Italy: San Sebastian Iron Road

Things have moved on during the summer and the excavator has been slowly munching away at the hillside.

 

We now have a date for the opening of the next phase. The long weekend of the 23-25th June 2023 will see the bottom loop enter service. The major earth works are done.
If you have a loco you would like to bring along to test your engine and driving please get in touch. It promises to be a fun weekend. Location is near Foligno in central Italy. I may be able to help with a stop off point in northern Italy but our rough track to the house is not suitable for caravans and trailers.

 

Things are starting to get serious. The base layer of ballast is going down.

 

The Golden Spike (weld) is done and we are ready for next weekend. It's been quite a job to get everything done with lots of people doing lots of 'homework'.
I'm hoping to get a head start on Friday as in the following days I have a full week in the car, Geneva, Munich and Vienna with hopefully a trip on the reopened Achenseebahn. As I am on the road for 10 days I won't be able to take a loco. I might squeeze in my little battery loco but I am not sure the battery will last the full 3km!

 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?st...o3YMEssvNwAl&id=100064862883347&sfnsn=scwspmo

Looks like quite the gathering!

 

Indeed. The new extension and station proved to be a success. Caught up with friends from all over Europe. We even had a visit from Palmerston, in miniature, from the Festiniog.

 

Davide has made a 360 degree video, starting from the bottom station working uphill.

Scroll around to see the views along the line.

 

It turns out they've got a Facebook page as well.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100068314867659

I wonder if the missus fancies a weekend away in June...

 

Indeed. I'll be there in June. I doubt I will have anything new but I have been busy getting things in order in the workshop, we only moved two years ago...

 

We are getting closer to the date and we need to organise the numbers. If you want to visit let Guido know by the end of May. I should be there on Saturday and Sunday. I am not sure if I can host a stop off point on the way as we have building work starting in two weeks for 6-8 weeks.

 

The weekend has come to a close and what a time was had by all. The furthest visiting loco was from Perth, Scotland who had driven all the way! In the back of his van was the B class. So we had an Indian loco climbing an Italian mountain.
Friday was boiling and humid, Saturday was sunny and bright, Sunday afternoon the rain came so most people had loaded up and departed. Guido was on top form as ever and my next task is to import a container load of coal. Various options were tried during the weekend and the jury is still out on that one.
Despite lots of pressure and copious amounts of food and wine the owner of the DHR loco didn't want to leave it in Italy!
However one of these is on the shopping list and enquiries have started.
The coming year may see some movement on the signalling. Being the signalman/station announcer/shunter at the junction station kept me occupied, and during a wine fuelled debate on Saturday night we came up with multiple options. Fully interlocked semaphore signals would be the way to go, but an interim of a simple telephone at each station is probably the first step. That way the video brigade will be happy with not having my voice booming down the valley, advising what is coming up or down. I only had one misunderstanding from one driver who went beyond the passing loop I told him to stop at. At the peak we had 11 active units in the mountain section, ranging from a motorised trolley right up to Mario's 141R.
The furthest passenger was from California and the youngest was 11 weeks old.
And we are so stupid we will do it all again next year! See you there?

 

Davide has published a few videos using drone footage from the weekend. Hope you enjoy them.
This link will take you to one of them, look at his channel for the others.

 

Details of next year's event.

 

Indeed. I'll hopefully have a chat with Guido over the next few days. It seems as though I have the task of finding homes for some quite large 7 1/4" locos due to changed circumstances.
As they have stainless boilers they are not much use in the UK.