Part
1- Follonica
Part
1- Follonica
This
line was build at end of XIX century to connect the City of Follonica to
the one of Massa Marittima.
Its most important goal was howewer the use to haul mineral trains fron
the mines around Massa Marittima, a Minerary site since etruscan ages,
to the iron shops at Follonica, built in 1838.
The line was standard gauge, steam operated, althought on that line was
made one of the very first experiments of using an internal combustion
railcar (derived by a road truck) for off peak passenger service.
The line had a couple of bridge severed durng 1944 war, and was never reactivated,
since the minerary traffic had ceased since a long time and passenger traffic
could be operated faster by bus, even in consideration that even before
was necessary a bus connection between the centre of Massa Marittima (that
is on top of an hill) and its station, about 2km off the centre.
To allow easier browsing this page is divided in four sections, Follonica (this), Massa Marittima, Scarlino and the line itself. Even the mmaps are separate, and you can load indipendently. For this page the corresponding map is here.
The
terminal building in Follonica is no longer present, the picture at left
show its position, but all other stations are still present and nost of
the railbed is identifiable, while te image or right show the place where
the track were joined and freight exchanged
Some years ago -was told me- the company still owning the name, that operates under the same railways name the bus service had cleared all the old ROW by abusive buildings, weeds and other, althought presently weed have again grown and in a couple of places there are orchards and deposit areas.
The
line had two appendices: One was going to the beach, where was the station
of Follonica Porto, that was used to load/unload iron ore and wood coal
to the iron factories. There where two long piers, one end of which was
where now there is the waal you see on left.
Eventually all traffic ws moved to the better port of Piombino, and there
were built more
In the two pictures below you can see the present
building of the former railway station of Follonica Porto.
The building is well maintained and you can see the peculiar (to this line)
narrow windows on short side and the neoclassical frontal, that you can
find also in the station of Valpiana,
Next images show you the present situation of the Follonica-Follonica Porto line, still clear of bilding, but used for orchards. If you look at the map the line run alomg the non-aligned road you see in the first purple square.
These are the places where the line from the port
and the other spur from the "ferriera" joined the "main"
line.
On pictures below the building of the "Ferriera",
now trasformed in a public centre, with city library and museum.
The city of Follonica in early XIX century was a small village sorrounded by swamps.
The installation of the iron factories boosted its activity. The Iron mineral came by ship from Elba Island and was threated here, using wood coal of erica arborea grown in the land. (for which was even built another railway, the "ferrovia carbonifera di Montebamboli"
The city eventually has grown a lot, reaching today more than 30000 inhabitants, and more of 100000 in summer.
The most typycal building is the church of St Leopoldo,
that is just in front of the Ferriera.
This church has its front and part of the altar in cast iron. The architect that designed it, Carlo Reishammer, is also one of those that later supervised the building of the first railways in Toscana.
The entrance and part of the altar are in cast Iron. See also the contemporary Porta S. Marco at Livorno.
Thanks for the assistence on this and the other pages of the series
to Leonardo Lotti
If you will come here I will be happy to arrange a trip together
