nousumine.com

The Piscinas dock, located at the end of the railway designed by the French engineer Léon Gouin in 1872, was built to allow the transportation of enriched mineral to the processing centers, with the concession of the Port Authority of Genoa to occupy the maritime state property three years later, in 1875. The complex consisted of warehouses, shunting tracks and a landing stage, used to load the mineral onto the shunting platforms: these vessels transported the cargo to Carloforte, where it was transferred to ships headed for Pertusola or Crotone for the extraction of the metal. The narrow-gauge railway played a dual role: transporting the mineral to the dock and carrying coal and wood from Piscinas to Naracauli, essential for fueling the furnaces and building the framework of wells and tunnels. The activities depended on the sea conditions; in fact, it was possible to carry out the transfers only in good weather. The railway line ran along the bottom of the Rio Naracauli valley, sometimes crossing the watercourse via small bridges, until it reached Tinacci. Here, near the confluence of the Rio di Bau and the railway branch that connected the mine of the same name, there was a small station and a yard for the depot. Since initially transport along the line was carried out by animal traction, for this purpose, next to the Piscinas galena warehouse, there was a stable.

The railway track was narrow gauge, with wooden sleepers alternating with local granite blocks; it was from the early decades of the twentieth century that the Decauville wagon trains were hauled by steam locomotives. Along the route, near the Scioppadroxiu spring, there was a tank for refilling the water needed by the aforementioned locomotives. The railway service was finally interrupted at the end of the 1940s, when road transport proved more convenient.

Initially, the mining concession only covered galena, lead sulphide, and to manage the transport of the mineral, a warehouse was built in front of the railway embankment. From here, the Decauville wagons unloaded the material, which was accumulated and, on good weather days, loaded onto the scales using shoulder baskets. The landing stage, made entirely of wood, extended into the sea to a depth sufficient to accommodate the boats.

Between the pier and the galena warehouse was a large square paved in schist, crossed by railway tracks, also used for the storage of coal and wood. With the expansion of the mining concession to include blende, zinc sulphide, it was necessary to build a new warehouse to house the additional mineral. Evidence of the existence of the infrastructure is the road that connects Naracauli to Piscinas, largely following the original railway line, used until the 1970s. Only a few sections have been abandoned, due to the landslides caused by the Rio Naracauli.