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.
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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.
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E 464.061 with a rake of MDVE coaches on the lower part of the Brenner line in 2002
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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.
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