[Railway reconstruction Italy 1943-1946 published by Royal Engineers, 1946]

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Chapter II
DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES

Section II.
Railway construction in relation to the campaign as a whole


8. - Final Phase.

Permanent repairs to cut out fair weather deviations were put in hand on all lines as soon as the initial opening was achieved.

Soon after the end of the war, Medloc routes increased considerably in importance. The railways connecting Milan with Switzerland were undamaged, and Medloc trains ran through Switzerland as soon as the necessary negotiations with the Swiss were completed. It was desired however to obtain alternative routes through France. 1212 Group were therefore put to work on repairs to the Genoa-Nice and Turin-Modane routes. In both cases, tunnels were the key problem to the opening of the line. On the Genoa route, one tunnel between Ventimiglia and Mentone proved to be a tunnelling repair, though the blockages were small and were measured by obtaining access to the centre of the tunnel by a vertical shaft. It was repaired by Italian Tunnelling Contractors, against a completion date of 15 January, 1946, under control of R.C.E. 1212.

The key job on the Turin-Modane route is the demolished Mont Cenis tunnel. 61 Tunnelling Coy. S.A.E.C., commenced repairs to the Italian portal, and 62 Tunnelling Coy. S.A.E.C. by agreement with the French Authorities and C.A.L.A., commenced work on the French portal. Soon after work had commenced, orders were received for these units to be returned to South Africa for disbandment. By this time, the priority of the work had dropped very considerable and it was therefore handed over to Contractors to continue. But the demolition at both sides is severe and at the time of writing the date of completion is uncertain.

By the end of 1945, the manpower strength available for railway construction had been reduced by redeployment, release and leave to less than one quarter of that available at the end of hostilities and further reduction was proceeding.


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[Railway reconstruction Italy 1943-1946 published by Royal Engineers, 1946]

Alessandro Tuzza