In recent days, one of the railway wagons connected to the locomotive that sank in the river on 11 October 1944 when the bridge built on temporary supports collapsed was recovered from the bed of the River Oglio.

In the meantime, work continues on cleaning the seabed in the areas planned for the construction of the support works for the new railway bridge, and thanks to the water level, which is particularly low at this time of year, it was possible to remove the frame of a railway carriage and other parts of ferrous material. The excavation was possible thanks to a large excavator positioned on a small ford that had been specially constructed. The carriage is partly destroyed but the metal structure is still well defined.

With the bucket and the help of special tongs, the wagon was unhooked from the seabed and laid down on the quay, inside the Piadena-Mantova railway track-doubling construction site, a work commissioned by RFI Rete Ferroviaria Italiana and entrusted, with the supervision of works by Italferr S.p.A. (both companies of the Italian FS Group), to the Temporary Grouping of Companies Impresa Pizzarotti & C. S.p.A., Saipem, ICM Group and Salcef Group.

Despite numerous geophysical and sonar surveys and dredging of the area, there is no trace of locomotive 471.056, belonging to the FS 471 steam locomotive group built between 1907 and 1912, which fell into the Oglio River over eighty years ago. The hypotheses are that it is located in an area outside the search radius (defined by the areas required for the construction of the piers of the new bridge) or that it was already recovered at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s. Documentation on the incident during the Second World War, in which the two train drivers died, is scarce. And little historical research has followed.

Among these, an article was recently found published in a local newspaper some fourteen years after the event, entitled Two Men and a Locomotive, in which reference is made to an imminent recovery of the train. However, there are no reports as to whether or not the recovery actually took place. In the next few days, meanwhile, a further phase will be carried out, in the riverbed, to clear the area affected by the works of war ordnance.