Revello–Barge Tramway

The Revello–Barge tramway was an interurban tramway line that connected the towns of Revello and Barge in Piedmont, Italy from 1915 to 1935.

History

The first steps towards the construction of a tramway network in the Saluzzo area were taken in July 1877, when a meeting 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. Shortly afterwards, the French banker Alfonso Raoul Berrier-Delaleu applied for the concession of the tramway 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, granting on 4 November the construction and operation of the Cuneo–Dronero and Cuneo–Busca–Saluzzo tramways, which opened between 1879 and 1880.

In 1878, the municipal council of Saluzzo passed a resolution aimed at promoting the construction of tramways to Revello, Paesana, and Barge, offering a subsidy of 100,000 lire. The first section, from Saluzzo to Revello, was inaugurated on 30 October 1881, and in Berrier-Delaleu's plans it was supposed to be extended towards Barge and from there connect to the Pinerolo–Cavour line opened a few months earlier; this would not be possible due to the construction of the Bricherasio–Barge railway.

As partial compensation for the failure to build the line, in 1890 the Compagnia Generale dei Tramways Piemontesi (CGTP), which had taken over Berrier-Delaleu's activities, established a freight service to Envie, Barge, Sanfront, and Paesana; beyond Revello, goods were carried by pack animals and carts. In 1913, the municipalities of Saluzzo, Revello, Envie, and Barge formed a consortium for the construction of the Revello–Envie–Barge tramway; the consortium would handle construction, obtaining concessions, and provincial subsidies, while the rolling stock would be provided by the operator. That same year, the consortium obtained the concession. The line was inaugurated on 27 May 1915 and management was entrusted to the CGTP.

After the First World War, to reduce operating costs (labour, fuel, maintenance) and increase speeds, in the second half of the 1920s the CGTP experimented with a benzole railcar and from 1920 suppressed some services on the Saluzzo–Paesana and Revello–Barge lines, replacing them with buses, then starting from December 1925 it turned to the use of battery electric railcars, at the urging of the general manager Dr. Pietro Lo Balbo.

With the electric railcars, tested on the Revello–Barge line from 1927, the service improved (so much so that previously suppressed services were restored), but due to the scarcity of passenger traffic, the absence of freight traffic, and the steep gradients, operation was severely hampered, leading to the line's closure on 1 May 1935, replaced by buses of the Società Anonima Autolinee Piemontesi, an associate of the CGTP.

Characteristics

The tramway was a narrow-gauge line of 1,100 mm and extended for 11.603 km, entirely on street tracks; the minimum curve radius was 50 metres, and the maximum gradient was 35.4 per thousand. The maximum permitted speed was 24 km/h.

Rolling stock

Railcars

The tramway was served by the CGTP's steam locomotives (of which the fleet totalled 40).

In 1925, the CGTP ordered a DWK Type IV railcar from Romeo for its own network, on which it served for about a decade with poor results.

Soon after, battery traction was tested, already tried on other Italian tramway 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%. A further series of four railcars was subsequently fitted out, two built by the Savigliano workshops and two by the CGTP workshops based on carriages, powered by two motors for a total of 40 HP.

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

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, still two-axle with open platforms but more comfortable. The Locati carriages were retired between 1910 and 1920; in those years the Officine Meccaniche di Pinerolo supplied 28 closed-vestibule carriages (four mixed first and second class, the others second class), longer than the previous ones and mainly used on the Turin–Carmagnola, Turin–Saluzzo–Cuneo, and Cuneo–Dronero lines, and some of the Grondona carriages were converted to closed platforms. In the early 1930s, two two-axle carriages with open platforms arrived from the Messina–Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto tramway, whose shareholders were the same as those of the CGTP, but they never entered service.

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

Motive power summary

See also

• List of tram and light rail transit systems
• History of rail transport in Italy
• Saluzzo–Pinerolo tramway
• Saluzzo–Revello–Paesana tramway
• Messina–Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto tramway

References