At a speed of 48 kilometers per hour, the “Vesuvio,” a Bayard steam locomotive built in Newcastle, pulled its carriage from Porta Nolana to the Granatello station in Portici. A royal carriage, as King Ferdinand II and his wife Maria Theresa of Austria traveled in the 9 carriages, accompanied by 180 officers and soldiers and 48 guests.
The rails of the railway line had been constructed at the Pietrarsa factory, the Royal Bourbon Mechanical and Pyrotechnic Workshop near Portici, where steam engines for ships, grenades, and cannons were normally made. Until 1861, the technicians at Pietrarsa were the only ones to follow an innovative method for manufacturing rails patented by Englishman Thomas Richard Guppy: the “Puddler” system, which produced iron free of carbon.
![](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fulltravel.it%2Fen%2Fpietrarsa-railway-museum%2F&media=
https://www.fulltravel.it/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/carrozza-reale.jpg &description=On October 3, 1839, at noon, the Italian railway age was inaugurated between Naples and Portici. It was an exciting "journey" of nine and a half minutes.){kind=link}