As
soon the works on the section to Campo Marte had finished, the works
moved on the other short section, from Bivio Pellegrino to S.Marco
Vecchio.
This was part of the original line,
and its reopening have been delayed mostly because the line have been
reopened also [even if this use has never been done until today] to
allow carrying of residuals from boring of tunnels, so it was
unadvisable to send the train to the central [passenger only]
station.
There was also another good reason,
that will be explained later, to do such way.
When this line had
been built in 1888 the line from Firenze to Roma was single track,
and the line to faenza too. From the station of Santa Maria Novella
to the bivio pellegrino the two lines did run parallel, and there
split.
In 1908 the section from Firenze to
Pontassieve (where incidentally the third leg of faentina arrived) of
the line to Roma was double tracked. Since a section inside the city
of Firenze was critical, mainly due a short tunnel,
it was
decided to operate the two existing track as a double track line
and put three switches at the departing point, stating in this way
the Bivio (= junction) Pellegrino . This is a link to the
original document of such event, that
have also the original map of the place.
On
that junction was built a signaltower, in brick and iron-glass to
control, via a Saxby apparate, the signals and the switches in that
junction.
The junction remained in operation
until 1944, when the entire line was closed, but the tower was still
standing in 1999, when most of these pictures have been shot.
The
brick-concrete part of the building have been since then domolished,
while the iron part have been removed and carried to the railroad
museuim of Firenze Porta al Prato.
It is interesting to note that during the works
this artifacts was
moved to San Marco Vecchio, where
another, similar one, existed from 1888 to 1984.
From
there le line turned toward north, while the line to Campo Marte-Roma
went south, climbing abruptly to gain height to overpass the freight
bypass from Campo Marte to Rifredi.
Today
there is a switch to a derail to avoid that an escaped car or train
from the faentina line (that is downgrade) enter the Firenze-Roma
line.
In the picture of Leandro Colli (that
is the author of most of the pictures inm this page) the shoulders of
this overpass, as were in 1999 (you can see on bottom the overhead
wires of the other line and the wall on the right that divide the
railway from viuzzo dei Bruni.
After this overpass the line rise again , along viuzzo dei Bruni, and below are shown two pictures seen
Some hundreds meters more and we arrive to to
other bridge, over via dei Bruni.
In another
page there is a link to the pictures
of the bridge before the rehabilitation, here a couple of
pictures of the bridge removed but not yet modified as the other with
concrete support and the old iron sides.
The bridge have been rebuilt and this is the result:
This is the view of the link from the stop o S.marco Vecchio
But is not finished here ... with the rebuilding of the link have been also moved the
junction with the line from Campo Marte some
hundreds of meter north, building a new station, used onli for service, called Cionfo.
Please go there.
(For this page I have to thanks Leandro Colli for having permitted the use of some of his pictures [the ones in directory lc])
Push here to get next sections:
S.Marco Vecchio-Calderaio (2000)
S.Marco Vecchio-Calderaio (1998)
For information on the section North of Pratolino (valle del Carza) click here.
If you will come here I will be happy to arrange a trip together
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