FERROVIE NORD MILANO

[philipmartin]

Western Pacific. My favorite paint scheme. I have an idea that General Motors had company artists that sometimes assisted railroads in planing their locomotive paint designs; and that these GM artists were good.

[philipmartin]

Hers a link to one of a number of articles on Skoda. I believe that the cc 40100s were built by Alsthom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_% ... ve_classes" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And another link. http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/sing ... otive.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[JayBee]

Western Pacific. My favorite paint scheme. I have an idea that General Motors had company artists that sometimes assisted railroads in planing their locomotive paint designs; and that these GM artists were good.

The gentlemen at EMD were named Leland Knickerbocker and Paul Meyer. Among other designs they created the Santa Fe Warbonnet paint scheme.

[philipmartin]

The gentlemen at EMD were named Leland Knickerbocker and Paul Meyer. Among other designs they created the Santa Fe Warbonnet paint scheme.

That is interesting. I wonder if they did the same thin for GM busses?

Top photo: Sana Fe warbonnet paint scheme.
Bottom: Fifth Avenue Coach Company paint scheme. This is a faithful reproduction on a Corgi model. Both display General Motors rounded off design, making them, in my opinion, as attractive as possible.

[philipmartin]

Here's a photo of cc 40100's cousin the cc 6500. They were built by Alsthom and MTE.

[philipmartin]

SNCF BB 15000. Also Alsthom - MTE. I suspect that CC and BB refer to the wheel arrangement.

[NorthWest]

I've always thought that those Skoda locomotive family looked good, particularly with bright colors.

Well, in the scarce design panorama of eastern Europe these locomotives can be considered, if not nice, at least not bad.
Surely a smart painting helps.

Ciao

Well, they're still boxes, but prettier boxes. I think most of the fun is the variance in exterior side panels between the different classes in the family.

[Benny]

With the opening of rail freight market, the new operators were searching low cost locomotives to start their businesses and, with this idea, FNM, at the beginning of 2000s, bought eight class 342 machines from Slovenian railways (six more units were bought by FER, another Italian operator).
These locos, classified in Italy as E 640, were built by Ansaldo of Genoa during the 60s with technologies based on the FS E 646 project but with only two trucks and an output of 2300 kw.
Together with the Czech classes 163 and 753 they started the open rail freight market era for FNM but, with the growth of the business, were, after few years, substituted by new modern and powerful units.
From 2007, because of the dumping of older stock, E 640 began to be used on the company's network with X type coaches hired from the Swiss railways but these services lasted only to 2010.
After a time as reserve units, the class has been dumped and now is theoretically for sale.

E 640.02, at the head of a rake of Swiss X coaches, running on the Saronno to Milan stretch in 2007.

IMG_6903 copia.jpg

E 640.01 and 05 double-heading a "rolling highway" service from Novara to northern Europe in 2005.

e64001e05-030205gozzano copia.jpg

The two images by S. Paolini courtesy of Photorail.

Ciao

[Benny]

In the first half of the 60s Ansaldo built, always for Yugoslav railways, also a six axle class that was an updating of the FS E 636s.
These locos, known as class 362 of Yugoslav railways (JZ) and then as class 1061 of the Croatian railways (HZ),were used on the DC wired lines but, because of the progressive conversion to single phase, they became surplus.
Still with the aim of empowering the rising open access freight services, in 2005 FNM bought three units that had, in the previous years, their front ends rebuilt.
These units were classified as E 660/E 661 because of small differences but have been a bad buying, because at the same time came the obligation of Sistema Controllo Marcia Treno (SCMT, train ride control system) on all FS electrified lines and equipping and certifying these old locomotives resulted very difficult and expensive so, after some test journeys, they have been parked and are still waiting for a new future or, more probably, the scrap.

Slovenian railways 362.023, with the original front ends, hauling a freight train through Aurisina (I) in 2006.
After the end of the Yugoslav federation, class 362 has been divided between Slovenia and Croatia.

362023-310507aurisina copia.jpg

E 660.051 caught during a test run crossing Cislago station in 2006.

e660051e661001-080306cislago.jpg

The two images by S. Paolini courtesy of Photorail

Here finish the electric locomotives chapter: today the locomotives in the hands of what has been FNM are only E 464 inherited from the fusion with the Lombardy division of Trenitalia for passenger services, and the standard models of Bombardier and Siemens for the freight business.
Next time I will write about diesel traction.

Ciao

[NorthWest]

Thanks very much Benny! It can be hard to find English information on these wonderful old locomotives and trying to translate it can be, well, challenging...
Translating the Hungarian wiki gives me

The JZ Series 342 is a Bo'Bo ' wheel arrangement , 3 kV DC power system electric locomotives drinking beer.

which I don't quite think is the proper translation...
I've always found them good looking units and wondered about their relationship with the similar-looking E.646s.
The catenary pole makes E.640.02 look like it has a seam in the first pic...
Thank you also for the picture of the rebuilt 362. I don't think I've ever seen a picture before, though it seems like they did an uglier job than the Croatians:
http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/hr/ele ... _001_0.jpg
I presume the 362s were banned from Italy when the E.636s lost their certifications in 2006?
Rebuilt E.636: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locomotiv ... Smista.jpg

[Benny]

The Wikipedia extensor made a typing mistake: it's not the locomotive but the drivers that drink beer.

The 362s bought by FNM were modified by the Croatians, jointly with other members of the class. Instead Class 1161, the one of your image, were two 362s completely transformed to be used under single phase 25000 V.

The ban for the older FS classes (until 646) came because RFI, the network owner, made compulsory SCMT and it was nearly impossible and very expensive to fit in half-a-century units.

I'm with you that the modified 362s are really ugly, as is the Camilla.
In my personal opinion these transformations in old stock with short life expectations are a waste of money.

Ciao

[NorthWest]

Ok, that makes sense on the 1161s. To go from 3000V DC to 25Kv AC would be essentially a new locomotive.
It is hard to find information on railroading in the Balkans, which is unfortunate because a lot of the things there are very interesting.
There are photos of large steam still in use at industrial plants within the last year!
And yes, rebuilds of 60+-year-old locomotives are useless...

[george matthews]

Ok, that makes sense on the 1161s. To go from 3000V DC to 25Kv AC would be essentially a new locomotive.
It is hard to find information on railroading in the Balkans, which is unfortunate because a lot of the things there are very interesting.
There are photos of large steam still in use at industrial plants within the last year!
And yes, rebuilds of 60+-year-old locomotives are useless...

Locomotives capable of switching from 3kv to 25kv do exist, in several countries. But it has to be designed into them.

[johnthefireman]

The Wikipedia extensor made a typing mistake: it's not the locomotive but the drivers that drink beer.

A few months ago my wife and I were in a country which I won't name and we were watching a diesel locomotive shunting (switching in US parlance), making up a goods train. After a while the driver invited us up into the cab with him. He was very friendly and welcoming as he shunted up and down but it soon became clear that he had had a drink or three - the cab reeked of alcohol. After a while he asked us whether we were going into town and when we said yes, he said he would take us there. I assumed he had finished his shunting work and was going to drop us off as he passed through town on his journey. Sure enough he took us into town and dropped us off at the level crosssing, but then instead of continuing his journey he reversed back to the shunting yard, persumably to finish his shunting work. There are not too many countries left where you can have an experience like that!

[philipmartin]

Not to be unpleasant, but alcohol is a factor on any railroad, in my opinion.
Nice of him to give you folks a lift. A couple of months ago I heard of an airline pilot over here who got taken off his plane account of being under the alcaflince of incahol.
We have random testing here too. I got one one time when I was working a tower job. Although I don't drink or take dope, I was afraid that something might go wrong and give me a false prositive. I guess it didn't; I never heard anything more about it.