Lasa's railway
Twelve years ago, since November 1986, my curiosity of railfan and photographer was excited for this unknown and hidden plant, thanks to an article on issue 65 of "Treni Oggi". Finally i've decided to go there and with some friends we move to Val Venosta. There, in the town of Lasa - a Merano district - you can find one of the most curious and original plants still existing: the funicolar and railways of Lasa's marble quarry. Built in 1927 to connect the tunnel mine at 1600 meters with the statal railway Merano-Malles, since then these railways do their everyday job for 11 months per year hidden to the sight of the most, representing in 2001 a true example of industrial archaeology still intact. The working process starts in the morning, when marble blocks are carried by the cableway in the high valley to the superior terminus of the railway. Here, in a beautifull scenery among pines, cascades, rocks and rivers stands the little station of 2 tracks, end of a two km line to the high connection of a cableline. The line in this area is the symbol of an hard life of a surviving small track of a meter gauge against landslips and ground movements. Walls carryng the track are unsafe and repaired in emergency with marble rocks, rails are so scarce has i never seen before: short pieces of 24kg/m are coupled with 36kg/m pieces, rocks and stones felt on them laid unrepairable signs, metals first folded then cut away and reconnected as they can let to the train an incredible move as it travels along them. Catenary is no more in place, maybe because stone movements, so the old TIBB locos are in effect diesel-electric engines, where old motors are energyzed by a little diesel motor. The little train in the hoods takes 15 minutes to made two kilometers and is made of 2 wagons max. At the superior terminus of the incline, wagons are pushed until the end of the rails frontig the tackle of the cable line. On this big structure of iron and wood, wagons are pushed by gravity, braked and blocked with chains, waiting the signal to start all the operations. When all is ok, the two tackles begin moving, crossing themselves at half way. From valley comes the one carrying an empty wagon, while the other going to the valley is loaded of the wagon with the marble's block. On these two tackles stand two guys armed with a pole used to connect an electrified wire in case of emergency. At the half way crossing, those guys jump down from the tackles and exchange their position, all this while they are moving....Arrived down, the wagon is unloaded and coupled to another TIBB loco that will trip for 800 meters, until the train reach the Lasa Marmi spa plant. Among apple trees and flowers, the trip takes just few minutes to the plant, where then the blocks are loaded on trucks ready for expedition. All the cicle is repeated for 4/5 times, depending how many marble blocks have been extracted in the night or in the morning. That's all. A world under water, i thought missed. Movements and trains dating from heroic times when mechanic was still a conquer, in a wonderful contest as just Alto Adige can be. A long trip took me there and so long has been our walk to the quarries, but these images will remain to me for long time as an example of an human batte against the mountain.