Surviving Narrow Gauge Steam in Italy - Part 1, Sicily

These pages are the work of Thomas Kautzor and date from June 2021:

Click on the section you are interested in:

Introduction

Part 2 - Southern Italy

Part 3 - Other Areas Two new pictures were added on 9th November 2021

Part 4 - Sardinia

FS Sicilia (950mm):

Sicily used to have a large n.g. network with some rack sections operated by FS, of which the last line between Castelvetrano and Ribera (71.2 km) closed on December 31, 1985, a few years after having been dieselised. Today, most of the track from that line remains in place, while other sections have been turned into bike paths. The dual gauge depot and works at Castelvetrano still house a large quantity of narrow gauge equipment, including a steam loco, a diesel and three diesel railcars. There have been plans for many years by some people to reopen a section of the line along the Mediterranean coast as a tourist railway, but encroachments, lack of support from some mayors and the fact that the depot and stock is owned by Mercitalia and not Fondazione FS have meant that nothing has happened so far.

Today, eight of the ten surviving n.g. FS steam locos (of four classes) that once worked in Sicilia are spread throughout Italy (and the World):

Class 301	R.301 (2-6-0T, 36 t) https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locomotiva_FS_R.301
	R.301.2 (CM Saronno 461/1912) is on display at the Museo Nazionale Leonardo da Vinci, Milano (21.07.2013)
	R.301.027 (OM Milano 583/1914), plinthed on a plaza by the seaside until 2009 and then stored at the Museo Militare in Marsala, was returned to DL Castelvetrano in 06.2017 and is in very bad shape as it has been stored outside for all those years. In 03.2019 it was brought to the Porto Empedocle Centrale Railway Parc for display and further damaged during lifting and transport (25/26.10.2020)
Class 302	(2-6-0T, 37.5 t) https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locomotiva_FS_R.302
	R.302.019 (CM Saronno 671/1922) is on display at the Museo Nazionale Ferroviario in Pietrarsa (Napoli)(31.10.2020)
	R.302.038 (OM Napoli 119/1927) plinthed at private company ASI in an industrial park in Marcon (Venezia). Prior to that, it was plinthed at Mecnafer in Porto Marghera (Venezia) (12.09.2020)
Class R.370	(0-6-0RT) https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locomotiva_FS_R.370
	R.370.002 (CM Saronno 322/1908) is privately-owned by Nettunia Sud and stored near Rome (no photo)
	R.370.012 (CM Saronno 522/1915) is plinthed at Catania Centrale station (24.10.2020)
	R.370.018 (CM Saronno 528/1915) is plinthed at Centro delle Tradizioni Popolari, Villa Cappelotti, Città di Castello (Perugia) (23.07.2009)
	R.370.023 (CM Saronno 639/1921) is on display at the Museo Nazionale Ferroviario in Pietrarsa (Napoli) (31.10.2020)
	R.370.024 (CM Saronno 640/1921) is plinthed outside the Museo della Grande Guerra 1914-18 in Canove di Roana (Vicenza), a station on the former Piovene Rocchette - Asiago railway (which also has rack sections) in Veneto; formerly it was plinthed at Klausen/Chiusa station (Bozen/Bolzano) in South Tyrol (15.09.2020)
Class R.440	(0-4+4-0T) https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locomotiva_FS_R.440
	R.440.008 (Ansaldo 1162/1915) is operational for tourist trains in Eritrea as No. 440.008. After delivery, the class of 12 locomotives was used on construction sites of the Bologna - Florence direttissima railway in the Apennine Mountains, before being assigned to DL Sant'Erasmo in Palermo in 1918/19. From the late 1920s (1937 in the case of R.440.008), the class was sent to Eritrea and assigned to DL Asmara (Asmara, 13.03.2009)
	Of the four surviving RALn 60 railcars built by FIAT in 1949/50 (https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotrice_FS_RALn_60), RALn 60.12 (FIAT 1949) recently made it into the MNF in Pietrarsa (Napoli) after having been purchased from the Villarosa (Enna) station museum in 09.2019 and restoration (31.10.2020). RALn 60.09, 10 and 12 (with fire damage) are stored inside DL Castelvetrano, while RALn 60.03, also damaged in a 2009 fire, was scrapped in 2017 (its bogies donated to RALn 60.12, which had been sitting on freight car bogies at Villarosa). Another six RALn 60 were sold to FCE in the mid-1970s, but these were rebuilt with new fronts as RALn 64.01-06 between 1981 and 1984. Three are still in use as reserve to the less reliable modern FCE railcars.

Ferrovia Circumetnea (FCE, 950mm): this railway circles most of the Etna volcano from Catania Borgo (km 3.8) to Riposto (km 113.5). The initial section between Catania Porto and Catania Borgo was replaced by a standard gauge underground metro between 1993 and 1999. The FCE has owned a total of 18 steam locomotives over the years, four of which were returned to the builder (Breda) shortly after delivery as they were not performing as expected. Diesel railcars were introduced in 1937 under the form of Littorinas ALn.56.01-06 (two of which have survived) and to this day the FCE is operated with diesel railcars. Two steam locomotives are preserved:

	FCE 0-6-0T 10 “Mascali” (Breda 302/1894), one of 10 locos of the same type all delivered in 1894, is preserved inside the shed at Bronte (together with the two surviving Littorinas), the location of a small museum which has been closed to the public for years.
	FCE 0-6-0T 14 (La Meuse 2224/1909) was the last steam locomotive purchased by FCE as it was obtained used from Ferrovia Alifana near Napoli in 1926. It is plinthed inside a small garden at Catania Borgo station (26.10.2020)