Narrow Gauge in Sicily

I have just returned from a holiday on the island of Sicily, in the last few days and enjoyed a trip on part of the narrow gauge railway that runs around Etna - Ferrovia Circumetnea.

When I travelled they were using Fiat railcars from 1970 (I think) - which I realise are not heritage traction - but they are getting there! Currently there is engineering work on the line, which 95cm in gauge, so that you cannot travel by train over the whole line (110 km), from what I could see they are reballasting, resleepering and rerailing the currently closed section. I travelled from Riposto to Randazzo about 40 km for 5 Euros 10 cents return, as the train made its way from the coast into the mountains - the gradients seem very steep 1:50 at a guess - with curves most of the time too. In due time I will post of link to some photos for those of you who are interested.

I am keen to know more about the line and may be others that have closed, I notice on the web there is some information on Wikipedia and the odd photo collection from the recent past - I was wondering if any one knows of websites that could help, or ideally a book that has been published on the line?

Many thanks in anticipation

 

There are some wonderful lines in Sicily but most are overgrown or abandoned. It does not help the Sicilian way of building without any form of permission, or at least legal permisssion... You can trace lines and then come across a large villa and large dog blocking the way.

http://www.ilmondodeitreni.it/lf_sud.htm

Gives an index of the lines and there are some videos loaded on Youtube including the rack sections. Some steam locos still exist and were cut up as recently as 1990. As they were 950mm they were of little use outside Sicily.

There are books published but in Italian.

 

Video of the rack section
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXIRQ-1P4BE

 

Sorry last one, there is more if you are interested

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nARgW6ghGY&feature=related

 

Thanks very much for the quick and informative reply. I have enjoyed looking at the videos - its amazing what there is out there on You tube. Its really sparked my interest. Its a shame the are no English books out there as my Italian is very poor - are they picture books with small amounts of text - or is it a more serious book that only an Italian language student would understand?

 

It's a bit of a generic guide of the railways of Sicily, quite a few photos. It's been out of print for many years now, I keep remining the publisher to do a re-run but no luck so far. Copies even here in Italy are rare. The text is in Italian but the photos have good captions which explain the loco number and location which are universal. I built a G scale R.302 and lurking in the workshop is a set of parts for a 7 1/4" version about 1/3 full size.

Here is a 5" version if you are a Facebook user
http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=1729&id=100001064745807
I keep saying that one day I will write an English language book on the Sicilian Narrow Gauge but that will have to wait until I retire.