With the economy growing after the recovery time, FS was in need of improving the services between small and big cities on non wired lines and the three big firms proposed different models but similar in concept: comfortable big railcars that can tow a driving trailer, powered by only one engine put underfloor and with passage between units.
In 1950 Breda delivered 40 motors, classified as ALn 880.2001-2040, and 10 trailers (Ln 880.2001-2010) that took many important news in the field.
Apart a very nice shape (I like curvy forms), they had the first supercharged engine in daily use on Italian railways, the 12 horizontal cylinders, 315 kw Breda D19SA that powered the two axles of one bogie through a five speeds Wilson gearbox. Another novelty was a new kind of primary and secondary suspension that wanted to avoid creeping between parts.
And, being the engine put underfloor, the ends were equipped to have a passage with other units.
They were immediately assigned to Naples Campi Flegrei depot where their main use became the service on the line to Rome via Caserta and Cassino with all kinds of train.
Having demonstrated to be good runners but delicate (don't forget that they were moved by the first ever supercharged engines), in the second half of the 50s the class was displaced at Treviso and Bologna depots for use on the Venezia-Calalzo, Venezia-Trento, Bologna-Ravenna and Bologna-Florence, the last two via Faenza, fast trains besides other minor services on local lines.
From the end of the decade the Treviso units migrated to Verona Santa Lucia depot, whose plain lines were more proper for the ALn 880s. This probably remains the "golden age" of our railcars, with every kind of service on the lines to Rovigo and Chioggia, Monselice, Mantova and Modena, Parma, on the Ferrara-Ravenna-Rimini, the Faenza-Lavezzola and even the Fano-Urbino, in the Marche region, when it was still in use.
These comfortable units became for more than twenty years a typical sight, especially on the direct trains Verona-Mantova-Modena-Bologna and Bologna-Ravenna via Faenza with compositions until five units between motors and trailers and daily running at the maximum speed of 130 km/h (80 mph).
But their reliability, not perfect when new, was worsening with the age, engines and transmission needed continuous attention with high consumption of lubricant and problems of overheating so, from 1978, ceased the use of trailers and, because of the wiring of some lines and the coming of more modern classes of railcars, around 1980 began the dumping of the units in worst condition; later the remaining units were concentrated at Bologna Centrale depot and used only on the Bologna-Ravenna and Faenza-Lavezzola lines.
Every day more problematics despite the dedication of a patrol of drivers that passed nearly all their careers with these machines, the last day of regular service for the ALn 880s has been June 1st 1985 with a couple of directs on their home line to Ravenna.
In that time ALn 880.2018, the last overhauled, made many farewell journeys organized by railfans and today is the sole surviving unit of this class. It is theoretically still capable of running but it's inside the National Railway Museum in Pietrarsa from more than twenty years.
A little curiosity: the ALn 880s seats were so well designed that, when in the 80's FS transformed some of the mythical ETR 220 to be partly standard class, were re-used the seats of the dumped units (when I will finish with the diesel railcars we can tell about the as much interesting EMU and articulated EMU/ETR FS fleet, naturally if you are interested on the theme).
A nice shot taken in 1955 of a couple of ALn 880 restarting from Cassino station with a Naples-Rome express service.
The link through Caserta and Cassino saw an incredible growth in passengers number and, at the end of the 70's, will be wired.
Image from FS phototeque.
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A direct Verona-Mantova-Modena-Bologna train headed by ALn 880.2034 is leaving Mantova station in 1974. Note the old fashioned canopies and the "one hundred doors" coaches on the extreme left.
Photo by W. Hardmeier courtesy of Photorail.
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ALn 880.2033 and a sister are arriving at Isola della Scala station during a local service from Chioggia and Rovigo to Verona. On the left another local train towed by a D 141 locomotive.
The image, from 1975, is due to B. Studer and thanks to Photorail.
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Ciao
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