Saluzzo–Pinerolo Tramway

Saluzzo–Pinerolo tramway
Pinerolo, railway and tram station
Operation
Open1881 (Pinerolo–Cavour)
1882 (Saluzzo–Cavour)
Close1935
OperatorCGTP
Infrastructure
TypeInterurban tramway
Track gauge1,100 mm

The Saluzzo–Pinerolo tramway was an interurban tram line that connected the cities of Saluzzo and Pinerolo in Piedmont, Italy, from 1881 to 1935.

History

Saluzzo, tram station

The first steps towards building a tram network in the Saluzzo area were taken in July 1877, when an assembly of interested municipalities, deputies, and provincial councillors resolved to promote the construction of a railway between Airasca, Saluzzo, Cuneo, and Mondovì, with a branch from Busca to Dronero.[1] Shortly after, the French banker Alfonso Raoul Berrier-Delaleu applied for the concession of the tram lines Cuneo–Dronero, Cuneo–Busca–Saluzzo, Cuneo–Mondovì, and Saluzzo–Moretta–Pancalieri (the latter extendable to Turin). On 29 October 1877, the Provincial Council of Cuneo accepted the application, and on 4 November granted the construction and operation of the Cuneo–Dronero tramway and Saluzzo–Cuneo tramways,[2] which opened between 1879[3] and 1880.[4] In 1879, the municipal council of Saluzzo also passed a resolution for the construction of lines to Revello, Paesana, and Barge, offering a subsidy of 100,000 lire.[5]

The following year, in an attempt to pre-empt potential competitors, Berrier-Delaleu applied for the concession of the Saluzzo–Revello–Paesana Tramway, to be extended to Cavour and from there to Pinerolo.[6] Having obtained the concession, for which he ceded rights for the Saluzzo–Moretta–Lombriasco section to the Compagnie Générale des Tramways à Vapeur Piémontais of the Belgian banker Rodolfo Coumond,[7] the line opened on 27 June 1881.[8]

In 1882, Coumond, who had in the meantime inaugurated the Turin–Saluzzo tramway, took over from Berrier-Delaleu—who was in financial difficulties due to the construction of the Asti–Cortanze Tramway and Asti–Canale Tramway tramways—the concessions for the Saluzzo–Cuneo Tramway, Cuneo–Dronero tramway, Pinerolo–Cavour, and Saluzzo–Revello–Paesana Tramway lines.[8] With the absorption of Berrier-Delaleu's lines, the Compagnia Generale dei Tramways Piemontesi (CGTP) was formed, with its headquarters in Brussels. Until the First World War, it expanded its network to a total length of 189.965 km.[9] Between 1903 and 1907, the company declared a profit equal to 32% of operating revenue, the highest among all Piedmontese tramways.[10] It was under CGTP management, in November 1882, that the line was extended from Cavour to Saluzzo, as a consequence of the construction of the Bricherasio–Barge Railway, which partially overlapped the planned Pinerolo–Cavour–Barge–Revello–Saluzzo route.[11]

Pinerolo, Piazza Cavour

From 1 January 1887, a combined ticketing service was established between the Saluzzo–Pinerolo and the Pinerolo–Perosa Argentina tramway.[12] Freight traffic benefited from the connection with the Val Chisone line: iron materials, coal, and talc passed through Pinerolo.[13] Among the notable passengers on the tramway was Giovanni Giolitti: the statesman, having reached Pinerolo by train, would take the tram to Cavour,[14] and for him CGTP built a special carriage, which was never used.[15]

1901 timetable

Over the years, the line carried a certain amount of freight traffic, especially to and from the Pinerolo–Perosa Argentina line (coal and steel for the RIV company, wood and talc from the Val Chisone for the Burgo paper mills in Verzuolo),[16] but passenger traffic was low, and decreased further when, from 1919, the SAPAV (backed by the Honourable Luigi Facta) inaugurated a bus line between Pinerolo and Cavour that almost entirely absorbed passenger traffic.[17]

After the First World War, CGTP, in order to reduce operating costs (labour, fuel, maintenance) and increase speeds, experimented in the second half of the 1920s with a benzole railcar,[18] and then from December 1925[19] focused on the use of accumulator battery electric railcars, on the initiative of the managing director Dr. Pietro Lo Balbo.

With the electric railcars—which, however, were never used on the Saluzzo–Pinerolo line[20]—service improved, but it was not enough to counter the advance of bus lines: on 1 May 1935, the Saluzzo–Pinerolo line, together with other CGTP network lines with low traffic or difficult profiles, was converted into a bus line entrusted to the Società Anonima Autolinee Piemontesi, an associate of CGTP.[17]

Characteristics

The tramway was a narrow gauge line of 1,100 mm (3 ft 7+5⁄16 in), and developed for 30.998 kilometres (19.261 miles); the minimum curve radius was 50 metres (160 feet), and the maximum gradient was 22 per mille. The maximum permitted speed was 24 kilometres per hour (15 miles per hour).[21]

Route

The line started from the Saluzzo tram station, located in Piazza XX Settembre and connected with the railway.[13] After the tramway closed, the building was used as a bus station for SATIP bus lines; partially modified in subsequent years, it closed in 1977, replaced by the new bus station in Via Circonvallazione,[22] and was later demolished; apartment blocks were built in its place.[23]

Campiglione at the station exit

Leaving Saluzzo, the tramway followed the Strada statale 589 dei Laghi di Avigliana, passing through the localities of Staffarda, Cavour (whose station was located in the area later occupied by a supermarket),[24] Babano, Campiglione-Fenile, Garzigliana, and Osasco, ending its run at Pinerolo in a station located at the confluence of Corso Torino and Via Giolitti, not far from the termini of the tramways to Perosa Argentina and Orbassano.[25]

At Pinerolo, the line was connected with the FS railway;[26] just beyond Pinerolo, the line crossed the Pinerolo–Torre Pellice railway at grade.[27]

Rolling stock

Locomotives

Three two-axle steam tram locomotives built by Krauss initially served on the line. With CGTP taking over operation of the line, the locomotives became part of that company's fleet.[28]

These were followed by other tram locomotives, built by Krauss and Henschel, delivered up to 1909: the CGTP fleet totalled 40 locomotives; to these were added two Breda and two Borsig locomotives from the Pinerolo–Perosa Argentina tramway.[28]

In 1925, CGTP ordered a DWK Type IV railcar from Romeo for its network, on which it served for about a decade,[29] with poor results[18] (after six or seven months of unsatisfactory trials it was withdrawn from service).

Soon after, accumulator battery traction was experimented with, already tested on other Italian tram lines: the Officine di Savigliano built two railcars on the frames of two-axle Grondona carriages, powered by two 13 hp motors each; these electric railcars gave good results, reducing travel times by 30%.[19] A further series of four railcars was subsequently built, two by the Savigliano workshops and two by CGTP's own workshops based on carriage frames, powered by two motors totalling 40 hp.[30]

The experiment was so successful that CGTP ordered three bogie railcars in 1929,[31] built by Carminati&Toselli with electrical equipment from TIBB, entering service in 1930; another three were delivered in 1933.[32]

Carriages and freight wagons

The first carriages were supplied by Locati of Turin (no more than 12 units, two-axle with open platforms); subsequently, Grondona supplied about sixty carriages, also two-axle with open platforms but more comfortable. The Locati carriages were withdrawn between 1910 and 1920; in those years, the Officine Meccaniche di Pinerolo supplied 28 closed-vestibule carriages (four mixed first and second class, the rest second class), longer than the previous ones and used mainly on the Turin–Carmagnola, Turin–Saluzzo–Cuneo, and Cuneo–Dronero tramway lines;[33] in addition, some of the Grondona carriages were converted to closed platforms.[34] In the early 1930s, two two-axle open-platform carriages arrived from the Messina–Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto Tramway, whose shareholders were the same as CGTP, but they never saw service.[35]

In 1930, about 400 freight wagons were in service, of which 60 were covered and 45 with low sides.[36]

Motive power summary table

Unit Year built Builder Type Notes
1–5 1879–1880 SLM 2-axle tank locomotive ex Berrier-Delaleu for Cuneo–Dronero
1–3 1879–1880 SLM 2-axle tank locomotive ex Berrier-Delaleu for Saluzzo–Cuneo
4 1881 Hagans ex Berrier-Delaleu
5–7 1881 Krauss 2-axle built for Pinerolo–Cavour
10–17 1881 Henschel 2-axle
18 1909 Henschel 2-axle
19–27 1882 Henschel 2-axle
28–35 1888 Henschel 2-axle
36–38 1907 Henschel 2-axle
1–2 Breda
1–2 Borsig ex Pinerolo–Perosa Argentina
51, 57 1925 SNOS 2-axle accumulator railcars built for Turin–Carmagnola
3–4 1927 SNOS 2-axle accumulator railcars built for Saluzzo–Revello–Paesana, Revello–Barge, Costigliole–Venasca
5–6 1927 SNOS 2-axle accumulator railcars built for Saluzzo–Revello–Paesana, Revello–Barge, Costigliole–Venasca
101–106 1929–1932 C&T-TIBB Bogie accumulator railcars built for Turin–Saluzzo–Cuneo, Cuneo–Dronero tramway, Cuneo–Boves

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ogliari & Sapi 1968, vol. 8, p. 114.
  2. ↑ Ogliari & Sapi 1968, vol. 8, pp. 114–115.
  3. ↑ Ogliari & Sapi 1968, vol. 8, p. 115.
  4. ↑ Molino 1981, p. 11.
  5. ↑ Molino 1981, pp. 11–12.
  6. ↑ "Nuove tranvie" [New tramways]. Gazzetta Piemontese (in Italian). 15 November 1880. p. 3.
  7. ↑ "Deliberazioni della Deputazione Provinciale di Torino nell'adunanza di mercoledì 3 novembre 1880" [Resolutions of the Provincial Deputation of Turin at the meeting of Wednesday 3 November 1880]. Gazzetta Piemontese (in Italian). 17 November 1880. p. 4.
  8. 1 2 Molino 1981, p. 12.
  9. ↑ Molino 1981, p. 13.
  10. ↑ Brogiato 1977, p. 59.
  11. ↑ Molino 1981, p. 121.
  12. ↑ Molino 1981, p. 122.
  13. 1 2 Molino 1981, p. 15.
  14. ↑ Molino 1981, p. 86.
  15. ↑ Molino 1981, p. 88.
  16. ↑ Molino 1981, p. 94.
  17. 1 2 Molino 1981, p. 93.
  18. 1 2 Molino 1981, p. 56.
  19. 1 2 Molino 1981, pp. 58–59.
  20. ↑ Molino 1981, p. 123.
  21. ↑ Ogliari & Sapi 1968, vol. 9, p. 766.
  22. ↑ "Saluzzo: nuova stazione pullman" [Saluzzo: new bus station]. La Stampa – Cronache di Alessandria Asti e Cuneo (in Italian). 16 April 1977. p. 11.
  23. ↑ "Saluzzo, la vecchia stazione del tramway" [Saluzzo, the old tramway station]. La Stampa – Cuneo e provincia (in Italian). 29 November 1991. p. 38.
  24. ↑ "Storia-Il tram nei ricordi di un cavourese" [History – The tram in the memories of a resident of Cavour] (in Italian). cavour.info. Archived from the original on 13 June 2015. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  25. ↑ Avondo, Gianvittorio. Le ferrovie e la mobilità nel Pinerolese di fine '800 [Railways and mobility in the Pinerolo area at the end of the 19th century] (PDF). Il Pinerolese, l'Unità d'Italia, gli Alpini. Atti del convegno, castello di Macello, 18 giugno 2011 (in Italian). p. 56. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 December 2015.
  26. ↑ Molino 1981, p. 6.
  27. ↑ Molino 1981, p. 17.
  28. 1 2 Molino 1981, p. 28.
  29. ↑ Molino 1979, p. 21.
  30. ↑ Molino 1981, p. 59.
  31. ↑ Molino 1981, p. 63.
  32. ↑ Molino 1981, p. 70.
  33. ↑ Molino 1981, pp. 34–35.
  34. ↑ Molino 1981, p. 42.
  35. ↑ Molino 1981, p. 43.
  36. ↑ Molino 1981, p. 39.

Bibliography

  • Brogiato, Giovanni (1977). "Le tramvie extraurbane in Piemonte 1875–1914" [Extra-urban tramways in Piedmont 1875–1914]. Cronache Economiche – Rivista della Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato e Agricoltura di Torino (in Italian) (1–2): 55–63.
  • Molino, Domenico (October 1979). "Le prime automotrici FS" [The first FS railcars]. Italmodel Ferrovie (in Italian) (231). Verona: Modeltecnica: 21.
  • Molino, Nico (1981). Il trenino di Saluzzo. Storia della Compagnia Generale Tramways Piemontesi [The little train of Saluzzo. History of the Compagnia Generale Tramways Piemontesi] (in Italian). Turin: Immagini e Parole.
  • Ogliari, Francesco; Sapi, Franco (1968). Scintille tra i monti. Storia dei trasporti italiani vol. 8 e 9. Piemonte-Valle d'Aosta [Sparks among the mountains. History of Italian transport vols. 8 and 9. Piedmont–Aosta Valley] (in Italian). Milan: published by the authors.
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