Pictures of Italian Railways Regional motive power

minesweeper Oct 19, 2017

  1. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Am absolutely loving this thread! Learning so much about railroading in your part of the world. WOW!!!!
     
  2. minesweeper

    minesweeper TrainBoard Member

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    Griff,
    just post them, I am not jealous.... of threads... :)
     
  3. traingeekboy

    traingeekboy TrainBoard Member

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    I actually made a video then found out that Ril images will not host videos. I am squating about 5 feet from the freccia rossa as it screams by at full speed. I will dig around and make some building posts for Boxcab, but really the ones online are usually much better. My photos are mostly taken from moving trains. :)
     
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  4. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    We used to have the ability to upload small, (a couple of megabytes worth), of video. :( So many people use sites such as YouTube or Vimeo, and just link in their items.....
     
  5. minesweeper

    minesweeper TrainBoard Member

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    Well, I just happened to fine a video if an old EMU (Ale 883, the one that went to the US - see the previous page) brought back to service. Part of the video is a cab ride, and you can see the engineer doing transitions (the little wheel that turns by itself is called "avviatore automatico" and disconnects the resistors one by one in order to complete the transition - only EMUs had that, for standard locos it was all manual).


    These EMU had many parts in common with the more prestigious ETR 200 (the front), the main differences were the interiors, the gearing and the fact that while the ETR200 was a single train having Jacobs bogies, these had 2 bogies each and could be consisted according to the needs. Some consists had dummy units as you can see here.
     
    Last edited: Dec 6, 2017
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  6. Hytec

    Hytec TrainBoard Member

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    Maurizio, thank you, that is a delightful video.
     
  7. traingeekboy

    traingeekboy TrainBoard Member

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    I've watched that one before it's really fun.
     
  8. minesweeper

    minesweeper TrainBoard Member

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  9. minesweeper

    minesweeper TrainBoard Member

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    Hi, I am reviving the topic with a series of EMU that ran italian rails for more than 40 years.
    Milano_Smistamento_-_ALe_601.jpg

    This is the 601 class (ALe stands for Autormotrice Leggera Elettrica - Light EMU).
    These were used from the early sixties for high speed (160 - 200kph) 1st class only fast passenger services.
    The EMU concept made it easy to assemble and separate sections in a train in order to run a single service from and to various cities.
    All units have front doors and cabs on both sides in order to have maximum flexibility.
    There were some without motors (you see they are missing pantographs), some half baggage and restaurants.
    60 plushy seats (these are not the originals, these were after they rebuilt for regional services), but you can see the space.

    normal_FS_ALe601_017_Interni_(101).JPG

    The grey and green livery was used for all luxury fast services until the early 2000s.
     
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  10. traingeekboy

    traingeekboy TrainBoard Member

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    I like all ALE's!
     
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  11. minesweeper

    minesweeper TrainBoard Member

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    You can see at the beginning of this video the Marco Polo fast service run by 9 EMUs. The main section ran Rome to Venezia, three units were cut in Bologna to proceed north to Verona and Bolzano, a couple went further from Venezia to Udine.

    After the 601 you could see the mix of colours I wrote about in he previous pages
     
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  12. Hytec

    Hytec TrainBoard Member

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    Where is this? There appears to be so much traffic, both long distance and commuter. Thank you for sharing.
     
  13. traingeekboy

    traingeekboy TrainBoard Member

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    Hytec, If that is near Bologna station then you have some major lines running through there. It's a major avenue of traffic and you'll see train after train.

    That video shows something for everyone. I like the Marco polo, but seeing the old Grey/grigio ardessia scheme from the 60's really made my heart go pitter patter. :p

    When I was in Italy last fall I got two chances to walk over and watch trains in a station and was not disappointed. I hung out in Gorizia station for a couple hours and saw everything I could have hoped for. The same when I was in a minor station in Verona; everything I could wish for rolled through there too. And it was a nice mix of old and new.

    If you like Passenger Trains europe is the place for train watching.
     
  14. Hytec

    Hytec TrainBoard Member

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    ....and Riding in Comfort and on Schedule.....!!!!!!!
     
  15. minesweeper

    minesweeper TrainBoard Member

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    Well, italian rr were so famous in the 70/80s for being late that stops at the borders were scheduled longer than one hour to allow the other railroads to run the same train on time...
    For confort, until a few years, Italian trains were at the top with regards to space and smooth rides, the new trains and cars are now packed with as many seats as possible.
    The swivel less flexicoil trucks were first developed and introduced by FIAT on the 125mph Gran Comfort cars built for TEE services in the early 70s.
    The video were taken close to Bologna, which is Italy's main rail hub as most north to south traffic runs through there.

    Inviato dal mio BLN-L21 utilizzando Tapatalk
     
    Last edited: May 27, 2018
  16. minesweeper

    minesweeper TrainBoard Member

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    A little bit off topic, but the TEE / Gran Comfort carriages deserve it....
    These cars were designed in the late 60s to be the most comfortable, and most technologically advanced cars in Europe, to be used for Trans Europ Express (luxury fast trains of the time) and internal luxury trains to replace the ageing TEE DMU and other EMU like the ETR 200, 250 and 300 or the ALe 601.
    There were standard coaches with 8 compartments, some open coaches and restaurant coaches.
    These were the only carriages in Europe with:
    Flexicoil swivel less trucks just developed from FIAT (this kind of trucks went all over the world since)
    48 seats, all other TEE and similar 85ft carriages in Europe seated at least 54 (no good revenue wise but....)
    double glazed huge windows with Venetian Blinds between the two glassplates
    full glass internal doors and internal panes
    closet with coat hangers behind each seat (one of my favorite stunts when traveling on these ... you had to see the looks of other passengers)
    automatic doors (also in the gangway between the carriages)
    natural lighting
    To match the others
    fit fro 125 mph running, albeit much more stable due to the flexicoil structure
    full air conditioning

    Some pictures
    One TEE being restored a few years ago, still need some working on the livery (note the glass gangway doors)
    [​IMG]
    The gran confort (the same as TEE, however with a simpler head end power adapter since these were not cleared for international service), the livery is also different.

    [​IMG]

    Some pictures of the interiors (TEE polstering was beige, gran comfort blue)

    The closet trick...., note the glass panes towards the corridor
    internogc-armadietto.jpg
    The open space TEE, note how huge are the windows
    internosaloneTEE.jpg
    The restaurant coach (when you could still eat fresh food)
    internoristorante.jpg
     
  17. minesweeper

    minesweeper TrainBoard Member

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    The post was too long, so second run:
    The designs:
    compartment coach, note more than 7feet for each module
    FSTEE4800.jpg
    Open coach

    salone.jpg

    Restaurant

    WR.jpg

    And then a closeup of the FIAT 7195 truck
    carrello-fiat7195.jpg
     
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  18. traingeekboy

    traingeekboy TrainBoard Member

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    I miss compartment coaches. That was something very unique to european trains.
     
  19. BNSF FAN

    BNSF FAN TrainBoard Supporter

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  20. minesweeper

    minesweeper TrainBoard Member

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    I just happened to run into a YouTube video from the 125th anniversary of the line I took inspiration for my layout, and wanted to share with you.
    The line was closed for regular service, but since a few years ago the italian railways started runnin vintage equipment on the beautiful scenery of central italian mountains. The line is called the Italian Trans Siberian due to the epic battles against snow and ice in the former times (stories talk of steam locos being chased by pack of wolves).

    The steam locomotive is a 940 class with less than 1000 hp at the wheels, but at the limit of axle load (16tons).
    Strange enough the train is a full 100 tons heavy (in normal duties it was limited to 80 - two coaches and a small baggage van) and the loco is unassisted; see and hear how much it is fighting the 30promille climb in the scene when she gets in the tunnel a little more than halfway through the video minutes 12 to 14. The smoke is not for the show, it is for getting precious steam from the boiler to haul the cars up the summit.
    A few miles before she took water after the 25km long initial climb (only ten tons of water, and it is good because it is significant more weight on the drivers).
    The cars are in the castano - isabella livery (1930 to 1950) and are a small batch of low weight cars designed for these lines (the outside platforms save 10% of the total weight).
     
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