While on holiday in Northern Italy I was surprised to find this locomotive in the town of Ortisei. Click on a picture for a larger image.

After a little investigation I discovered there was a 760 mm narrow gauge railway running over 30 kilometers along the Val Gardena between the towns of Chiusa and Plan Val Gardena. It was built under the direction of the Austro-Hungarian Military Railways when the area was part of the Austrian Empire. Around 6,000 Russian and Serbian prisoners of war helped to build the line. They started in September 1915 and the completed railway opened on 6 February 1916. Much faster progress than HS2 🙂

The feat is even more impressive when you realise that the line was (after the region became part of Italy) the highest railway line operated the Italian Ferrovie dello Stato because at Plan it reached an altitude of 1,595 meters (5,233 ft).

During WW1 the line was used mostly for military freight trains. To maximise the amount of freight carried several trains ran one behind the other on the single track line. They returned empty, again one following another. This reduced the need for trains to pass each other.

The line closed in May 1960. It was a wonderfully picturesque railway and it is a real pity that it didn’t survive into preservation.

My next surprise was that part of the line is now a tourist hiking trail and, as we were visiting the Dolomites on a walking holiday, it was easy to persuade my family to walk the 3.5km from Ortisei to Santa Cristina Val Gardena.

Along the hiking trail there are large information panels with old photographs of the railway. I’ve put pictures of them here and tried to let them speak for themselves. Click on a photo for a larger version.

The railway even had it’s own song “La ferata”, sung in the local Ladin (Rhaeto-Romance) dialect. It has 21 verses and was written by Rev. Giuani Batista. Clearly, it’s not only English clergymen that love railways 🙂 Click the video below to listen to it.

Railway enthusiasts love facts and figures. Here’s the Val Gardena Railway Top Trumps card.

The scenery is beautiful and the railway looks utterly charming in the old photographs. It is such a pity that it was closed and removed just at the time when the preservation era was gaining momentum in the UK.

Imagine how wonderful it would be to ride a steam train along Val Gardena today…