San Rocco

Back ground

Back to San Rocco

The following is an article gives the back ground to San Rocco

The imaginary Società Anonima Tramvia Val de Boesio [VB] (Boesio Valley Tramway Ltd) is a 4 Km long rural tramway from a junction with the Ferrovie Nord Milano [FNM] (Milan Northern Railway) at San Biagio (Cittiglio) to San Rocco (Cuveglio). Passenger services including though coaches from the FNM. Parcels are handled by passenger trains. The tram serves the valley's industries, agriculture, and quarrying. The layout is set in the 1960's with operation by Automotore Diesel.

I have a number of small collections of stock including Danish and Italian but no layout to run them on. I decided to build a series of layouts which would share the fiddle yard, as I have done previously, and for the first time share the throat. I also needed to keep costs down so maximum use was made of in stock, reused, and recycled materials. Developing the track plan given these factors and the narrow boards proved challenging but interesting. I feel that I've met my goals particularly cost - each layout's out of pocket cost was about £10.

Modelling is very similar to Skovdallund. The two noticeable changes are the station building is low relief and based on Gaiola on the tranvai-Demonte and the right hand door at Torcitura Della Valcuvia[1] is open. I used FNM posters scrounged off the Web. [1] https://www.torcituradellavalcuvia.it/

A couple of days from completing the layout I was horrified to find out that the Tranvia della Valcuvia (TdV) [1] passed through Cuveglio. The TdV was active 1914-49 between Cittiglio and Molino d'Anna. After some panic it struck me that given the TdV's odd gauge of 1.1 meters it was unlikely much freight was carried and a web search showed no evidence of freight traffic. This left the standard gauge VB with a niche handling freight and through traffic to the FNM. To avoid any confusion I renamed the junction and layout San Biagio and San Rocco the patron saints of Cittiglio and Cuveglio respectively. [1] https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tranvia_della_Valcuvia.
Most Western European Railways fitted air breaks to their goods stock in the 1920s so the forgon, a brake cum parcels van was there after normally at the front of the train - even though it looks odd for British eyes.
My plan is to give both layouts lots of home operation to find out if they are interesting to operate. If they are there are plans for Heritage, Industrial (1970's TOPS) and Network South East station boards. There is also the possibility of exhibiting the layouts.