Abruzzo's heart
In what other italian region you can find the brightness of Appenninic' snow and Adriatic's blu? Abruzzo adds all the best characteristcs of italian landscape. So do railways that cross this region, mountain branch lines, important lines on the coast, little private railways lost in valleys. A railway scenery difficult to describe in few words. The regional network is based on 2 principal lines: adriatic coastal line among S.Benedetto del Tronto and Vasto stations and the line from Pescara to Rome. These 2 lines are single-tracked, but so many upgrading works are coming on the first one. Some branch lines divert from these two: Giulianova - Teramo, Sulmona - Castel di Sangro, Avezzano - Sora and Sulmona - L'Aquila. Plus a private operator exist. It's FAA - Sangritana that, after services evolution done in these last years, owns the Marina S.Vito - Lanciano - Castel di Sangro, the Ortona - Caldari and Torino di Sangro - FIAT Sevel, these last two just for freight traffic. Also here in the 50's and 60's the wickedness politics did his damage and many lines have been closed: Pescara - Penne (950mm gauge, electric traction, owned by FAA), Chieti - Chieti Scalo (950mm gauge, electric traction, owned by FAA), Ortona - Crocetta and Archi - Atessa (1435mm gauge, electric traction, owned by FAA) and L'Aquila - Capitignano (950mm gauge, steam traction, closed in the 30's). The same line owned by FAA/FAS Sangritana is a rebuilding of the 50's of the old 950mm gauge line. This rebuilding was done in economic way, without the forecast of changed demand in the areas crossed by the line, so, right now, it has become in closure's demage. Infact - with just 4 trains each day for 86 km of trip - we can target it almost like a touristic service. In opposite, between Lanciano and the sea, the traffic is growing and soon it will travel the new line actually in construction. On coastal line Trenitalia (ex FS) uses InterCity and Eurostar with ETR.450 Pendolino, plus many locals in charge to old E.424. Freights pick up tonnage from FIAT/Sevel car factories and from harbour activity in Pescara, Ortona and Vasto. Between Pescara and the capital interregional trains are the rule - hauled by E.656 of the last generation - , plus few InterCity trains made by ETR.450, until some years ago made by ALe.601 or ETR.220/240. From Pescara to Chieti run also many trains of regional metropolitan service, which is extended to Giulianova/Teramo and Lanciano. Rolling stock utilized here are ALn.668 FS, ALn.776 FAA and emu ALe. FAA. On the short track to Teramo the local traffic is totally in charge to dmu and freight trips are maintained by rail-to-road wagon exchange. Inside the region the situation is not so good: on the beautiful appenninic line of Maiella just few revenue runs are done by dmu and freight trains are a rarity, on the line to L'Aquila there are more trains all done by the same dmu, but no freight are provided. On Avezzano - Sora branch probably the last ALn.668.1400 do their daily work with the scarce traffic that this zone required. By this short description is clear that mobility is concetrated in urban areas and on the sea coast, so scenic lines in the inland are the best but the last as we talk about person per train. "Tourism" resource has been applied - still now - by Sangritana with "treno della valle", a multicolor train travelling along Sangro's valley making stops to let people eat and see monument of the small towns of the valley. The same Sangritana bought years ago an old time train made up by an old steam loco type T3 and 2 little coaches coming from the closed line FAV in Valtellina valley. But this same train is still sleeping in Castel di Sangro's depot without any restauration works in program. All Abruzzo lines are photogenic: on the coast there are many places to get trains along the sea, on mountains - with or without the snow - scenic view are frequent, even if you have to walk and sweat to get the best locations. Remarkable is the atmosphere you can feel on the FAA, where trains run (...) on ancient light rails, stops at lost stations or at semaphore signals that still exist on this unbeatable network. Built with 950mm gauge in the first years of '900, it saw mallet steam traction substituted in the 20's by electric tractions. War fury here was heavy and damages too. The society thought to adapt the more modern standard gauge to the old 950mm path in the 50's rebuilding upgrade, so you can imagine how trains get curves of this type... Old mallets are already gone from here to FCL system or on Montepulciano line, instead of old electric motors that got transformed for the new gauge. Just 2 of them remain original and went to FGC, where one is still in heritage service at present days. Original emu - built with the same 20's Carminati & Toselli design of many other private lines - went to the Pescara - Penne and P.to S.Giorgio - Fermo - Amandola lines, again owned by FAA. Then came Stanga/TIBB emu's and all revenue services until now are in charge of them. Just 4 locos remained to assure the near-to-zero freight traffic, until electric line voltage was upgraded in 1985 from 2400V to 3000V. This was the end for the locos, still stored in 2 stations of the line. To front traffic peaks the society acquired all the stock from closed line FVV (Ferrovia Voghera Varzi) in 1970. Some emu's and trailers and 1 loco similar to the oldier got in service. One emu burned in the 80's. The others lost their motors to become coaches for the touristic train told before. Other locos and non-refurbished emu's still stand on the recently closed line from Crocetta to Ortona, waiting their fate. In 1979 Archi - Atessa line closed and we have to wait until 1993 to see positive reactions, as FAA decided to expand his traffic with freight operators. This let the re-opening of the Ortona - Caldari line to freight trains headed by D.343 bought second hand from FS. After a short rental period of FS dmu's ALn.668.1400, the society purchased second hand some ALn.776 units from MUA/FCU with the intent of utilize them on metropolitan services around Pescara. When FAA got the exercise on the FIAT/Sevel branch too, last evolution was reached. Other strange peculiarities in the region are on the line from Avezzano where, to avoid a steep incline between Cupone and Capistrello stations, there is a beautiful helicoidal representing an hard stuff to old diesel motors of dmu's here in service. On the line from Pescara to Rome there are again some traces of the experimental high frequency tri-phase electrification lost in the 40's after the modernization to 3000Vcc. This part of line - particularly around Sulmona - is spectacular for the scenery and the high green mountains where the track is . The little station of Goriano/Sicoli is a wellknown location to italian railfans... The same mountains are crossed and turned by another excellent line: the Sulmona - Castel di Sangro. From the beginning the line reach the top of a steep incline until it get the Cansano station. Then - always climbing - trains come to Campo di Giove, a location among hoods and skying structures, to get finally Castel di Sangro up and down to a plateau in the top of which there is the higher station of entire italian network: Rivisondoli. In winter the battle against snow and blizzards become really hard, calling for use the old snow-ploughs Vnx rebuilt from ancient tri-phase loco E.550. In Sulmona depot - among a vast quantity of ALn.668.3300 - there are 2 historic dmu's of the group ALn.773 used for touristic services. Interesting is the line from Sulmona to L'Aquila too, that reach Sella di Corno's peak with an hard route that at steam times was an hard proof to engineers on old 471 called "crematories". A region, a world. The Maiella and the Adriatic sea. Opposites you can feel even on the trains of this region, that you must discover meter by meter.