Marina di Pisa locomotive, maintenance work completed – Chronicle
Pisa, 3 May 2022. The maintenance work on the “Dante Alighieri” locomotive exhibited in Marina di Pisa has been completed. Having dismantled the temporary roof structure that had been set up to allow the protective treatment to be carried out, the locomotive returned today, Tuesday 3 May, to be visible in Piazza delle Balearic.
“As expected – explained the commissioner for works Raffaele Latrofa – the extraordinary maintenance that must be done every year on the locomotive exposed to atmospheric agents has been completed in these days. The intent of this type of treatment is to keep all the history that this locomotive carries intact. With this restoration we want to preserve the history of the locomotive, which recalls the history of our territory, of the connection between Pisa and the coast and of all the people who use the trammino to reach the sea. Not a vehicle repainted in black and any red as if it were brand new, but a real locomotive, with many colors, which bears the signs of our history, of time, as well as for example the wear caused by contacts with wagons or by the ‘use of heat: the “Dante Alighieri” locomotive as it was at the beginning of the 1900s, positioned on the original rods of the train, respecting the curvature of the path that the tracks really made inside the square of Marina “.
“From a technical point of view – continued Latrofa – first a washing of the artifact was carried out to remove the salt that had deposited, then a pickling phase using an acid and finally a finish was applied that serves as protective and that every year, at the end of winter, it will have to be renewed. A water collection pit will soon be installed, so that it will be possible to rinse it after storm surges and remove the saltiness. We are very satisfied with the work, in the future it could be nice to organize the visit of the locomotive by groups of children, with personnel authorized to pick them up and who can tell them the story of the trammino, to be admired in this beautiful square on the coast. “
The maintenance intervention mainly involved three actions: cleaning of the sodium chloride, pickling of the oxidized parts and drafting of the protection. The first phase consisted in the removal of the crystallized salts with the use of a low pressure water jet to be carried out on the whole product, falling from top to bottom, avoiding the use of direct jet on the areas to be treated, such as the use of abrasive brushes. The subsequent pickling phase was aimed at the safe removal of the oxide formed on the ferrous parts, through the use of an acid of the oxyacid category. The last phase involved the protection of the pickled areas by applying a specific iron protector for outdoor use.