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Stories from the lake

Lake timeline

Two thousand years of the lake in order of date: from the Roman road along the western shore to the first steamboat, from the fall of the Isola Comacina to the Olginate dam. Each date leads to the story that tells it and to the place where it happened.

Dates
82
Stories
27
Periods
6
Como harbour with the jetty and moored boats, the cathedral dome on the right and the Brunate hill behind the town.
Photochrom Print Collection · Public domain

Only the dates from the story ‘When the railway reached the lake'All dates

4dates

Nineteenth century

1800–1899 · 3 dates

  1. The little railway from Menaggio to Porlezza

    The narrow-gauge railway linking Lake Como with Lake Lugano is inaugurated on 8 October and opened to the public on 17 November. To climb above Menaggio the train reverses in a manoeuvre called the regresso; the service ends in 1939.

    Place: MenaggioStory: When the railway reached the lake

    Menaggio seen from the Hôtel Victoria, as the printed caption says: in the foreground the tracks of the railway to Porlezza, then the village and the lake at sunset.

  2. The railway along the eastern shore

    With the section from Bellano to Colico, after the one from Lecco to Bellano in 1892, a complete rail service links Lecco with the Valtellina. As far as Colico the line has eighty-nine curves, eighteen viaducts and nineteen tunnels.

    Place: BellanoStory: When the railway reached the lake

    Varenna station on a sunny day: two white-and-green trains standing at the platform, lettered Trenord, and passengers getting off and walking along the platform with bags and hats; at the far end the tracks run into the tunnel, below a pale rock face and the woods.

  3. The Brunate funicular

    The funicular between Como and Brunate, designed by the engineer brothers Villoresi, opens to the public. Planned to run on water, by gravity, it works instead with a steam winch because there is not enough water; in 1911 it switches to electric motors.

    Place: Como–Brunate FunicularStory: When the railway reached the lake

    The red car of the Como–Brunate funicular climbing, the city below.

Twentieth century

1900–1999 · 1 date

  1. The first high-voltage three-phase railway

    The lines from Lecco to Colico and Chiavenna and from Colico to Sondrio switch to electric traction, with three-thousand-volt overhead lines fed by the power station at Morbegno. They are the first in the world to run trains on high-voltage three-phase alternating current.

    Place: ColicoStory: When the railway reached the lake

    The electric locomotive E.430.001 on display at the Museum of Science and Technology in Milan: a black engine with sloping bonnets and the cab in the middle with its windows, lamps, the buffer beam and the bogie frames in red, and on top two red poles for collecting the current; in front, a panel headed “Locomotiva elettrica”; beside it a black steam locomotive, and around them the hall with its roof of glass and steel.