Pictures of Italian Railways Regional motive power

minesweeper Oct 19, 2017

  1. Hytec

    Hytec TrainBoard Member

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    Maurizio, thank you for this wonderful video, it is excellent. That is a marvelous locomotive. Though I am curious about the valve timing mechanism. I see the eccentric crank and connecting rod on the main driver, but the following mechanism disappears to within the frame and is hidden from view. Do you have a schematic or an explanation of its operation? Thank you.
     
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  2. minesweeper

    minesweeper TrainBoard Member

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    As long as I know it is a standard Walschaerts distribution on this class, cylindrical distributor as it is superheated steam, but no poppet valves or the like.
    Some other italian "high performance" (for Italy) locos had the Caprotti Valves and a different rod arrangement.
     
  3. Hytec

    Hytec TrainBoard Member

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    Thank you Maurizio.
     
  4. minesweeper

    minesweeper TrainBoard Member

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  5. Hytec

    Hytec TrainBoard Member

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    Maurizio, thank you. I had heard of the Caprotti system many years ago, but never knew of its performance. Quite impressive.
     
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  6. minesweeper

    minesweeper TrainBoard Member

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    Some pictures on page 2 are vanished, so I attach one of the Italian articulates from the 60s.
    These are LIMA models from the 70s (brown) and 80s (orange) on my layout, exactly the same except for the paint and a little mold modification. Pantographs are not the originals, but newer models from LIMA/Rivarossi spares.
    The brown is a 645, a 4.5MW electric with a top speed of 120KPH for freight service or passenger on steep grades.
    The orange one is a 646, exactly the same but with 140kph top speed gearing for passenger service.
    Total production was about 300 including both types and some similar prototypes.
    These doubled the available power form the older 636, by doubling the number of electric motors from 6 to 12.
    This is the livery from the mid 80 when these were modified for push and pull service on regional trains. The original livery is bottle green replacing the dark brown, and light grey replacing the brown/beige.
    6461.jpg
     
  7. minesweeper

    minesweeper TrainBoard Member

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    More pictures of real 646 here (most of the pictures are of repainted preserved units):
    https://trainspo.com/model/186/gallery/?sort=age_new
    645 here
    https://trainspo.com/model/187/gallery/

    Note that the aluminium linings present on all locomotives (except the prototypes with angled cabins) were soon removed and replaced by painting silver stripes and ditched with subsequent livery changes. That because of corrosion issues.
    Also some original 646 prototypes with angled cabins were later regeraed for freight service and renumbered in the E645 1xx class. The preserved units were later repainted in the original green/grey livery but did not change classification keeping the "historical fake" 645 number you see in the 645 pictures.
    Another "fake" is the preserved E645 painted in two tone blue; this livery was used on one or two 646 assigned to fast de luxe service between Milan and Rome in the late 50s / early 60s called Blue Train: not a job for the 645 freighters.
    A reason for it is that 645 were never modified for push and pull, and despite the inaccuracy and technical difference, the 645 look closer to the original 646 than the current 646 (even preserved ones as these were all modified with all side windows replaced by ventilation grilles).
    and data from Wikipedia here
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FS_Class_E.646
     
    Last edited: Apr 16, 2020
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  8. gmorider

    gmorider TrainBoard Member

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    Now that's Italian! (y)
     
  9. minesweeper

    minesweeper TrainBoard Member

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    Hi,
    latest development in the small single cabin E464, is their new livery for Intercity service. Facing a surplus of locos for regional trains due to the significant rise of new EMU in service, the Italian railways FS is "converting" some of the 700 E464. It is mainly the livery as some regearing to increase top speed to 180KPH was discussed but later ditched being not worthwhile (very few portions of the non high speed network can accommodate 160KPH + speed, and all of that at the cost of a slower acceleration).
    am60049.jpg
    Since these are kind of light also for Italian standers, at less than 75 tons, and with "just" 4MW of power, the idea is to MU two of these like in the picture, also saving the hassle of turning them; another alternative is to sandwich the cars between the locos, so that also the cab car is saved, like in this video during test runs. The second one will be the most used as for another strange idea FS has most of them fitted with an automatic Scharfenberg coupler on the front that does not match with anything (except EMU, and other 464 in the front) in the fleet, consequently is a nightmare when these need a tow.
    Some have been refitted with conventional screw couplers and buffers, but they just stopped doing this intelligent thing.

    NOTE:All passenger coaches in Italy are cabled for MU/CAB operations, regardless of the position of the locos / cab cars.
    The new colors are quite nice, i prefer the blue regional livery, but FS insisted to keep the IC coaches white (probably they need to keep washers working :)), therefore these quite match. I would have kept the grey fascia also on the coaches if not to differentiate them from the German railways; but that is the way it is.
    Unfortunately these will replace the last E656 articulates in passenger service.
    Enjoy.
     
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  10. minesweeper

    minesweeper TrainBoard Member

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    I see that also my faourite locomotive is gone....
    [​IMG]
    The E656 "caimano" (cayman), the latest evolution of the italian articulates: 5 MW and 120 tons with a top speed of 100MPH. Almost 500 of these pulled everything from TEE luxury trains to regional and freight from the late 70s till the early 2010.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FS_Class_E.656
    Here you can see the sound even if 6 light MDVC/MDVE coaches are just nothing to pull
    ]
    Here the only example of longer trains running now, these are trains that carry pilgrims to Lourdes in France, 12 standard cars are still not the 20+ of the summer peak night expresses that connected the north to south Italy in the 80s, but believe me, the "Caimano" did not have issues also on long and steep ramps.
     
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  11. ddechamp71

    ddechamp71 TrainBoard Member

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    My absolute preferred italian electric locos were E636. :)

    97450529d3869b9373855251710e3838.jpg

    One of these was at the point of the train I rode on from Lyons (France) to Venezia in july 1974, between Modane (France) and Torino. As then a 10-year young boy I was thrilled by its shape, and its army-style paintscheme. :D The opposite of the sanitized no-thrill rolling stock that invades railroads on the eastern side of the Pond nowadays..:(

    Dom
     
  12. minesweeper

    minesweeper TrainBoard Member

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    I hated it as a child as it was the most common when I was traveling and I was always hoping to see a more colorful 646, now really appreciate it as I have all the background of this workhorse of italian RRs (all my family worked in the railways, and I really enjoyed the free tickets I was entitled to until 25 years of age).
    The pictures from the earlier pages are gone. Thank you for putting one back on the thread.
    By the way always admired the french Nez cassez..... (y) especially the CC40100s on the LIMA catalogues.
     
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  13. minesweeper

    minesweeper TrainBoard Member

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    Back to the regionals, here some pictures of the FS ALn 668 railcars.
    These follow the same concept as Budd RDCs: FIAT truck engine and gear into a railcar body.
    Production of these started in the late 50s and continued with vast improvements until the 80s.....
    Stazione_Campo_di_Giove.jpg
    Credits are on the pictures itself or below.
    This is the first series 1400... with the original livery on a historical train in 2017. In the background a "littorina" ALn 556

    Here a class 1800, the first with modern trucks (FIAT style)
    1113px-13.11.96_Lioni_ALn668.1882.jpg
    By Phil Richards - Flickr: 13.11.96 Lioni ALn668.1882, CC BY-SA 2.0

    Then the "split doors" version with modern bodystyle, apologies for the ugly livery 960px-ALn668.1086_at_SsanthiĆ ,_Italy.jpg
    By Jollyroger - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3511038

    and the latest evolution, the more comfortable ALn 663
    1033px-FS_ALn663_1155.jpg
    Di maurizio messa - Flickr: FS ALn663 1155, CC BY-SA 2.0.

    more info here:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FS_Class_ALn_668
    In Italian only
    https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotrice_FS_ALn_663

    These were built in around 1000 units, of which a significant part was exported by FIAT to countries as:
    Sweden
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y1_(railcar)
    former Yugoslavia
    Mexico and other countries in South America
    Israel

    A few pages before there is a picture of one in the US for trials.

    more FIAT built railcars all over the world here
    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/..._and_railcars_manufactured_by_Fiat?uselang=it

    You can laugh at FIAT for making cheap and unreliable cars, but when it came to trains and trucks that is a completely different story.
     
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