FERROVIE NORD MILANO

In America, Pullman and parlor cars were routinely placed at the rear of the train, with coaches at the head end. At many places where through cars were added or dropped, that arrangement was maintained by the manner in which cars were switched.
Another point I find interesting is that in the 1920's the Great Eastern Railway (and later the LNER) operated a very intensive suburban service between Liverpool Street Station and the Lea Valley. The trains had three classes, with the carriages painted in three different colors (I don't know what they were) so that passengers could quickly identify the class. The position of the carriages in the train was democratically allocated, since the trains were not turned at the termini.

george matthews wrote:
I am sure it was unpleasant to be near a coal burning loco,

The video I posted shows men, women and children, in Bay Head, walking around the steam engines, showing no sign of it being unpleasant.

NorthWest wrote:It is interesting that the express locomotive is a 4-6-0... FS and other Italian railways tended to eschew the 4-wheel pony truck after a method was devised to help steer the first driver into curves. All of the tendered classes seem to have full length vestibule cabs which are usually associated with colder climates.

Correct. The italian way of locomotive building always preferred the use of the Zara truck (the guiding axle and the first driving one in the same turning chassis) to have the major part of the weight on the driving wheels, but there have been also different "schools of thinking" especially outside FS, as you can see, with four wheels ponies used to have better driving in curves and to divide the total weight in more axles.

Well, Drive a loco in a foggy early morning during January between Asso and Milan and you will understand why there were enclosed cabs...

Ciao

Happy new year to you, my friends. Follow on with something more.

With the aim of solving the increasing commuters traffic and the congestion at Milan Cadorna terminal, that needed good acceleration for stopping trains and a quick re-use of rolling stock, in 1929 FNM electrified the stretches Milan to Saronno and Milan to Meda with the DC 3000 v as was doing FS.
For these services were built the class 700 Electric Multiple Units (EMUs) and their driving trailers, that resulted very effective and paved the way to the nearly complete wiring of the network. Because of the always increasing traffic and new wirings the driving trailers were transformed in motors along the years, partly increasing class 700 and partly creating two new classes, and substituted with newer trailers of a different design.
During their long life these 550 kw units were modified various times (probably, when they were retired, there were not two identical EMUs) and lasted until 2010, real dinosaurs on rails.
EB 700.03 departing from Milan Cadorna in 1991. The doors have been changed to folding ones.

EBD 700.22 waiting departure time at Saronno in 1992. This unit is an old driving trailer that has been transformed and retained the original sliding doors but received a luggage compartment.

Images by S: Paolini courtesy of Photorail

Ciao

In 1937 FNM electrified the Saronno to Como line, also because of the tourist flow generated by the lake (the FNM station is in front of the boat piers and 200 yards from the Brunate funicular).
This line is far more graded than the ones near Milan, in the stretch between Como Borghi and Camerlata the slope reach 30 mm/m with some 300 m radius curves, so it was needed a more powerful traction unit, also to increase the train length using a single EMU.
The solution came putting newly projected motor trucks under three driving trailers and so obtaining 810 kw EMUs that became class 720 and later 730.
They demonstrated to be good horses and soldiered on until the second half of the 2000s, when all the old stock has been retired.
EB730.02 stopping in Malnate in 1993. From here, until the 50s, ran the closed line to Como.

Photo by S. Paolini courtesy of Photorail

Ciao

In 1951, with a continuous increase in commuters traffic and new wirings, FNM needed more high power EMUs and decided to motorize the last 7 driving trailers built in 1928 to be coupled with 700 units (another kind of DT had been built to substitute the original ones). These "newcomers" had the same power of the 730s but a slightly different electric scheme and so were classified as class 740.
Having proved very effective, between 1953 and 1958 17 more units were built, this time with a new, more modern body derived from the DTs that substituted the motorized ones. With various upgradings the 740s lasted until 2012, writing the word end to the services of "squared trains."
EB 740.18 leaving Milan Cadorna in 1992. The entire train is in the so called french livery, appeared with the gaules-projected double deckers.

A train pushed by a 740 passing the Ticino river on the Novara line. This bridge is characteristic because at the upper level run the railway and at the lower one the road. The train is on the Lombardy Region livery

Images by S. Paolini courtesy of Photorail

Until the coming of the new electronic EMUs (1982) these 50 battle horses, helped by electric locos, guaranteed the passenger traffic in the busiest Italian private railway in times when railways were seen as symbols of antiquity to be substituted with the modern cars.
In general, to class 700 were hooked a DT and, sometimes, an intermediate coach, instead to classes 730 and 740 were joined a DT and two intermediate coaches. It was the norm that peak hours trains were composed of eight stock needing two complexes in multiple.

Because of the lack of investments, a major role in the stock reliability has been played by the Novate depot and workshop, where know how was passed through generations of workers.

Felice anno nuovo, Benny. I am one of those tourists who rode an aliscafo, (hydrofoil) across lake Como, many years ago. Thank you for the detailed information, and the illustrations.

Wow. 70-80 years is a long time for a railcar! They built them well back then!
Though I suppose a lot of other Italian stock from that era had similar lifespans.

NorthWest wrote:Wow. 70-80 years is a long time for a railcar! They built them well back then!
Though I suppose a lot of other Italian stock from that era had similar lifespans.

Yes, in general old stock had a longer life against newer ones.
TFT, previously known as La Ferroviaria Italiana, still uses two ex FS prototype E 626 from 1928 and in Milan tramcars from the same year are in daily use, only to give the first examples that came to my mind.
And before 2000 far more old stock was in service.

Ciao

The last new motive power, as seen, was from the 50s and, during the years, towns and villages along the FNM lines grown enormously because of the strong immigration from southern Italy so the need of massive people transport to "the big city" had the same increase (in spite of the individual motorization boom) but the private owner was no more interested in a good management so, in 1974, the Lombardy regional government became the major shareholder and slowly started a recovery plan to avoid collapse of the network.
The most visible result of this new deal has been the purchase of modern stock (single and double decker coaches, electric locos and EMUs) that, from the beginning of the 80s, revolutionized the commuters trips.
The new EMUs were destined primarily to be used with the double deckers but, at the time, there was the idea that a double decker EMU was too heavy for Italian tracks so it has been used the FS ALe 724 EMU project, generating an "hybrid" with a very questionable aesthetics (railroadmen nicknamed these complexes "camels") but undoubtedly they brought a wave of fresh air in the FNM time warp.
Classified as EB (then EA) 750, they were single cab units with an hourly power of 1120 kw and the first 12 machines were coupled with two (later three) double decker coaches, one of them with a driving cab. EB 750.09 and 01 with double deckers waiting departure at Cadorna station in 1992.

At mid 80s six more units arrived, this time to be coupled with the single decker Socimi coaches, and in 1993 the last six, with the FS ALe 642 front end and to be used with double deckers.
EB 750.18 and Socimi coaches on a direct Laveno to Milano train caught near Tradate in 1993
Another Laveno-Milano train, this time pulled by EA 750.24, the last of the class, viewed in Gerenzano in 2014.

During their career these units made a good service but the evolution of power electronics and the consequent fault of spare parts, the need of more capacity and the coming of newer stock condemned them; the last ones worked until 2016.
It's interesting to note that class 750 lasted only few years more than the older ones that they had supposedly to substitute.

Images by S. Paolini courtesy of Photorail.

Ciao

Good lookers, those single deck cars. Also interesting that they were designed to use trailers from the start.
Interestingly, the 'camel' arrangement is being brought back by Siemens in their Desiro platform,
as the Desiro HC:
http://railcolornews.com/2017/01/28/de- ... c-for-rrx/.
http://railcolornews.com/2017/01/28/de- ... -db-regio/

Generally in Europe EMUs are composed of motors and trailers.
Approximately at the same time of the FNM camels also CSD, the operator of czechoslovak railways, received some prototype EMUs with single decker motors and double decker trailers, classified as class 470.

Ciao

To increase capacity and passenger comfort at mid 90s FS and FNM received the first ever full double decker EMUs in Italy. These are fixed complexes named TAF (Treno ad Alta Frequentazione or high patronage train) and formed by two single ended railcars, classified EB 760 and EA 761, sandwiching two intermediate trailers of class 990; each motor has only one motive bogie for a total train power of 3600 kw and a maximum speed of 140 km/h (87 mph).
The order for FNM was initially of 27 trains but, after the birth of Trenord, the FS units operating in Lombardy region joined the FNM ones so I cannot tell you how much are now in the (ex) FNM hands.
Not bad units, they are a little impersonal (as all new trains) and have some unresolved problems of speed regulation.

A TAF leaded by EB 760.019 running in the snowy land on the Como line in 2009. Photo by S: Paolini courtesy of Photorail. Ciao

As TAFs have been not really satisfyng, FNM asked industry to something better and the answer has been TSR ( Treno per Servizi Regionali or regional services train). This is a different concept of EMU, similar to the american one, in which there are two kinds of vehicle: a railcar with a driving cab and pantograph (EB 711) and a railcar without them (EB710) that can be coupled from two to seven units. Each double decker vehicle has a powered bogie so, independently from the train lenght, the traction characteristics are the same and acceleration and adhesion improved very much. Also travel comfort is smoother.

With this trains FNM, being the railways arm of the region, started to operate as a lessor, buying a total of 80 trains and giving part of them to FS for use on Lombardy lines. Now all convoys are in the Trenord stock.

A three pieces TSR running on the four tracks line between Milan and Saronno in 2008. Image of S. Paolini courtesy of Photorail. Ciao

To complete the EMUs chapter I need to mention that FNM (and then Trenord) bought various trains of the Coradia Meridian platform, with different number of vehicles, that are used on the airport services and on semi fast regional connections.

ETR 245.05 on the Malpensa airport line in 2011. Image by S. Paolini courtesy of Photorail. When I will have a little of time will follow with electric and diesel locomotives.

Ciao