Fiemme Valley Railway

Auer-Predazzo

Route length:

50.50 km

Gauge :

760 mm,
from 1928/29: 1000 mm

Maximum slope :

46 ‰

Minimum radius :

60 m

Legend

	Brenner railway to Bozen
0.000	Except	223 m slm
	Brenner train to Verona
1.672	Except place	241 m slm
	Vill ( demand stop , already discontinued before 1963)
9.274	Montan	453 m slm
11.000	Glener Viaduct / Viaduct Unterglen (73 m)
11.001	Glen	535 m slm
11.915	Windischgraben tunnel / Oberglen tunnel (258.45 m)
12.200	Windischgraben Viaduct / Viaduct Oberglen (70 m)
12,930	Schloßberg Tunnel / Enn Castle Tunnel (123 m)
15.759	Kalditsch	702 m slm
17.312	Feitner tunnel (138.82 m)
18.600	Rottenhof Viaduct (32 m)
18,923	Rottenhof tunnel (109.95 m)
19,537	Kalditsch tunnel (52.85 m)
22,450	Break	958 m slm
22.800	Schelmgraben Viaduct (40 m)
23.751	Kaltenbrunn	1001 m slm
26.299	San Lugano	1097 m slm
	Provincial border Bolzano-South Tyrol / Trentino
29.400	Aguaiviadukt I (42 m)
29.500	Aguaiviadukt II (30 m)
31,247	Castello di Fiemme	1005 m slm
33,000	Carano Bivio (emergency stop, from 1945)
34,600	Cavalese Succursale / Bar Fiemme (stop on demand)
34.800	Schwarzbach Viaduct (20 m)
35.703	Cavalese	991 m slm
36.612	Narena tunnel (103 m)
39.300	Avisio (78 m)
39.393	Masi di Cavalese
40.800	Lagoraibach (10 m)
42.112	Tesero	902 m slm
42.500	Val del Bus stream (4.6 m)
43.800	Rio Cavelonte (10 m)
43.827	Panchià	930 m slm
45.060	Ziano di Fiemme	940 m slm
46.100	Rio Castellir (9.3 m)
	Frazione Roda (demand stop)
47.800	Rio Sadole (9.3 m)
47.900	Sadoletal (loading point, First World War)
48.800	Torrente Pozze (8.5 m)
48.900	Valmaggiore (loading point, First World War)
50.100	Predazzo South (First World War)
	to the loading point Travignolotal (First World War)
50.300	Torrente Travignolo (33 m)
50.498	Predazzo	1008 m slm

The Fiemme Valley Railway was a narrow-gauge railway line between Auer in the Unterland ( South Tyrol ) and Predazzo in the Fiemme Valley ( Italian Val di Fiemme , Trentino ), which was in operation from 1917 to 1963.

prehistory

As early as 1910, the project application from the municipality of Fiemme Valley (Magnifica Comunità Val di Fiemme) to the Imperial and Royal Ministry of Railways was granted, and the work was transferred to an Italian-speaking engineer. With the outbreak of the First World War , these plans were initially frozen.

When Italy entered the war in 1915 and the beginning of the Dolomite War, however, the supply route via the existing roads proved to be inadequate and the old plans for the Fiemme Valley Railway were taken up again. It had previously been several variations, like a cog railway Auer Pausa, cable cars and funiculars been studied until 1916, the construction of an adhesion railway with 760 mm gauge began their subsequent Umspurung on meter gauge and its electrification was taken into account at the outset. The pre-concession of the Magnifica Comunità Val di Fiemme was transferred to the kuk Heeres Feldbahn and Leopold Oerley was appointed site manager.

The first construction phase

This was built from February 1916 by the 28th railway company. In March the construction work began by the Redlich & Berger company and the 28th kuk railway company. First, the Auer station was built. With a length of 1,500 m and a width of 100 m, it was the largest narrow-gauge station in the Danube Monarchy. The foundation was made on 900 piles because of the swampy subsoil.

6,000 workers were involved in the construction under the command of the 28th railway company, including 2,100 military personnel and 3,600 prisoners of war. In the winter of 1916/1917, construction had to be temporarily suspended due to the catastrophic weather conditions.

The first construction phase, 45 kilometers in length, includes six tunnels with a total length of 786 m, seven viaducts with a total length of 307 m and 8 bridges with a total length of 168 m. The track width was 760 mm, the gradient was a maximum of 42 per thousand, the smallest track radius was set at 60 m. At times, a field railway with a gauge of 600 mm was also in use during construction.

The second section

Construction of the second section began as soon as the first train reached Castello. The originally planned route followed the Fleimstalstraße from Cavalese. However, their execution was thwarted by the effects of the war (bombardment of this section of Monte Cauriol , captured by the Italian troops in August 1916 ).

Therefore, the railway followed the southern slope of the valley, which required several additional viaducts.

In November 1917, the first material trains ran to Rio Sadole, the opening train to Predazzo Süd ran on January 18, 1918.

route

simplified height profile of the railway line

From 1917 to 1927 the route was mainly used for transporting timber. Taken over by Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FS) on February 1, 1919 , the extension from Predazzo South to Predazzo Centro was put into operation on the same day.

In the twenties it became quiet around the Fiemme Valley Railway; the timetable for passenger traffic provided for only three trains per day in each direction. The travel time from Auer via the San Lugano saddle to Predazzo was 3 hours and 55 minutes.

In 1923 the deficit of the railway was already considerable and the bankrupt Italian state railroad administration demanded huge payments from the Magnifica Communita Val di Fiemme with dubious reasons.

electrification

In the result, there were characterized for privatization and electrification of the line, wherein the Magnificent Community Fiemme together with the STE (Società Trentina di Elettricità), which at this time, the Rittnerbahn that Überetsch Railway and the local railway Dermulo-Mendel operation , founded a company called FEVF (Ferrovia Elettrica Val di Fiemme). The Italian railway administration switched operations to meter gauge and electric traction from 1929; a possibility that was already foreseen during construction.

New rolling stock was purchased from Carminati & Toselli for the electrical operation, the electrical equipment was supplied by Tecnomasio Italiano Brown Boveri (TIBB): The opening ceremony for the electrical operation took place on October 28, 1929.

Decline

With the electrification of the route, travel time has been accelerated to 2 hours and 15 minutes. In 1932 there were ten passenger trains a day. The railway was in service for decades, also under increasing Allied bombing and low-flying attacks in World War II, which, among other things, had the Auer station as their destination. Until 1953, the railway balanced its balance with the help of state subsidies.

In 1956 the management of the Rittner Bahn was transferred, which decided a year later to discontinue the Fiemme Valley Railway. Although the suspension was planned for 1960, the trains on the Fiemme Valley Railway had to run until January 10, 1963 because the replacement Italian buses were delivered late.

The old railway line of the Fiemme Valley Railway with the preserved tunnels, viaducts and bridges is now a popular cycling and hiking route for South Tyrolean tourism.

Auer station opposite the Etschtalbahn station of the same name
Bridge over the railway just before the village of Auer
Overgrown turning loop near Montan
Detail underpass at sunset

literature

Rolando Cembran: A train into the Fiemme Valley . Athesia, Bozen 2011, ISBN 978-88-8266-783-2 .

Mariano Delladio: Vapor in Val di Fiemme . Genesi di una ferrovia militare. 3. Edition. Calosci, Cortona 2002.

Josef Dultinger : Forgotten Past . Narrow gauge railways of the Austro-Hungarian Army on the Dolomite Front 1915–1918. Publishing house Dr. Rudolf Erhard, Rum 1982.

Werner showerk, Walter Pramstaller, u. a .: Local and trams in old Tyrol . Self-published by Tiroler Museumsbahnen , Innsbruck 2008.

Mario Forni, Paolo Corrà: Le Ferrovie del Trentino . Edizioni UCT, Trento 2003, ISBN 88-86246-94-3 .

Piero Muscolino: The Dolomites Narrow Gauge Railways and Travel Memories . Auer – Predazzo, Klausen – Plan. Calosci, Cortona 1988.

Michael Alexander Populorum: Railway archaeological excursions south of the Brenner Pass - Part 5: The Austro-Hungarian Fiemme Valley Railway from Auer to Predazzo. (= Series of publications by the Documentation Center for European Railway Research (DEEF), Volume 5, 3rd edition 2016 on DVD, ISBN 978-3-903132-10-8 . ). Mercurius Verlag, Salzburg.

Walther Schaumann : The railways between Ortler and Piave in the war years 1915–1918 . Use and performance of the Austro-Hungarian and Imperial German railway formations. Bohmann Verlag, Vienna, Heidelberg 1971.

Web links

Commons : Fiemme Valley Railway - collection of images, videos and audio files

Commons : Opening of the Fiemme Valley Railway in 1917 - collection of images, videos and audio files

Documentation Center for European Railway Research, DEEF : The Austro-Hungarian Fiemme Valley Railway from Auer to Predazzo - A railway archaeological excursion in the south of Tyrol in 3 parts. Retrieved October 29, 2013 .
Tyrolean Museum Railways : The Fiemme Valley Railway . Retrieved October 24, 2011 .
Simulation of the Fiemme Valley Railway. Retrieved October 24, 2011 (fictional spread for OpenBVE ).
Short video of the Fiemme Valley Railway. Retrieved October 24, 2011 (AVI file; 0.64 MB).
Fiemme Valley Railway. Technical report. In: Digital Library of the State Library “Dr. Friedrich Teßmann ” . Retrieved May 12, 2014 .

46.315277777778 11.389444444444Coordinates: 46 ° 18 ′ 55 ″ N , 11 ° 23 ′ 22 ″ E