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The railway represents a significant example of 19th-century industrial engineering, designed to optimize the transportation of materials in a complex and impervious territory; it connected Naracauli to the Piscinas dock and was designed in 1872 by the French engineer Léon Gouin. The infrastructure was designed to transport enriched mineral from the Brassey Washery to Piscinas, where a complex structure, composed of warehouses, shunting tracks and a wooden landing stage, allowed the mineral to be loaded onto the “bilancelle”. These sailing vessels transported the material to Carloforte, to then be transferred to larger ships bound for the metallurgical plants of Pertusola or Crotone, where the metal was extracted.

In addition to transporting mineral, the railway played a crucial role in the supply of coal and wood, essential materials for the reinforcement of wells and tunnels. At the Naracauli station, near the Washery, hoppers were built to facilitate the loading of the Decauville wagons. These convoys transported the mineral concentrate along the railway line to the Piscinas yard.

The railway line ran along the Rio Naracauli valley floor, alternating sections that remained on the right bank with short crossings on small bridges to reach the town of Tinacci. In Tinacci, at the confluence of the Rio di Bau and the Rio Naracauli, there was a small railway station with a storage yard, a connection point between the railway branch coming from the Bau mine and the main line to Piscinas.

Initially, traction along the railway was entrusted to horses, and for this reason a stable was built next to the galena warehouse in Piscinas to house the animals. The railway track was narrow gauge, with tracks laid on wooden sleepers alternating with local granite blocks, a system that guaranteed stability on an irregular route. In the early decades of the twentieth century, animal traction was progressively replaced by steam locomotives, increasing the efficiency of transport. To ensure the autonomy of the locomotives along the route, a cistern used to top up the water reserve was built near the Scioppadroxiu spring. The railway service remained operational until the end of the 1940s, when road transport began to prevail due to costs and flexibility. For many years, the road connecting Naracauli to Piscinas almost entirely followed the old railway line. Only a few sections of the original route are now abandoned, mainly due to hydrogeological instability caused by the erosion of the Rio Naracauli.