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Pila - Mysterious railway station at Plan Praz telecabin station

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Hi. Can anyone help? I ski in Aosta Valley most years and I have noticed a railway line that terminates at the Plan Praz cable car station on the way up to Pila. Where does it go? Is it in service? Does it connect to other ski areas? I just gotta know! Please help!

Andy
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Hi Andy, welcome to SN.

I'm 80% sure it's this: http://www.cultural-tourism.net/asturias/oviedo_nov05/01linty.pdf
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Thanks Skanky! Its quite amazing though that, given that it is a pretty imptressive piece of civil enginerring on the side of a mountain. it has received no real publicity. I will put it down to a case of trademark Italian modesty!?

In your debt, my friend.

Andy
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andy456, if I remember I'll ask my sister about it when I next speak to her. I doubt she'll know much as she's at the other end of the valley, but she may have heard something in the local news.
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TY again, Skanky.

Andy
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skanky wrote:
andy456, if I remember I'll ask my sister about it when I next speak to her. I doubt she'll know much as she's at the other end of the valley, but she may have heard something in the local news.


And indeed they had:

Quote:
It's the old mining railway that they've been converting ( for the last twenty years! ) They want to link up Pila with Cogne ( where you can cross country ski ) They've just delivered the trains but the railway won't be open until atleast next year. It won't be working this winter and if they move at the same rate as they've done so far I wouldn't bet on it being open the winter after that either.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
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skanky wrote:
Hi Andy, welcome to SN.

I'm 80% sure it's this: http://www.cultural-tourism.net/asturias/oviedo_nov05/01linty.pdf


Thanks for that, can you keep us posted when it is open for passengers. My son would love to go on it I'm sure.
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After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
davidof, I'll try and keep an eye on it, but if it goes beyond next year I may forget.
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Curious about this myself.
Google led me here,
Any updates many years on?
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It's an old mining tunnel which, I think, was partly converted to passenger use but never completed:

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrovia_Cogne-Acque_Fredde


http://youtube.com/v/EgNOodhWYSw
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@altis,
Cheers, I'll get a look at that tonight.
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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skanky wrote:
davidof, I'll try and keep an eye on it, but if it goes beyond next year I may forget.


Well I was right about one thing! rolling eyes
I'll try and remember to get more details next time I speak to my sister - though she may not be able to add anything beyond what the wikipedia page says.
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@hawkwind, ...I love ghost stations and lines. The story of ThamesLink is fascinating - Network Rail forgot for years that they had a cross-Thames link, since the gradient was only OK for goods trains at that time. But that a different story...

Re Italian trains, my son loves to travel the F A R T train.

Seriously, the Ferrovia Autolinea Regionale Ticinese .....

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domodossola–Locarno_railway


http://youtube.com/v/kSWfuvfhQRM
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.

http://youtube.com/v/7TwSdVx2nOI

The glory days of rail travel in Ireland 😀
Some great sessions on the train!

Anyways am I right in thinking this line went up to Cogne? Like above the resort?
The video shows it quite well, you can tell a lot of money was invested in the halt and it hasn't changed a bit.
I'll maybe jump out some day and take a few photos
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Correct. You can see the route clearly on OpenStreetMap (marked in black - dashed underground):

http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/45.6620/7.3109
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Brilliant!
Such a pity it didn't take off as a tourist attraction, a real credit to those who built it all those years ago.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
It didn't take off as a tourist attraction as the tunnel, which was originally used to haul iron ore from Cogne to a cableway above Aosta and then down to the Cogne factory, is not large enough to allow passengers to exit carriages in the event of an incident. Unfortunately this was not spotted until after all the infrastructure was in place. Expensive oversight.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Kenski wrote:
It didn't take off as a tourist attraction as the tunnel, which was originally used to haul iron ore from Cogne to a cableway above Aosta and then down to the Cogne factory, is not large enough to allow passengers to exit carriages in the event of an incident. Unfortunately this was not spotted until after all the infrastructure was in place. Expensive oversight.


I was there for a season and always wondered about it, and the locals suggested similar to Kenski. The idea was to link Pila and Cogne. The project went ahead and tunnel dug, new stations built (You can see the one in Cogne if you drive over). Come the grand opening some one twigged that there had been a problem with the drawings and the trains would not fit in the tunnels. Cue much litigation, angst and I expect horses heads. In the yeti(?) bar there used to be a newspaper cutting.
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@skanky, how nice to hear from you after so long! snowHead
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pam w wrote:
@skanky, how nice to hear from you after so long! snowHead


Thank you! It's nice to see so many old friends still here and, by the looks of things, still going strong. snowHead
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Minor point, but the tunnel wasn't actually dug as part of the project. The tunnel existed previously and had been used to haul open bogeys carrying iron ore from the mines in Cogne. Some of the external Cogne mine workings can still be seen. A brief history of the Cogne mines (and the railway) can be found here: http://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/environment/the-cogne-mines-between-the-past-and-the-future-part-1.html
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@Kenski, I guess the ore went to the works in Aosta ?
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Yes, there was a cableway and I think the ore (magnetite) was loaded onto lorries for the last stretch to the factory. You can still see some remains of the cableway from the Aosta/Pila telecabina. Also explains why the Cogne factory is called that though it is located in Aosta. At one time I believe the factory employed some 8000 people, with workers coming to Aosta from all over Italy. I think the present workforce is nearer 1000. The factory celebrated its centenary in 2016. It now specialises in stainless steel products and I'm guessing a huge proportion of the factory, which covers a massive area, is redundant.
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I was wondering if the large factory Cogne was connected.
And also explains the old parts of the cableway you see on the gondola.
Good work!
Facinating town and area.
I think it was unification that brought all the large factory's to aosta / turin etc hence why they have that look about them.

The roman stuff is another mind blower even some remnants of their gods such as mithras now a child's playground.

This place really is a wonder and we'll worth a visit.

Bit more on the old myths etc from the
area

http://www.lovevda.it/en/culture/tradition/myths-and-legends-in-aosta-valley?url=/Home/Risultati/22A05209E885D12A8FFC5FF25227A9CDA85F5F2B55A21D40CB81CB/2/10/data&ricid=183&rootPath=/en/culture/tradition/myths-and-legends-in-aosta-valley&embeddedui=1&disableresources=1#results-wrapper
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Thanks Kenski, interesting stuff.
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