The terminus station of the Ferrovia Torino-Ceres (also known as Torino-Valli di Lanzo) in the Turin province, with its chalet style architecture, like the others on the line.
The first stage of the railway to Venaria Reale was inaugurated in 1868. The following year the rails reached Cirie, for a total of 21.3 km and five stations. It took until 1916 to reach Ceres, a total length of some 43 km. In the same year electrification plans were developed for the line to reduce operating costs burdened by the increased cost of coal in early 1918. The Italian Brown-Boveri Tecnomasio was responsible for carrying out the work leading to its inauguration on 6 October 1920. Torino - Ceres became the first railway in the world to adopt electric traction at a high DC voltage of 4 kV. For the project 5 electric locomotives with a Bo-Bo wheel arrangement were acquired, supported successively by 2 electric railcars of axle arrangement 1A-A1. Today the line is electrified in the standard Italian 3 kV DC
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The photo shows one of the special steam trains operated by volounteer group of the Piedmont Railway Museum (Museo Ferroviario Piemontese) that ran through the line from 1978 to 1986. Steam locomotive is 422.009, a former Prussian State Railway, conquered by Italians during WWI and plated as group 422 by Italian state Railway.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting book on this pioneering railway has been published four years ago, Italy. Title is simply "Torino-Ceres".