FERROVIE DEL SUD EST

[NorthWest]

Thanks, Benny. Unfortunate that they can't seem to get any freight traffic.

[Benny]

Thanks, Benny. Unfortunate that they can't seem to get any freight traffic.

They deliberately lost freight traffic. What I wrote at fifth page of Italian Motors topic about FS is valid for FSE too.
Many times clients were told "sorry, we've no locos to serve you"....

Ciao

[Benny]

During the 90s, FS was retiring the 1400 series, the first ones, of ALn 668 railcars; instead FSE was in need of units because of the MANs writing off, so hired from the state company various of the former ones and in 2000 bought ten cars.
They were then rebuilt by Leon d'Oro works, had a new cab and lost the other one becoming coupled in pairs.
These five double units, classified as Ad 121-130, worked nearly ten years but age and non proper maintenance led them to be dumped. Actually there aren't complexes in service though one has been repainted in the new corporate livery.

Two unidentified Ad 120s running in the country near Manduria in 2008. Note the mechanical signal out of use on the left.
Photo by S. Paolini courtesy of Photorail.

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Ciao

[Benny]

In the 90s, Fiat Ferroviaria built for Turkish Railways (TCDD) a series of railcars partly derived from ALn 663 but with a different aesthetic; 16 more units were then furnished to ACT of Reggio Emilia.
At the end of the decade FSE ordered four complexes composed of two railcars that are the single ended version of the above ones and are classified as Ad 81-88.
Each railcar is moved by two 280 kW engines through hydro-mechanical gearboxes so total power of a couple is 1120 kW, good enough to give an excellent acceleration in stopping services and a theoretical top speed of 150 km/h.
All units are still on duty and are probably the most reliable motive power in the FSE stock.

In 2001, only one year old, Ad 87+88 are waiting departure at Bari Sud Est, the main base of FSE.

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Ad 83+84 in the new (nice) livery are entering Mungivacca station in May this year.

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The two images by S. Paolini courtesy of Photorail.

Ciao

[Benny]

When started its open access services, intermodal operator Hupac bought some chzech D 753s (these locos were treated on the FNM topic); after the initial phase it preferred new locos and in 2006 sold two submariners to FSE.
Although good machines, they resulted not very suitable because of the high axleload and bad condition of many tracks so, after a couple of years, they were hired to other open access freight operators.
Following bad maintenance and the fault of money for spare parts, D 753.701 and 702 are, from 2015, dumped at Bari depot waiting for an uncertain future.

During a train-hunting safari in 2007, my friend M. Cantini took this image of D 753.702 at the head of four 1933 coaches crossing a couple of "Turkish" at Castellana Grotte.

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Ciao

[NorthWest]

Thanks, Benny. It's amazing how close the new front end is on the cars in the first post to the electrics that FS has bought in recent years.

Good to finally see some stuff that works well, but painting stuff that doesn't seems really weird.

Those Czech locos are pretty odd looking but they've grown on me.

[Benny]

Right. Never I noticed it before.
Liveries can be, as usual, good or bad depending of personal opinions; I prefer the last one than the light-blue/white/red one but it's only my taste.
The locomotives with goggles are surely ugly but, especially the reengined versions, are still well appreciated.

Ciao.

[Benny]

The first big success of Swiss train builder Stadler has been the GTW (Gelenk TriebWagen = articulated railcar) model. GTW is basically an articulated railcar, electric or diesel, based on a central short module containing the traction equipment and two driving coaches each one with the inner end supported by the traction module. Widespread in Europe, there are GTWs in service also in Austin and other US cities.
The first buyer of GTW has been Swiss private railroad Mittel Thurgau Bahn (MThB) and, when the latter became bankruptcy, FSE bought three of the diesel prototypes.
From Switzerland, the railcars were sent to Metalmeccanica Milanesio, in the Cuneo province, to be adapted to Italian regulations but, during the process, Milanesio went bankrupt too and only in 2010 the units arrived in Puglia.
But, as an evidence of how badly this railroad has been managed, it was discovered that the central element of GTWs has an excessive axleweight against the poor FSE track so they never entered in service, were quickly dumped at Mungivacca and still are there. Something so tragic to become ridiculous.

An unidentified FSE GTW caught in 2008 during its permanence in Milanesio works.

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Image by S. Paolini courtesy of Photorail.

Ciao

[george matthews]

Is it the railcar or the railway that has the bad luck?

[Benny]

Really the sole bad luck has been the one of Metalmeccanica Milanesio that, if I well remember, became bankruptcy because of non paying clients.
The GTWs are very good products (I rode those prototypes when they had been presented in St. Gallen some years before) and the rest is only bad management. MThB went bankrupt because it expanded too much and too quickly, and about the luck of FSE... please have compassion!

Ciao

[NorthWest]

Expensive newish railcars dumped because nobody thought to check before they were bought. Wow.

[Benny]

Today the railway service between Mungivacca and Putignano is made with buses because last night some 350 m of train protection system copper cables have been stolen. Permanent way teams are working to return the normal service.

Ciao

[Benny]

With the end of socialist economy and separation of activities, the PKP workshop in Bydgoszcz (Poland) became an independent company renamed PESA and, to the traditional job of repairs, joined the projecting and building of new stock, especially railcars and trams.
In 2008 FSE became the first buyer of the Atribo model, an articulated DMU with three bodies over four trucks moved by two 382 kW MAN engines through hydrodynamic gearboxes.
Finally FSE bought 27 units (ATR 220 001-027) and others were ordered by FNM (at the time not yet Trenord), FER (the railway arm of Emilia Romagna region) and FS, apart two regional divisions of PKP.
From daily use emerged some problems: the units are underpowered for mountain lines (FNM bought two trains for the Brescia-Edolo line but quickly had to take them off from diagrams because the polish cannot maintain the timetable on the slopes) or for stopping services, engines are very sensitive to fuel (and railroad fuel is generally of low quality), there is too much wear on that part of the wheels that serves as a guide (please give me the right term, in Italian it's bordino), and the most important: truck chassis have been fissuring. This is why, in 2016, Italian railway safety board stopped all the Atribos.
After strong ultrasonic examinations, the units in worst condition are still dumped waiting a solution and the others follow working but with a far shorter time between ultrasonic checks; in case of worsening over a determined level they are immediately stopped. PESA is trying to modify suspensions and supports but still there is not a sure solution, apart taking off the actual trucks and reproject new ones.
Of the FSE fleet, four or five units are out of use and the other ones are more or less in service but with frequent stops in the Bari workshop because, apart the "big" problem, of a myriad of other faults.

In 2015 ATR 220.009 was caught running in the country near Galugnano.

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Instead ATR 220.024 and another unit were immortalized running on the side of the typical "trulli" huts with the town of Locorotondo in the background.

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The two images by S. Paolini courtesy of Photorail.

Well, I briefly showed story and stock of this unfortunate railroad; now we can only wait and see what will happen.

Ciao

[NorthWest]

Certainly some of Pesa's best looking units (new ones look a bit...well...ugly). I think the word you are looking for is flange, or more specifically wheel flange.

It's interesting that they are allowed to lay out of service for so long.

I wish them best of luck in seeing more success in the future.

[Benny]

Flange, right. Many thanks.
Atribos are not allowed to stay out of use, simply they are too much dangerous to be used; this is why rail companies had to maintain in service older railcars destined to scrap.
And really these PESA products revealed themselves very badly made: e. g. in an FS unit, an high pressure hose exploded because it was made for 160 bar but it was needed for 300 bar. In occasion of a little fire originated by leaked fuel on the hot engine it has been discovered that there isn't fire detection sensors in the engine room.
Returning to the trucks, now it seems that they are taken off and sent to Poland to be reinforced. Hoping...

Ciao