January 2001

The little region

Molise. The little region between the Appennino and the Adriatico, between green mountain woods and the blu of the sea. The "Adriatic line" runs through the coast from S.Salvo's station and the Chieuti one's. The only junction station is Termoli, were arrive the branch line from Campobasso. This leg is really a mountain line, it pass small towns like Larino, Campolieto and Casacalenda and goes up until 680 mt. s.l.m. of medium city of Campobasso. This junction is also a depot, with some ALn.668.1800 and ALn.663 assigned. A few D.345 locos are assigned too. Next rails take us in Biferno's valley until junction station of Boscoreale. From here one line goes to Benevento, passing region's border at Sepino's station; the other one stand near Rio's river until reaching Carpinone's station. Track coming from Castel di Sangro add here their metal with our line. On this branch, region's border is at S.Pietro Avellana's stop. This small town has 2 stations: one on the FS, the second on the private line "Sangritana", that goes from Castel di Sangro to Adriatico sea running through Sangro valley. Back to our FS line, after some kilometers, we reach Isernia. From here the easy line to Vairano re-connect us to Roma - Napoli line via Cassino. In the Venafro's station - on the line descript above - a new connection not yet opened, let trains go directly to Rome without reverse movements in Vairano junction. Just the Adriatica's line is electrified and E.636 for freights and E.656 or ETR do all the job. On all the other lines just railcars ALn.668 do revenue services. Timetables of this lines are really bad, just Campobasso - Vairano has many important direct trains to Roma. Freights on these branches are a rarity, and just for rail services. The unique depot of the region is in Campobasso, rebuilt in the '80's deleting the old buildings and erasing old steam atmosphere. By the way, old italian rural scenes still remain, overall if you are an upboarding passenger in some of these lost stations, in many times the only connection to the world for this people. Lost forever is the private line from Pescolanciano to Agnone, closed after WW2. The unique other private railway of the region is a small section of the Sangritana, hidden among trees and woods, with his 2 couple of trains per day. Same situations you can find on other lines of the FS, reflection of a small importance of this network. On the regional part of the line to Castel di Sangro, ALn.668.3300 of Sulmona's depot do their hard work on ramps of this steep railway. In 1992/1993 semaphoric signals have been dismantled in favour of centralized controls. Newest events in this small corner of Italy are the double-tracking works of Adriatica's line, and the new line from Venafro to Rocca d'Evandro, still in progress.

And now, let's see some images of these railways: click here!