Steam in Sardinia 2022

James Waite visited Sardinia for steam in 2009 and I recommend you read his account first if you are not familiar with it. More recently, Thomas Kautzor compiled a list of surviving narrow gauge steam locomotives in Italy, again you should now read the Sardinian section if you are not familiar with it.

Thomas Kautzor was on the island on 22nd/23rd May.2022. He writes...

I went back to Sardinia to photograph the little Jung industrial on Isla La Maddalena, which was closed to visitors due to Covid last year. 

With spare time on hand, I first made a detour via Sassari to again photograph SFS 3 NULVI and SFS 5 LAERRU / ELSA in better light. 

ARST was running a Trenino Verde from Tempio Pausania to Luras (11 km), for which they had a choice between SFS railcar ADm 51 (FIAT/Stanga 1957) and SFS diesel LDE 502 (Breda/TIBB 1959) – they chose the railcar, which was packed on the outward run due to the presence of a British tour group.

What I had not realized was the Cala Francese was a private resort and even the museum there required an appointment to visit. With no one to ask that early in the morning and most guests still sleeping, I went in nonetheless to photograph the remains of the 750 mm gauge granite quarry railway, including Jung 3656/1925. 

Granite quarrying at Cala Francese started in 1860 and ended in 1965. Thanks to the proximity of the harbor of Porto Torres, the granite was exported worldwide, including for use at the harbours of Alexandria and Genova, and the dry docks of Malta and Venice. Much of the railway track is still in place, as are a number of wagons and the remains of a broader gauged steam crane and a hand crane at the dock.