrovia Decauville a Valona ( Albanian  Dekovili Vlora-Selenicë ) was one in 1915 by the Italian armed forces built 30-kilometer narrow-gauge railway in Albania , with the initially mainly war materials and later asphalt of Selenica to the port of Vlora (Valona) in Skela transported was .

history

Construction of the Ferrovia Decauville a Valona

Freight train around 1915

During the First World War , Albania was occupied - at times - by Italian and Austro-Hungarian forces . Both armies built field railways to supply their troops . The Italians built a 30-kilometer-long railway from the port of Vlora to Selenica directly on the Vjosa , which for a long time formed the front. From this trunk line, after the bridge over the Shushica, a line turned south to Kota . Further branches led to Gërnec in the east and into the area of Llakat and north of Vlora. In addition, the Italian military built 15 cable cars to bring goods to the front. The tunnel at Babica was built in October 1917. World icon World icon World icon World icon

Two-axle steam locomotives from Breda , Henschel and Hanomag were used .

Train with 40 hp Hanomag locomotive of the Spunterei type in Vlora, 1915
20 HP Borsig steam locomotive delivered by Decauville in Vlora, 1916

The track width is usually given as 600 mm. Other sources mention a track width of 950 mm and that it was re- gauged at an unknown time . Mölter justifies the confusion by incorrect information in contemporary documents and points out that the tunnel cross-section clearly indicates a track width of 600 mm. The Albanian Academy of Sciences mentions a track width of 650 mm.

Probably before the war the French mine operators laid a field railway in Selenica that the Italians could use for the main line. The railway was probably also used for non-military purposes during the war years, especially for transporting asphalt.

Società italiana delle miniere di Selenizza

Bitumen, a natural raw material for asphalt , has been commercially mined in Selenica since 1875. The bitumen deposits were close to the coast, which made export easier. The concession required for the mining , originally awarded by the Ottomans to a French company with ties to the Ottoman Bank , was transferred in 1918 to the newly founded Italian company Società Italiana delle Miniere di Selenizza by Leopoldo Parodi Delfino . The operation of the Decauville Railway was also assigned to the concessionaires of the mine. The use of this concession brought up to 5000 tons of asphalt and bitumen per year. The state received a fixed license fee of 5 Frs in the early 1920s. per ton and a variable license fee of 5% of the revenue.

Despite the end of the war, the territory of the modern Albanian state continued to be occupied by several other countries after 1918. In the armistice agreement of November 11, 1918, Albania had initially agreed to maintain the status quo. After the end of the war, on the one hand, it took until the government established in the Lushnja Congress (January 1920) was recognized internationally, and on the other, Italy refused to withdraw from the Vlora area. Vlora and large parts of southwest Albania remained occupied by Italy until September 1920. Due to the expulsion of the Italians from the Balkans, the Società italiana delle miniere di Selenizza got into a legal gray area, which probably did not block further operation, but at least blocked its expansion. The Albanian government objected to the extraction of natural resources. It was not until March 10, 1925, that the Kingdom of Italy and Albania concluded a trade and economic agreement that also regulated the concession for the mines in Selenica. The new concessionaire was the Azienda Italiana Petroli Albania , a newly founded company of the Italian Ministero delle Comunicazioni and the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane . The operation of the mine continued to be carried out by the Società Italiana delle Miniere di Selenizza .

The Società Italiana delle Miniere di Selenizza used the concession for the mine until 1943 and recorded an annual production of 20,000 tons of bitumen. According to other sources, it was only possible to increase production from 2,000 tons in 1923 to almost 13,000 tons in 1938. The concessionaire was obliged to transport mail and employees free of charge by rail. After the concession expired, the mine, the Decauville Railway and the facilities were to become the property of the state in 1960.

nationalization

The mine was completely destroyed in World War II.

After the communists came to power in 1944, bitumen mining and the railway line were nationalized by the Socialist People's Republic of Albania .

The railway was used to transport goods and workers. Simple passenger cars were usually attached to the freight trains and stopped in all the places they passed through. A four-kilometer branch line from Peshkëpia to Mavrova was operated for an unknown period. By the beginning of the 1980s at the latest, the last section from Babica to the port was shut down ("provisional terminal station 'Babicë" ( Gerhard Gürsch )) or was only rarely used. According to an Albanian military map from 1982, the route ended in a cement factory two kilometers northeast of the port.

In the mid-1980s, plans were made to relocate a large part of the narrow-gauge line and to lead it to Novosela between Fier and Vlora. Like Selenica, Novosela is located on the south bank of the Vjosa, about 17 kilometers northwest of the mines.

In 1994 the railway, which had never belonged to the Hekurudha Shqiptare railway company , was stopped. In the autumn of 1996 all the rails had already been dismantled. At that time, a locomotive and rolling stock were parked in Babica, while others were parked by the Salinenbahn in the lagoon of Narta, northwest of Vlora.

In 1985 the following locomotives were sighted in Babica:

The steam locomotives, of which there were three, were in use until the mid-1980s.

course

At the time of greatest expansion, the railway line led from the port of Vlora over a range of hills into the Shushica valley , crossed it at Peshkëpia, followed the course of the river north in the flat plain to the confluence with the Vjosa, and then on its southern bank to the east to Selenica. The mine is north of the village.

On the first six kilometers to Babica, the railway had to gain around 100 meters in altitude, winding its way up in numerous curves. The railway line crossed the pass in a short apex tunnel . On the east side of the range of hills, the route slopes down slightly to the Shushica Bridge (approx. 40  m above sea level ) about eight kilometers away , which it probably shared with the road. From the bridge at Peshkëpia a four to seven kilometer branch line is said to have led south to just before Mavrova.

The railway depot was located in Babica east of the tunnel .

More narrow-gauge railways

During the First World War, the armed forces of Austria-Hungary in Albania built field railways from Shkodra (Scutari) to Durrës (Durazzo) , Lushnja and Berat with branch lines to Tirana , Elbasan and Fier (Fieri) , which in the post-war period around 1922 were largely in condition in need of renovation.

A small railway network with a gauge of 950 mm was built around the port of Vlora during World War II.

literature

  • Gerhard Gürsch: By bus and train through the land of the Skipetaren . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1986, p. 72 (travel report from a visit in 1985).
  • RA Bowen: Albanian narrow gauge . In: The Albanian Railways. A status report from autumn 1996 (= German Society for Railway History eV [Hrsg.]: Railways and Museums. Monographs of the DGEG . Volume 44). Self-published, Karlsruhe 1998, ISBN 3-921700-76-0 , p. 29-31 .
  • Romano Mölter: The Forgotten Railway: A Journey into the History of the Albanian Railways 1916–2020 . Railway-Media-Group, Vienna 2020, ISBN 978-3-902894-87-8 , The First Railway, p. 39-47 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d United States Department of the Interior. Bureau of Mines - Economics and Statistics Service (Ed.): Foreign Minerals Survey: A Regional Review of Mineral Resources, Production and Trade . tape 1 , 3 - The Mineral Resources of Albania. Washington DC January 1944 ( full text in Google Book Search).
  2. ^ A b Ciro Paoletti, Giancarlo Marzocchi: Treni e militari italiani . Ed .: Associazione culturale Commissione Italiana di Storia Militare. Rome 2017, p. 162–167 ( calameo.download [accessed November 24, 2019]).
  3. ↑ a b c Pandeli Çaçi: Fjalor enciklopedik shqiptar . Ed .: Akademia e Shkencave e RPSSH. Tirana 1985, keyword Rrjeti hekurudhor , p. 938 .
  4. ^ The First Albanian Railroad . In: Railway Age Gazette . tape 63 , no. 10 , September 7, 1917, pp. 429 f .
  5. ↑ a b Almarina Gegvataj: Vlorë-Selenicë-Kotë, pikënisja e sistemit hekurudhor në Shqipëri para 100 vjetësh. In: Agjencia Telegrafike Shqiptare. July 21, 2014, accessed January 3, 2020 (Albanian).
  6. ↑ Mölter (p. 37) mentions other routes which, apart from a short branch route to Ujë i ftohtë a few kilometers south of the port, cannot be located or. into areas occupied by Austria-Hungary (Devoll).
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g h Romano Möller: The forgotten railway: A journey into the history of the Albanian railways 1916-2020 . Railway-Media-Group, Vienna 2020, ISBN 978-3-902894-87-8 , The First Railway, p. 39-47 .
  8. ↑ a b c Gerhard Gürsch: By bus and train through the land of the Skipetaren . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1986, p. 72 (travel report from a visit in 1985).
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g h R.A. Bowen: Albanian narrow gauge . In: The Albanian Railways. A status report from autumn 1996 (= German Society for Railway History eV [Hrsg.]: Railways and Museums. Monographs of the DGEG . Volume 44). Self-published, Karlsruhe 1998, ISBN 3-921700-76-0 , p. 29-31 .
  10. ^ A b c d Frank Valoczy, Geoff Sarbutt: SIMS - Societa Italiana delle Miniere di Selenizza. In: HSH Albanian Railways - Hekurudha e Shqiperise. March 7, 1998, accessed July 8, 2013 .
  11. ^ A b Gian Paolo Caselli, Grid Thoma: La storia economica albanese 1912-1939 e lo stabilirsi dell 'egemonia italiana. Modena October 2000 ( PDF; 1.1 MB ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )).
  12. ↑ Roberto Almagia: SELENIZZA in "Enciclopedia Italiana". In: treccani.it. 1936, Retrieved January 3, 2020 (Italian).
  13. ↑ a b Carlo Giavarini: La nuova Albania e l'asfalto di Selenizza. (PDF; 398 kB) Rassegna del bitume 65/10, 2010, archived from the original on March 5, 2016 ; accessed on July 8, 2013 (Italian): "Nel 1945 tutto il complesso industriale e la ferrovia furono distrutti per gli eventi della guerra e le azioni deipartigiani."
  14. ^ A b c d e f Albert Calmès: The Economic and Financial Situation of Albania . Ed .: League of Nations, Committee of the Provisional Economic and Financial Committee. Geneva 1922, p. 9 u. 14 ( archive.org ).
  15. ^ Owen Pearson: Albania and King Zog. Independence, Republic and Monarchy 1908-1939 (=  Albania in the Twentieth Century: A History . Volume 1). IB Tauris, London 2004, ISBN 1-84511-013-7 , March 10th 1925, pp. 245 .
  16. ↑ Carlo Giavarini: Petrolio e bitume d'Albania, ritorno al passato . In: Società Chimica Italiana (ed.): La Chimica & l'Industria . No. 92 , 2010, p. 91-94 .
  17. ^ Karl Schappelwein: Mining and energy industry . In: Klaus-Detlev Grothusen (Hrsg.): Albanien (=  Südosteuropa-Handbuch ). tape VII . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1993, ISBN 3-525-36207-2 , pp. 376-390 .
  18. ↑ a b c d Gerhard Gürsch: By bus and train through the land of the Skipetaren . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1986, p. 79 .
  19. ↑ a b c Official map 1: 50,000 of the military cartographic office of Albania, sheet K-34-124-C, 2nd edition 1982
  20. ↑ Gerhard Gürsch: By bus and train through the land of Skipetars . Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Egglham 1986, p. 72 and 92 .
  21. ^ Eberhard Rieber: Albania Railway Map / Railway Map of Albania . Quail Map Company, Exeter 1990, ISBN 0-900609-68-0 .

Coordinates: 40 ° 27 '4.7 "  N , 19 ° 29" 8.5 "  E