Italian motors

philipmartin wrote: Is that the Brenner Pass behind the the 412-020?

No, Phil. That's the Ceraino gorge, a place where the Adige river valley narrows, very scenic for railway photography. The Brenner pass is in the opposite direction.

Ciao

Benny wrote:
That's the Ceraino gorge, a place where the Adige river valley narrows,

Thank you, my friend!

At mid 80s FS tried a new concept of locomotive: a medium powered single cab unit to be coupled to a passenger train with a driving cab at the opposite end so forming a push-pull rake or, for freight, back to back with a sister unit to form an high power twin unit.
A group of industries built five prototypes, two E 453 for freight and three E 454 for passenger services, that were extensively tested but the evolution of power electronics, difficulties in driving coach to loco data transmission and the excessive power of a twin unit declared, in the second half of the 90s, the retirement of these prototypes.
E 454.003 during one of its last services near Florence in 1997

From their ashes born, at the changing of the millennium, class E 464, a 3500 kW 160 km/h (100 mph) locomotive tailored for local and regional push-pull services. It has only one driving cab, a luggage room (normally locked out of service, Italian stupidity), the through passage to the coaches and a small, basic rear driving desk that can be used only during shunting manoeuvres.
They are partly derived from the E 412/E 405 project and builder Bombardier consider them as part of the Traxx family but are indeed an Italian product, the only other similar (conceptually) locomotives being the Swiss Re 450s.
E 464s resulted good locos, very suitable for stopping trains because of their good acceleration and a low percentage of breakdowns so they were ordered in various batches becoming the largest ever class of FS locomotives with more than 700 units until now. The entire class is allocated to the regional division and the massive orders condemned all the rheostatic locos and "tigers" of this sector. Various units entered in the joint ventures set up by FS and someones were built for "private" railroads.
E 464.061 with a rake of MDVE coaches on the lower part of the Brenner line in 2002
A direct Milan-Mantua train pushed by E 464.494 in Trenord livery caught on Acquanegra Cremonese in 2012

The three images by S. Paolini cortesy of Photorail, probably the best italian site for railway photography.

Ciao

The B side of E 464.022 waiting to be serviced at the now closed Milan San Rocco depot. Photo by S. Paolini courtesy of Photorail.
A spledid image by M. Cantini of a E 464 and a Piano Ribassato rake transiting between the old village of Cervo and the sea in 2011. Cervo in Italian means deer so the male inhabitants are called betrayed because of the horns, he he....


This is the last class of FS (well, now Trenitalia) DC locomotives in the classic meaning of the word. The little survey of this field seems me complete, if you have questions, problems, doubts, perplexities or incertitudes ask to uncle Benny.
Ah, why I don't post my proper images? Because I have an archive of more than 15,000 shots but nearly all are black and white negatives and I've not a scanner nor the knowledge for digitalizing them.

Ciao

Excellent survey of Trenitalia locomotives. Excellent photo of the train with the old town of Cervo in the background. I wonder if today's disastrous earthquake in central Italy has had a effect on Trenitalia? I hope that it hasn't effected you personally, Benny.

I was not affected by the hearthquake, I am on the other side of the world (and my sister and friends are in Milan, northern Italy) but surely there are problems in the central Italy lines, I've not very much news, but thank you for thinking.

Ciao

http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Trenitalia advertisement. When you peel back all the skins, Trenitalia is an entity of the government.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trenitalia" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
wiki on Trenitalia
According to what I could find on Wiki, rail service has not been affected. https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g ... Lazio.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
If you Google "Trenitalia and earthquake" you see accounts of other earthquakes in Italy in the past few years.

http://www.ibtimes.com/earthquake-strik ... eek-401764" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This 2012 article describes a horrific earthquake that hit Italy in 1908; and another in 2009 in the same general area as last week's.

These are the images of prototype E 633.002, the first freight unit, being taken out of TIBB builder and exposed at Milano Porta Romana Yard approximately in 1979.
The driver is Mr. Alfredo Forti, main depot chief at Milano Greco depot and great friend of railway enthusiasts. The two photos by E. De Nardo from my archive.

Ciao

Benny wrote: The driver is Mr. Alfredo Forti, main depot chief at Milano Greco depot and great friend of railway enthusiasts.

Ciao

He sounds like a good man.

Just a little new.
After having wasted nearly all of their own locos, Mercitalia (the new name of FS Cargo) has hired various modern electric locomotives from lessors. Between them some Siemens Vectron that are doing trains between the Ravenna harbor and Piadena.
Only a little problem: these locos are too heavy and suck too much current so, on the Ravenna-Castelbolognese stretch, where E 633 and E 656 ran at 100 km/h now these trains are limited to 50 km/h.
It's progress, baby...

Ciao

For the happiness of my friend Northwest, some days ago the first two rebuilt (and cut) E 402 A, now reclassified as E 401, sorted from the Foligno works and are being tested.
Livery not fabulous but better of the XMPR (it's not needed very much to do something better...).

A link to some photos
http://www.ferrovie.it/portale/articoli/6539" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ciao

Thanks, Benny. They were much better as they were before the rebuild.

NorthWest wrote:Thanks, Benny. They were much better as they were before the rebuild.

I'm with you, but in the original red and white livery.
A my friend told that, instead of a cab, now there's a shower box.

Ciao

Benny wrote:instead of a cab, now there's a shower box

South African electric 6E1 units were converted to 18E, which is basically a pair of revamped 6E1 permanently coupled. The two centre cabs have been removed and I believe one of them has been replaced with a toilet. Not sure whether they have showers, though.