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Page 1: The national railway museum of Pietrarsa - CBNapoli.it · 2018-11-21 · A fascinating journey through time among the locomotives and trains which united Italy from 1839 to modern

The national railway museum of Pietrarsa

Page 2: The national railway museum of Pietrarsa - CBNapoli.it · 2018-11-21 · A fascinating journey through time among the locomotives and trains which united Italy from 1839 to modern

The national railway museum of Pietrarsa 640.122 steam locomotive shunting a train of hopper wagons for the ballast

Page 3: The national railway museum of Pietrarsa - CBNapoli.it · 2018-11-21 · A fascinating journey through time among the locomotives and trains which united Italy from 1839 to modern

A fascinating journey through time among the locomotives and trains which united Italy from 1839 to modern times, spanning the 170-year history of the Italian railways. This is the experience offered to visitors of all ages at the National Railway Museum of Pietrarsa. A museum founded to remind us that the history of the railways is an extraordi-nary chapter in the history of the whole country. A different museum, not reserved for memories of the past, nor exclusively of interest to specialists and professionals, but rather open to the curiosity of young

people and anyone who sees trains as an irreplaceable tool for the future of public transport. Pietrarsa narrates a prestigious and en-gaging chapter of a history which is not yet over, and which still has many more pages to be written. It is a symbolic place in the history of the “Ferrovie dello Stato”, the Italian State Railway, a bridge between the past and present with displays ranging from the Bayard, the fi rst locomotive in Italy, to the sophisticated, high-speed trains. Nestling between the sea and Mount Vesuvius with a spectacular view over the

The National Railway Museum of PietrarsaA 170 year long journey

1830When Ferdinando II of the Two Sicilies (1810-1859), came to the throne, he had a small factory built in Torre Annunziata to produce mechanical materials and ammunition for military use. This initiative was part of the

renovation process implemented by the young King who, abandoning the reactionary politics of his predecessors, aimed to emancipate the King of the Two Sicilies from foreign industrial and technological supremacy.

From Bourbon factory to museumThe square inside the Museum

Page 4: The national railway museum of Pietrarsa - CBNapoli.it · 2018-11-21 · A fascinating journey through time among the locomotives and trains which united Italy from 1839 to modern

Gulf of Naples, the Museum is housed in a carefully restored Bourbon factory, the Reale Opifi cio Meccanico, Pirotecnico e per le Locomotive (“the Royal Workshop for Mechanical Works, Ammunition production and Locomotive manufacture”). One of Italy’s most important industrial archaeology sites, it was founded by Ferdinand II Bourbon in 1840. The only one of its kind in Italy, due to its evocative pavilions and the wealth of materials on display, this exhibition centre has by right beco-me one of the most important railway museums in Europe, alongside

York, Mulhouse, Munich and Lucerne. The Pietrarsa railway museum was opened in 1989. It covers a surface area of 36,000 square metres, including a covered area of 14,000 square metres. Outside in the enor-mous yard looking over the sea, alongside an elegant Liberty platform roof dating back to the early 1900s, stands a grand cast iron statue of Ferdinand II. Over 4 metres high and cast in the factory itself in 1852, it portrays the king ordering the establishment of the factory with a regal gesture and watching, as if satisfi ed, over his precious creation.

18391837To better oversee the factory’s ope-rations, Ferdinand ordered it to be transferred to the Palace of Naples, appointing as manager his lieutenant Luigi Corsi, inventor of the famous “incendiary balls”, which were water-resistant and capable of destroying whole ships by setting fi re to them.

3th october. The fi rst railway line in the Kingdom, 7,406 metres long, was inaugurated: from Na-ples to Portici in 10 minutes. The inaugural train was composed of two convoys pulled by twin loco-motives: the Bayard and the Vesu-vio, designed by engineer Armand

Bayard del la Vingtrie, based on a prototype by Englishman George Stephenson. The event was im-mortalised in the famous painting by Salvatore Fergola. The deve-lopment of the railways was the jewel in the crown of the King’s po-litical and economic strategy, and

soon he faced the problem of ha-ving to fi nd a larger space to build a new, bigger, factory able to cope with the manufacture of railway materials. Ultimately he opted for Pietrarsa, which was once known as Pietra Bianca (“white stone”) but was later renamed Pietrarsa

Outside view of the national railway museum of Pietrarsa

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The collections are on display in the ancient pavilions of the Bourbon factory which once housed the various departments, each specialising in a different part of the production cycle.

Discovering the treasures of PietrarsaTicket and service

1

Amphitheater and garden

2

Antique platform

3

Statue of king Ferdinand II

4

Platform5

Pavilion Assembly

A

Pavilionsboiler room and furnace

CB

Pavillion Lathing room

G

Pavilions forges, spring production, boiler pipes

*cinema hall

FED

Men at work in the Pietrarsa workshop - 1950s

GD E F

B

CA

1

23

4

5

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1840 1842(“burnt stone”) after being engul-fed by lava from Vesuvius during the eruption of 1631. Pietrarsa borders on the municipalities of Portici, S.Giovanni a Teduccio and S.Giorgio a Cremano.

6th November. A Royal Decree was issued for the purchase of the fi rst lot of land. Four years later, another area next to the fi rst plot was bought out. Located between the beach, the sea and the railway, it offered great advantages for the

transport of goods, both by land and by sea.

The fi rst building in the new com-plex was completed: the Lathing room. Around 200 people worked at the factory.

Pavilion A (formerly the assembly department)

The former assembly building displays the largest collection of historical rolling stock. The most famous pieces include a reproduction (made in 1939 to commemorate the fi rst 100 years of the Italian State Railways; it was not possible to reconstruct the Vesuvio because the original drawings had been lost) of the train with the Bayard locomotive, the twin of the Vesuvio. On 3rd October 1839 the Bayard inaugurated the history of the Italian Railways by covering the fi rst stretch of railway in the

peninsula, between Naples and Portici, in around ten minutes, with Ferdinand II, the Royal Family and court onboard. Lined up along the walls, many steam locomotives are displayed. They aptly illustrate the long evolution of steam traction in 100 years of technical progress: from the fi rst saturated steam locomotives (such as the 875), and overheated steam locomotives (640-class) through to the experimental yet highly successful “Franco-Crosti” system. This all-Italian invention was

The Bayard - 1839

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1843 1844 184522nd May. A royal edict ordered: “It is the wish of his Majesty that the factory at Pietrarsa be used to manufacture locomotives, as well as to repair and serve the needs of the locomotives themselves and the accessories of the carriages

and wagons which will run on the new Naples-Capua Railway”.

28th June. The fi rst two steam lo-comotives - the Impavido and the Aligero, which were both built in England - entered the workshops for a major overhaul (complete disassembly and servicing of all parts).

At Pietrarsa work began on the con-struction of the fi rst seven locomotives, using English materials and following the model of the Veloce locomotive purchased in England in 1843. The locomotives were named: Pietrarsa, Corsi, Robertson, Vesuvio, Maria Tere-

applied to 741- class locomotives and preheated the water in the boiler by cleverly recycling the exhaust fumes.The tank locomotives on display include the 290.319 with three-axle tender, the fi rst locomotive to enter the Museum; a powerful 477; the 910 for commuter trains, which could travel in both directions, with drastic time savings; the 835, shunting locomotive which was so successful that 370 of them were built, and which was affectionately named “Cirilla” by railway workers;

the 740.115, one of the trains which carried the Unknown Soldier from Aquileia to Rome on 29th October 1921. Also in this pavilion visitors can admire the three-phase alternating current locomotives, true pioneers of railway electrifi cation in Northern Italy.

Steam locomotives - years 1837-1940

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1847sa and Partenope. The machines were added to an existing fl eet of locomoti-ves, also made in England, which were delivered between 1842 and 1844: Pa-pin, Pompei, Sorrento, Ercole, Parigi, Lampo, Freccia. Ferdinand invited Tsar Nicholas I of Russia to visit the wor-

kshops. So great was the Tsar’s interest and admiration for the site, that he or-dered his engineer Echappar to survey the factory and the layout of the machi-nes in order to produce an exact replica in the industrial complex of Kronstadt, which was being built in Russia.

The factory was running at full speed and employed 500 workers. Other new buildings were completed to complement the Lathing room: the locomotive workshop, the large construction hall fi tted with machine tools, transmission systems,

regulating stations and large cranes; the foundry; the boiler processing department; the smithy; the model room and the large warehouses; the management building with library and chemical laboratory.

Pavilions B and C (formerly the boiler room and furnace)

The main body of pavilions B and C, which housed the boiler workshops and furnaces, are now used to display carriages and multiple units. One important example is carriage 10 of the Royal Train built by Fiat in 1929 for the marriage of Umberto II of Savoy to Maria José of Belgium. The carriage, which became “Presidential” in 1946, was donated to the museum in 1989 by Francesco Cossiga. It was one of 11 wagons of the Royal Train and is renowned for its rich internal furnishing: the salon houses

an eight-metre long mahogany table which seats twenty six. The ceiling is inlaid with gold leaf and medallions bearing the standards of the four marine republics.Pavilion C displays fi ve other carriages: a mixture of third class and baggage wagons; an old three-axle postal carriage; a service vehicle used for test-running locomotives repaired at Pietrarsa; a car for transporting prisoners; a Centoporte carriage, with fi rst, second and third classes, a typical FS carriage which was used

Littorine - 1930s

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1852 1853184923rd September. Pope Pius IX, the guest of King Ferdinand, visited the workshops.

18th May. The huge iron statue of Ferdinand II was cast at Pietrarsa.

Pietrarsa was at the height of its development and production ca-pacities: it was the largest indu-strial pole in Italy (44 yeas earlier than Breda and 57 years before Fiat). Almost 700 workers were employed there. Cast iron works

produced at the factory were di-splayed in Naples at the Arts and Manufactured Goods Exhibition of 1853. The Church Maria SS Imma-colata, built opposite the entrance to the factory, opened its doors to the faithful.

in the composition of almost all train categories. This is followed by four Littorine, so-called because they entered service during the 1930s, coinciding with the birth of the town of Littoria, which is today known as Latina. With so many of this model built, it has left an indelible mark on the history of Italian train journeys.Among the other items on display are the E.623 “ex Varesina” electrical multiple unit and three CC locomotives including the E.626, a highly versatile machine which served the national

railways pulling both long goods trains and local or direct passenger trains.

The front of the Littorina FIAT Aln 556.1202 – years 1936-1939

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Pavilions D, E, F (formerly the forges, spring production, boiler pipes)

PAVILION D – diesel locomotivesFive diesel locomotives are on display in this area. The fi rst is the D342.4011 with hydraulic transmission, built by Ansaldo/Breda, which contributed to the phasing out of steam traction on some lines. Electrical transmission was adopted in later models, as it was more suited to the sloping lines of the secondary FS network, and at Pietrarsa these models are represented by the D 341.1016 locomotive.

The diesel section ends with three shunting locomotives, including the 207 known as the sogliola (sole) due to its simple structure, a thin cabin running on four small tracks.

PAVILION E - cinema hall

1860 1861After the demolition of the church for technical needs, the workers were permitted to build small ta-bernacles in every department, some of which can still be seen today.

Giuseppe Garibaldi visited Pie-trarsa in September. He arrived unannounced and asked a guard to show him around the complex. The Bourbon Realm fell. Under united Italy, Pietrarsa was handed over to the Italian Government.

15th July. Engineer Sebastiano Grandis, appointed by the Go-vernment to write a report on the former Bourbon factory in Pietra-sa, criticised the site’s operations (excessive cost of materials and goods, overstaffi ng, distance from

Naples station, and so on).Grandis therefore advised against governmental management of the site and proposed that it be sold off or even demolished.

Diesel locomotives D.341and D.342 – years 1957-1963

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PAVILION F – workshop tools This pavilion showcases a selection of giant machinery and tools from the old factory: the calender, used to bend the strong iron sheet; the milling machine used to drill the locomotive piston rods; two enormous trip hammers, which once ran on steam and later on compressed air.

1863 1875The Government handed the mana-gement of Pietrarsa over to the Bozza company which immediately imple-mented a tough policy of redundancies and restrictions, causing discontent and protests among the workers. Vio-lent outbreaks took place on 6th August

when 30 Bersaglieri opened fi red on workers, causing the death of 7 people and seriously injuring a further 20. After the bloody confl ict, Bozza asked for the contract to be terminated. The factory was then handed over to the Socie-tà Nazionale di Industrie Meccaniche

(National Company of Mechanical In-dustries). In the 7 years of new mana-gement, among other achievements, 150 new locomotives were built and 72 overhauls carried out. Despite this, the Società Nazionale could not resolve the factory’s fi nancial diffi culties.

In spite of the workshop’s burge-oning international reputation (a freight locomotive built at Pietrar-sa won a gold medal at the Vienna International Exhibition of 1873), the workforce is reduced to 100.

The historical hammer ofPietrarsa workshop - built in 1914

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Pavilion G (formerly the Lathing room)

This pavilion, the oldest part of the site, was built in 1840. It is known as the “Cathedral” because of its magnifi cent, imposing pointed arches which contribute to its evocative, stately appearance. It houses many train models including the Bayard, one of the very fi rst Italian locomotives, the three phase alternating current E.432 locomotive, the continuous current 3000 V E.428, with eight engines and a maximum speed of 130 km/h, the multiple unit ALe 880, the prototype of which was built in 1937,

with an aerodynamic front cabin profi le and, on the other end, a folding intercommunicating door which allowed passengers to move between carriages, the D.443, the prototype of which was built in 1966 for use on non-electrifi ed lines to replace the tired old steam trains, the diesel-hydraulic D.245 locomotive, which replaced the older tank locomotives for shunting purposes.The pavilion displays models and various railway memorabilia including: the famous Trecentotreni model, 18 metres long and

19051877In order to avoid closure of the com-plex, the state assumes direct manage-ment of Società Nazionale di Industrie Meccaniche and entrusts the running of the Pietrarsa and Granili factories to engineer Dionisio Passerini, who suc-ceeds in turning them around within a short space of time. The specialisation

of machinery and workers leads to im-proved product quality and reduced costs. By 1885, the factories have ma-nufactured a total of 110 locomotives, 845 wagons, 280 carriages, steam boi-lers and other railway equipment. The locomotives built at Pietrarsa are used throughout the Italian rail network.

1 July. The Italian state takes over the national rail network and, consequently, assumes control of the Pietrarsa and Granili facilities, which retain their railway specia-lisation. In order to improve in-dustrial processes, a large-scale restructuring programme is imple-

mented, machinery is renovated and more modern and functional equipment is installed (1906 - 1915).

Train models - 1980s

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more than 2 metres wide; the old bull head rails, resting on lava stone blocks which were used on the early railways before the introduction of the more modern sleepers. The pavilion also displays a range of objects and machinery from demolished train ferries. It includes some models of train ferry from the FS fl eet.

1947 19661920 - 1930Modernisation of the workshops continues and the entire workfl ow is reorganised to maximise output.

After the Second World War, the emergence of diesel and electric traction results in the rapid decli-ne of steam locomotives, which are assigned exclusively to freight transport and subsidiary services. The end of steam is accompanied

by the slow but inevitable decline of the Pietrarsa and Granili wor-kshops, which are used solely for carrying out major repairs on the remaining steam locomotives in the FS fl eet.

The rapid rise to ascendancy of the new forms of traction forces Ferrovie dello Stato to consider the possibility of closing down the two historic Na-ples factories, which no longer meet the technical and functional needs of a large, modern rail operator.

Three-phase electric locomotives of 20s and 30s

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The huge iron statue of Ferdinand II - 1852

1977 1982 1989197515th November. The Workshops at Pietrarsa were offi cially closed. On December 20th the GR 640-088, the last locomotive to be overhauled at Pietrarsa, exited the factory.

A resolution of the FS Board of Directors allowed Pietrarsa to be-come the site of the fi rst National Railway Museum.

19th June. The 290-319 is brought into the large, fully renovated for-mer assembly shed, thus beco-ming the fi rst locomotive to tell the story of steam and the birth of the Italian Railways to visitors.

7th October. The National Railway Museum of Pietrarsa was offi cially inaugurated to celebrate 150 ye-ars of the Italian Railways.

How to get there by trainIl The Museum can be reached by the metropolitan and regional trains of the Naples-Salerno line, stop at Pietrarsa-S. Giorgio a Cremano.Timetable available on www.trenitalia.it

Information and contact:The Museum is open to the public from Friday to Sunday from 9.00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. Private visits on other days for groups by arrangement; call 081 472003, or send an e-mail to: [email protected]

You can rent halls and areas in the Museum for private events.For information and for a quote please refer to the same e-mail and web site.

19771977 19821982 1989198919751975

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Head office

Piazza della Croce Rossa, 100161 Roma

The national railway museum of Pietrarsa

Traversa Pietrarsa, 80146 Naples. Phone and Fax: 081.472003

www.fondazionefs.itwww.museodipietrarsa.it

Fondazione FS Italiane