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Black & White along the Seaside

Chapter 1
Black & White along the Seaside

The railway in Liguria, Italian Riviera: since 140 years ago a simple track accurately follows the shape of the coast; cuts here and there its promontories, crosses the short planes that were densely cultivated up to few decades ago. The railway line is bound up with the sea in a surprisingly perfect way; it runs from the portal of one tunnel to the next, all made of the same stone of which the mountain is made.

It is likely that people who designed the railway from Genoa to Ventimiglia and La Spezia, between 1856 and 1874, were not aware of how equilibrated that work was, how correct the speed permitted by that route; they simply did what the technology of their time allowed and made economically profitable.

Nowadays, this railway becomes an attractive clue to the land of Liguria, to what it has been in history of tourism and what still is: a place that gets a deep and irrepressible charm from its nature and its villages. The original sections of railways that are still in service represent one of the few urban signs survived to the abnormal tourist growing. And the sea really represents the true reason of such a charm, even when we are simply observing the friendly outline of an E.656 hauling its train, along the beach or among the palms and the pinetrees of a promenade.

 

After the Caprazoppa Tunnel, near Finale, the Riviera railway comes back to the seaside, still using the original single-track line built in 1872. A freight train made of luggage-cars is pulled by E.636.233 on 6 August 1992.
Black & White along the Seaside - Borgio Verezzi

 

During Summer 1992 the ALe 540 railcars built in the 50's were used for the evening local train Albenga - Ventimiglia. They are leaving from Albenga on 5 August 1992.
Black & White along the Seaside - Albenga

 

The luggage-car train to Ventimiglia leaves the station of Laigueglia, next to the palms of Via Aurelia, on 30 July 1993.
Black & White along the Seaside - Laigueglia

 

The most famous seaside section of the Riviera Line is the one between Andora and Cervo. A direct train from Genoa is arriving in Cervo in Summer 1997.
Black & White along the Seaside - Cervo

 

Late evening crossing in the small station of Laigueglia: the train from Milan is pulled by an E.646.
Black & White along the Seaside - Laigueglia

 

In Laigueglia the railway lies very near to the ancient town; the train from Milan is pulled by an E.646 engine, instead of the usual E.656, on 3 August 1994.
Black & White along the Seaside - Laigueglia

 

The tele-lens emphasises the winding path of the tracks in San Lorenzo-Cipressa, on 28 August 1999.
Black & White along the Seaside - San Lorenzo Cipressa

 

E.656.402 with its train Ventimiglia - Torino is waiting for the train from Milan on the first track of San Lorenzo station, just beside the sea, at 4 p.m. on 30 August 1993.
Black & White along the Seaside - San Lorenzo

 

Aregai di Cipressa, 29 August 1997: E.656.179 runs along one of the most extraordinary landscapes of the section replaced in 2001 by the new tunnel of San Remo.
Black & White along the Seaside - Aregai di Cipressa

 

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