Vesuvius Railway

8/6/2019 Vesuvius Railway

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vesuvius-railway 1/4

Electric LinesConducted by

STEPHEN D. MAGUIRE

TRAM AND COG LINE to thecrater of Italy's Mt. Vesuvius isstill doing business at the sameold stand, despite recent flow of

lava across the incline

ONE of the peacetime thrills of atour around Naples was—and willbe—riding the tramway and cog

line to the top of Mt. Vesuvius. Scen-ically, the trip is beautiful beyond de-scription, giving you a grand view of thefamous old city and its environs, includingthe Bay of Naples, far below. Historical-ly, it takes you back to the year 69 A.D.,when Mt. Vesuvius; as an active volcano,suddenly buried the prosperous Romancities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

This volcano has been reasonably wellbehaved for nearly all the time since thatmost terrible of all its eruptions, but hasnever ceased to be a potential menace.Noxious gases emanate from it night and

61

VESUVIUS RAILWAY

day, with occasional bursts of flame anddeadly flows of lava from inside the bellyof the earth. No man can say when theslumbering giant will re-awaken or whatterror will result when he does.

Today, many GIs in the American occu-

pation forces take this ride up to thecrater, for, despite a recent destructiveeruption on a relatively small scale, mostof the tramway is still intact and givingservice. The facts and photos embodiedin this article come from an old friendof the Electric Lines department, Sgt.Roger Borrup, 12th Weather Sqn., A.P.O.650, New York City. The sergeant took such an excursion himself and gives ushis impressions.

The tramway and cog line, technicallyknown as the Ferrovie & Funicolare etVesuviana, starts in the town of Pugli-



ano, a fifteen-minute electric train ridefrom Naples. Cars are painted light blueand are single-truck with carriage-typeseating—that is, there is a door oppositeeach seat, which runs the full width of

the car. The arrangement is almost likethe usual open-trolley seating but in aclosed car.

Out of the station but fifty feet, the carbegins to climb, the entire trip being upa continuous grade for approximately fivemiles. The tramcar climbs to within athousand feet of the tip of Mt. Vesuvius,whose summit rises 3500 feet above sealevel. Steep though the grades are, the

car is equipped with only hand and elec-tric traction brakes. Effectiveness of thehand brakes was demonstrated when,during Borrup's trip, the bow-type currentcollector stuck down and the car. whichhad started to roll backward, was im-mediately controlled.

The latest eruption of Mt. Vesuvius,took place during the battle for Naples. Itplayed havoc with the line, for lava crossed

the tramway portion in two places, de-

Railroad Magazine 62



Electric Lines

stroying the incline line (funicular) thatwent right up to the crater.After several minutes of uphill riding,

the car climbs up to a spot where the track disappears into a fifty-foot bank of mate-rial that looks like ashes and giant clinkersfrom a steam locomotive. This is the firstlava flow to be reached by the car. Pas-sengers have to alight and walk aroundthe edge of the flow.

A two-story car house and power sta-tion stand at this point. The flow piledup right against the building and ap-parently stopped there. All cars exceptNumber 2 were run out of the car-housebefore.the flow reached it. The two-spotwas left above it in order to be able tocarry on operation up from there. Severalpieces of equipment are still blocaded onthe second floor of this building but arenot damaged.

After walking past the car-barn a dis-tance of about five hundred feet, youemerge from the ash and find a secondtramcar standing there with, three cogpusher-cars at its rear. These are four-wheel box affairs powered by cog wheelgeared to a cog track laid between therails. They shove the car up the 25-degreegrade which extends from the damagedcar-house to the Mt. Vesuvius Observa-

tory.As the train starts off on this second

lap of the journey, with cog pushersgrinding behind, the view below becomesmagnificent. Not too far to the northwestyou 'can see the black lava stream and the

63

COG PUSHERS 3, 1 and 2,pictured at bottom of page62, get ready to boost tram4 up the steepest part of the

Vesuvius grade

FERROVIE & FUNICO-LARE et VESUVIANA car-house (top of page 62)

stopped flow of lava

AT LEFT: Starting point of 65 lire excursion is Pugliano.Cars have transverse seats,

with independent doors

space that once was San Sebastian, a vil-lage now lying below the lava bed. Grad-ually climbing, the Bay of Naples and thenthe entire old. city and its suburbs swiminto view.

Above the observatory the grade eases,off. Cog cars are cut off the rear of yourtramcar, which then proceeds ahead acouple of thousand feet until a secondlava flow crosses the tracks. Here iswhere rail travel terminates. To reach thetop of the crater your journey must becompleted on foot.

Walking over this second lava barrierand on up the open tracks, it is only afew hundred feet to where a third flowcovers the rails again. The several hun-dred more feet .beyond here lead to thefunicular station, now a total wreck. Brok-en walls jut out from the ashes andpumice, while a couple of rails dangle

up above on the mountain slope wherethe incline line used to run right up tothe mountain summit. Nothing salvagableremains of the funicular.

The top of Vesuvius and its yawningcrater, perhaps five hundred feet deep,looks like something from another world.It is reached now only by foot along adifficult path a mile and a half longthrough large lava clinkers and pumice.

Each step of the path is a foot above the-other, and your feet sink into the coarsesand six inches on each step.

The funicular ride straight up to thetop, was only a thousand feet in lengthon slopes that varied from 45 to 60 de-



grees. Tt had been destroyed before inthe famous eruption of 1906, and was re-built in 1909. Perhaps, if and when thevolcano shows signs of being dormant foranother extended period, it will be rebuilt

again. Revenues on the tramway portionof the line have been threatened becausethe line no longer makes a direct connec-tion with the rim of the crater, and thefoot walk in place of the incline is mostdifficult to negotiate.

The tram fare is 65 lire for the roundtrip from Pugliano. It used to include the

Railroad Magazine

through ride to the funicular station andup on the funicular itself. Now passengersget more walking for their money. Aguide charges 100 lire to accompany thetraveler to the top. And the tram conduc-

tor has a' side line of pictures, trinkets,other; souvenirs, and Vesuvius wine tosell on the ride.

Originally promoted by the travelagency of Thomas Cook & Sons, the tripwas one of their feature Cook's Tours forvisitor's to Naples. Now it is an attractionfor Uncle Sam's khaki-clad nephews.

64

Vesuvius Railway

Documents

Transcript of Vesuvius Railway