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The progressive modernization of the railway infrastructure has caused many lines (both active and disused) to progressively leave apart a series of railway buildings (some of them, architectural and civil engineering elements of great value), with their use already obsolete or without the main function which they were intended for. The high cost of maintenance leads them to a progressive state of margination, neglect and decay. This paper discusses various elements of the railway heritage, particularly the stations and their auxiliary buildings, their context and the way to put them in value, according to the needs of the society and the territory in which they are set. The railway heritage represents potentially an added value that can be assumed, correctly managed, be the drive shaft of a new function that ensures the future of the stations and serve as the main driving force and enhancer for the active development of a community or territory. For this, the analysis of the territorial strategy, the new energetic and social model and the existing potential in the closer areas will play a key role in achieving, through a new strategic role demanded by society, a self-management of architectural (constructed) railway heritage.

The assessment of nondestructive (NDT) or semi-destructive techniques (SDT) for the in situ structural characterization in existing constructions is one of the most important challenges for the scientific community. The hole-drilling method is considered as a SDT because the damage caused to the analyzed element affects neither its integrity nor its load-bearing capacity. The experimental process is to measure the relaxed strains caused by the removal of a small round of material. These relaxed strains are recorded by previously well adhered strain gages according to the corresponding ASTM standard. It is possible to deduce the stress status before the material removal using the correct mathematical scheme. This paper shows the advances of the setting of the hole-drilling method for the deduction of the stress-state on supporting wood members in existing structures (buildings and civil constructions). The relationship between the relaxed strains after removing the material and the stress that causes them has been identified in the laboratory by means of the deduction of its corresponding compliance matrix. The laboratory-tested samples of Pinus radiata D. Don had a structural size, being loaded under a known uniaxial compression imitating piers. The main goal is to complete compliance matrix for this material and for compression situations. The matrix will be useful in deducing the real stresses in regions of timber structural members made of this kind of wood.

When structural damage appears in architecture, as in civil engineering, one of the first things to do is to analyse the level of stresses supported by the structural elements of the building. In most of the cases, the deduction of these stresses is carried out by means of one verification of the "design loads", using analytic methods based ( o r not) on standardised computer assisted applications. Nowadays, there is not one experimental method close enough to deduce the loads really supported by the structural elements. This article deals precisely about the resolution of this problem by means of the hole drilling technique applied on stone constructions as this is very common in architectural heritage. The particular use of the hole drilling technique in architectural heritage is named Donostia method by the authors, and allows both the deduction of the principal stress values and their directions. This is a very important aspect when the structural damages are generated by anomalous loads.