Railway Museum from Napoli-Pietrarsa

The beginnings of the railway have represented, in very country, moments of great economical and social transformations. Now, after more than a century, the memories of those times are precious and give to those interested the chance to know interesting things. The museums are, generally, places where are gathered and preserved objects that are full of history. The locomotives, the wagons and the couches, various nostalgia railway machinery can constitute the objects of an original museum, and most of European countries are concerned with their maintenance in the tourists' circuit.
One of the most interesting technical museums in Italy is Railway Museum in Napoli- Pietrarsa.
Placed in Napoli Golf , it can be visited so simple, after a 30 minutes travel by trolleys - bus which links the central railway station from Napoli with the small town Portici, well known name in the Italian railway history.
On October 3, 1839, in this place has been inaugurated Napoli-Portici railway section (7.4 km), the first railway section from Italy.
A year later, the king Ferdinand the second of Bourbon founded in here Industria Macanica di Portici, the first steam locomotive factory in Italy.
Once the "golden epoch" of the steam locomotives has finished, in 1977 there has been decided to transform the building of the construction and repairs of steam locomotives in the National Railway Museum, being subordinated to the F.S. - State Railways.
After 12 years of rearranging works, on October 7, 1989, on the occasion of celebration 150 years of operation of Napoli Portici railway section, there have been also inaugurated the Railway Museum from Pietrarsa- Portici.
On a 36 miles surface there are five spacious halls where 26 steam locomotives are exhibited, eight electrical locomotives, five Diesel locomotives, five motor- cars and ten passengers couches, the couch belonging to the Italian Republic president, mail wagons, penitentiary cars and first and second class couches.
The most attractive exhibited things, always surrounded by tourists, are: Bayard 1A1 type locomotive, fabricated by Newcastle Longride (Fabrication no. 120/830), which on October 3, 1839 have hauled the first train from Italy on Napoli- Portici section, or steam locomotive 6-40.880 1C-U2 type, fabricated at Ernesto Broda Milano (Fabrication no. 195/10), the last steam locomotive repaired in here.
You also can visit the halls which host a part of the original fabricated machinery: signals, interior tracks and revolving book case. The museum offers to the numerous tourists, besides the access tickets (which are quite expensive): folding cards, historical books of the Italian Railways, video cassettes with old locomotives and even a buffet with classical drinks filtered coffee.
We quit the museum thinking about the faith of the 42 locomotives, about the snowplough and steam cranes that are exhibited in CF Brasov Rail Region Museum within the Sibiu Locomotives Depot. Some of them overpass the technical European real estate value of those seen in here.
Samples we have, spaces we have ……..
Who will break the inertia in which we are all indulging in?
The time and the corrosion and metal thieves do not spare anything.
Do we want that these 42 steam locomotives which have a bigger historical value than that of the exhibited sample abroad to be transformed in a heap of scrap iron?
Is it true that Romania can not have in Sibiu a National Steam Locomotives Museum?
Who's stopping us to capitalize this "technical thesaurus" of our country?

Radu Bellu