The Italian way of railcars

[NorthWest]

CO power-now that is interesting! Not sure that I've ever seen that done before on a rail vehicle. Thanks for sharing these gems, I never would have guessed that they would have tried that!
Necessity breeds innovation, I suppose.

[Benny]

Ok, digested the classic Christmas binge, here something more.

OM too wanted to enter the railcars market and proposed its innovative prototypes, alike three diesel powered and three using alternative motive power. The second ones were steam operated and probably represent the highest level of modern steam traction built in Italy. I've not found very much data but they had two high pressure (98 bars!) closed circuit groups each one made by a boiler, a two cylinders engine and a condenser, oil fired and automatically operated and, strangely, the two groups powered the same bogie through I don't know how kind of transmission.
Ordered in 1934, they left factory only in 1938 and were classified as ALv 72 301-303; tested in the Florence area, showed low acceleration and bad performance so, after only two years, were sold to Ferrovie Padane (FP), a granted railroad, that transformed them into trailers. After being used for nearly forty years, they were dumped in a dead track of Rovereto FP station where remained until rust made its job.

Brand new ALv 72. 301 on the moving bridge inside the OM factory in Milan. It's difficult to imagine that inside this modern (for the time) design there were steam engines. Note the strange "things" (ducts? Condensers?) on the top of the right cab. Photo by OM from the book of D. Molino and S. Pautasso "Le automotrici della prima generazione", Edizioni Elledi 1983.

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Also the diesel powered units were extremely interesting. OM was part of the Fiat group but had a proper "philosophy" and, being licensee of the Swiss firm Saurer, used two BUD engines each railcar; for the first time the power units were not placed on the bogie but in a small chassis put in the cabs floor, still with the cowls but freeing engines from the track solicitations.
But the most important feature was the use, first time in an Italian railcar, of the hydraulic transmission that, through telescopic joints, powered the inner axle of each bogie.
Consigned in 1936 and classified as ALn 72.3001-3003, were used too in the Florence area with far better results than their steam sisters but the fuel restrictions and a new project that we will see on the next chapter made that also these units were sold in 1940 to FP where they were renumbered 1001-1003.
ALn 72.1001 has been scrapped in 1953 because of a crash but the other ones followed working until the 80s, many times with an ex steam operated sister in tow.

An official image of ALn 72.3003. The aesthetic of these first OM units was a more rationalist version of the early Fiat one. Photo OM from internet.

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Fifty years after, the same unit, now numbered ALn 72.1003, was shooted by Alessandro Muratori, one of the best connoisseurs of the secondary railroads in the Po plain, during one of its last runs. The railcar is passing the famous turning bridge before Codigoro.
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Ciao

[NorthWest]

They certainly look like ducts to me, but for what-cooling or boiler draft or what?

Railroads in the US also found out that putting the engine and transmission on the power truck and then running it over marginal track led to breakdowns in the McKeen cars. It seems that this is a universal insight.

Thanks!

[Benny]

In the second half of the 30s FS was in need of more railcars, and these had to be of an higher standard to improve also express connections on the non-wired network.
Given the good results of ALn 72s, OM and Fiat revised that project and created ALn 772, for many years the most important class of railcars running on the boot.
The engines were changed for the Saurer BXD model, increasing power from 95 to 110 kw each one, cooling of the hydraulic transmission was improved, a better suspension system was implemented, more comfortable seats were installed and a new, more aerodynamic, front end was designed. The result was a vehicle offering 72 seats of reasonably good comfort, capable of 130 km/h, with remote control of another unit and good for for every use, being able to pass from stopping services to rapid ones without problems.
Initially were ordered three series of railcars: ALn 772.1001-1100 built by Fiat joint with ALn 772.3201-3250 and 3251-3296 built by OM. All these units were delivered between 1940 and 43 but were quickly sidelined because fuel was needed for military uses and, more, many vehicles were de-engined and their propellers used on navy boats. But, during tests and the limited service that was made, emerged their good qualities so at the end of the conflict, when FS needed urgently to increase its fleet, OM restarted producing them with two more series: ALn 772.3301-3341 and ALn 772.3342-3423; these new series differed aesthetically from the previous ones in having another kind of multiple working connector. The last series also had a slightly different engine, model BXD-54, that had another fuel pump.
An interesting fact is that deliveries followed until 1957, well over the recovery years, and after other, more modern, classes were built, marking the goodness of the 772 project.
Quickly they became ubiquitous, from Trentino Alto Adige to Sicily, with a range of duties that varied from the 15 km of the Savigliano-Saluzzo secondary line to the 450 km of the Rapido Ancona-Bari when the southern part of the adriatic line was not yet wired.
Surely not the top for driving crews, they were beloved for the reliability: before the ALn 668 era, they had the lowest percentage of breakdowns of the railcars fleet, better than newer classes.
Retired around mid 80s, ALn 772s maintained until the end some prestigious services. I remember, still in 1981-82, the exciting daily rides at 130 km/h on the Novara-Milano stretch during the Biella-Milano direct services (and sometimes a young Benny was in the cab, when he was skipping school).
Today ALn 772.3265 is operative as historical vehicle, in the hands of the FS historical foundation, and another unit is being restored.

At Castelvetrano, under the sun of western Sicily, ALn 772.3382 and a sister cross ALn 772.3230 in March 1973. Note the different remote control connectors on the front ends and the narrow gauge railcars on the right (I will relate later on them).

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ALn 772.3299 and another unit are leaving Turin Porta Nuova main station with a direct service to Aosta in March 1976. ALn 772.3299 born as a trailer for private SIF (Siena - Monteantico line) and was engined in 1956 when the company was absorbed by FS and it, joint with the two 772s of the little railroad, entered in the state fleet.
At the time of this image the Chivasso-Aosta line was managed by Genio Ferrovieri, the army railway service, so all trains, this one too, had military drivers and guards.

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In October of the same year, instead, ALn 772.3377 is making a Trento-Venice run and passes at Levico one of the last steam operated freight trains, at the hook of 2-8-2 tank engine 940.041.

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The three images by B. Studer courtesy of Photorail.

Ciao

[Benny]

From the ALn 772 project born also one of the most interesting vehicles that rode the Italian rails.
To attract those high level passengers that were becoming to use the modern and classy road or air transport, OM and architect Renzo Zavanella, at the time one of the most prestigious names of the Italian design, created ALTn 444.3001, nicknamed "Belvedere".
From the wreck of the war damaged ALn 772.3240 was built a luxury railcar with bar service, AM radio, turning armchairs and a good soundproofing. But its more characteristic feature was the dome, with 24 seats that could be turned to face forward, like the US dome cars.
In an architectural magazine, the Belvedere was defined as "a new concept of railway service, returning to the pleasure of the travel admiring the surrounding landscape without being limited by the window but instead free of spacing in every direction, comfortably attended to make a great experience". The same concepts inspired, approximately twelve years later, the German dome cars of the Rheingold and the French X4200 "panoramiques" railcars.
Delivered in 1948 (but the idea was of course from pre-war time), it was exhibited at the Milan international fair and then assigned to the Pavia depot.
It's main duty became the transport of the milanese high class between the Lombardy capital and San Remo, a sophisticated beach not far from the French border, during week ends but it made also various charter services for the most important soccer teams or for travel agencies, sometimes penetrating in Switzerland too.
But its success became also its limit: with the rising economy there was more people that should pay the expensive ticket so the 44 seats of the Belvedere became inadequate and in 1957 the agency that managed the service preferred to renounce.
Lost the elite services, ALTn 444.3001 was transferred to Turin depot and used to replace the falling ATRs on the Milan line, generally coupled with an ALn 772, and on express services to Savona and Aosta but its scarce capacity and the coming of new classes condemned the Belvedere: in 1966 it was re-transformed in ALn 772 with the new number 3424 and followed on with the duties of this class until April 1980, when it had been written off.

During the glory days, ALTn 444.3001 "parades" along the San Remo promenade in 1954.
The old Savona-french border line was mainly single track and sinuous but very scenic. In 1954 it was still three-phase wired. Photo FS.

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One of the two lower lounges. Note the design of armchairs and tables. Photo Martinotti.

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The dome, with its reversible seats. Photo Martinotti.

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The three images are taken from the book "ALTn 444.3001 Belvedere" by M. Cruciani and R. Zannotti, ed. Centro di Documentazione Giornalistica, Roma 1978.

Ciao

[NorthWest]

Wow. It's amazing how almost identical the interior of the dome looks to US dome lounge cars. Thanks!

3265 running in 2013 with a bit of smoke: http://www.railpictures.net/photo/643163/

[Benny]

Here I come again! Sorry but it's a very troubled time.

The decade of the 50s has been plenty of news in the railway field also because in the previous years the train building firms were busy with war and reconstruction and their projecting divisions had much time to study improvements.

In those days FS had many narrow gauge (950 mm) railroads in the Sicily inland, completely steam operated and archaically managed (e.g. the maximum speed was 30 km/h).
The first, and only, step to improve the situation has been the arrival, around 1950, of 25 railcars and 5 trailers. These units, classified as RALn 60 and RLn 64, were built by Fiat on a completely new design and there were two subseries: RALn 60.01-15 double engined for steeply lines until 75 mm per meter and RALn 60.16-25 single engined for less steeply lines until "only" 35 mm per meter.
This class had conflicting features: received the first engine built specifically for railcar use, the well known by David Fiat 700.010, six horizontal cylinders, suspended under the chassis that for the first time freed the cab from its encumbrance but this was not taken as an advantage to install a passage with a coupled unit and even the multiple control was not installed, as if railcars destined to minor lines were not worth to be up to date.
However RALn 60s brought a wind of modernity in the deep Sicily inner provinces and some stations saw the doubling of the sold tickets but in the same years began the policy against the rail and FS refused to invest in the narrow gauge lines.
After few years, in an attempt to avoid the use of steam locomotives for small amounts of parcels, the trailers were modified to have an half of the body transformed into a van but began the lines closures and the railcars were concentrated on the remaining ones.
When, at the end of 1985, the last stretch of FS narrow gauge, the Castelvetrano-Ribera, was finally closed, six railcars were sold to Ferrovia Circum Etnea (FCE), a private railroad with the same 950 mm gauge that, from Catania, runs around the Etna volcano; they were heavily rebuilt, reclassified as RALn 64.01-06 and served until last year.
The resting FS units were abandoned in the depots to be eaten by the rust.

RALn 60.23 and 11 cross in Selinunte station in 1974. The design was very dull or even ugly but these railcars were the first in Italy to use suspended flat engines.
Image by W. Hardmeier courtesy of Photorail.

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A magnificent image taken by Bernhard Studer at Sciacca station in 1976.
RALn 60.13 and a trailer leaving the station pass between two freight trains hauled by R 302.028 and 006. The tank wagons in the train on the right were needed to take water in the railway places (level crossings, little stations) where this precious element was not present.
Photo courtesy of Photorail.

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FCE RALn 64.02 and 01 leading a coach approach Randazzo station in 1997. Who can imagine that these modern railcars are a rebuilding of the spartan FS units?
Image by S. Paolini courtesy of Photorail.

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Ciao

[NorthWest]

Hope things are well with you, Benny, and thank you for these!

The larger front windscreens on the rebuilds make them look far more modern and like newer FCE cars.

[Benny]

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

[NorthWest]

Very nice looking cars!

[Benny]

Instead Fiat and OM outlined a common project, based on the same concepts that inspired the ALn 880s, but each firm developed its own version following their proper building philosophy.
In the two cases there was a 28 m long body (the longest ever diesel railcars in FS history) moved by an underfloor 355 kw 12 cylinders OM/Saurer SBD engine that powered the two axles of a bogie; the maximum speed was 130 km/h.

Fiat built 20 motors (ALn 990.1001-1020) and 5 trailers (Ln 990.1001-1005); every car had two double slam doors each side for passengers. The motors were equipped with a five speed mechanical gearbox through a double-disc clutch but it was quickly found that the mechanical transmission was working badly with continuous overheating and deformation of the discs due to the high power (for the first time it was needed to transmit 355 kw, the highest output for an Italian railcar) to move a very heavy mass (motor 50 t., motor and trailer 90 t.).
Various solutions were tried, as sintered clutch discs, metal dust couplings and even oil sprayed on the discs by the driver before the beginning of the journey. The best result came from an hydraulic coupling (ironically typical of the Breda technology) put between the clutch and the gearbox to give elasticity to the motion transmission, and all the Fiats were so modified.
Initially assigned to Turin (fast services to Milan, Bologna and Genoa), Treviso (few units for the Venice-Calalzo and Venice-Trieste lines), Rome (to Viterbo and Campobasso) and Palermo (directs between there, Catania, Siracusa, Agrigento and Trapani), from 1964 the entire class was concentrated in Sicily and the trailers were transformed in railcars to avoid surcharge the motors on the difficult lines of inner Sicily.
ALn 990.1000s took in charge the connections between the main towns of the island through the difficult inner lines but the coming of more modern railcars and problems due to overheating of engine and transmission (the problem of the clutch was never completely solved) made them being downgraded to local services and in the last years their use was mainly on the easier Palermo-Trapani line.
Because of the worsening troubles and the presence of asbestos, in the 80's the class was written off (the last ones in 1988) and now the only survivor is ALn 990.1005 that, after many years of negliction in Alcamo, has been recuperated by a group of sicilian railfans and wait for a future restoring.

A couple of Fiats arriving at Genoa Brignole station with a fast service from Turin approximately at mid-50s. At the time the fast trains between Piedmont and Liguria regions were made by diesel railcars to avoid the changes of loco due to the different kinds of wiring (DC and three-phase AC). Image from FS phototeque.

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ALn 990.1009 was shooted in 1976 by B. Studer running on the Palermo-Trapani line. Generally, trains started from Palermo with two railcars that divided at Alcamo; a car directly to Trapani and the other one evenly to Trapani but making the journey via Castelvetrano and Marsala. Image courtesy of Photorail.

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In one of its last services, ALn 990.1001 was caught marking the stop at Capaci station, east of Palermo, with a local train to Carini. Image by W. Hardmeier courtesy of Photorail.

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Ciao

[NorthWest]

Thanks!

[Benny]

At the same time OM built forty railcars (ALn 990.3001-3040) and ten driving trailers (Ln 990.3001-3010).
The most visible difference compared to the Fiat cousins was the presence of electro-pneumatically operated doors for passengers use, but the most important change was inside: instead of the troublesome mechanical transmission that demonstrated its limits in that range of power, OM installed an hydraulic gearbox with the double advantage of a smooth and elastic transmission and the elimination of the short traction breaks during the changes of speed.
Other differences were in the bogie and in the cooling system (using the same engine, OM units resulted much less prone to overheating than the Fiat ones). In general, the OMs resulted far more reliable than the Fiats.
Our railcars, when new, were assigned to Bologna ("rapido" to Bari and Venice-Trieste), Pisa (Lucca-Aulla and Florence-Pistoia-Viareggio) Pavia (Dolomites Arrow Milan-Calalzo, weekend express train Milan-Pre Saint Didier and many lines in Southern Lombardy) and Turin, where substituted the Fiat cousins.
As at the time the adriatic line south of Ancona was not yet wired, the rapidos (the fastest trains) Milan-Bari were composed of a rake of EMUs from Milan that in Bologna were coupled, with open passage between the two sections, to two or three ALn 990.3000. This "hybrid" ran until Ancona from where the sole railcars continued to Bari.
Also the 990s of the Dolomites Arrow and the EMUs of the Atesine Arrow (weekend fast service Milan-Merano) ran coupled and interconnected on the Milan-Verona stretch.
Because of the progress of wiring and the coming of new classes, from the second half of the 60s the OMs were concentrated at Pavia and Pisa depots.
The Pavia units, lost the train to Calalzo, maintained the weekend service to Pre Saint Didier and a Milan-Varallo Sesia, equally weekend only, that ALn 990.3000s done until the definitive abolition of these services. Depending of the years they were also used for a Mantova-Milan off peak direct. Apart the more "noble" trains, they were used on the corridor Pavia-Codogno-Cremona-Mantova and on the Pavia-Vercelli and Pavia-Alessandria lines, generally a motor and a driving trailer or two motors sandwiching a trailer.
The tuscanian ones instead became a peculiar view of the Lucca-Aulla line, that crosses the Garfagnana and Lunigiana territories. In these mountainous areas the railroad was well used (also because of the bad roads) and so the busiest trains were made with four cars, all motors (trailers were used only on the flat lines from Pavia).
Single railcars were conversely used on the Pisa-Collesalvetti-Vada and Cecina-Saline di Volterra.
For nearly twenty years the OMs routinely worked on their lines, appreciated by passengers for the comfort and capacity (a three cars train can offer 270 seats) and by the drivers that appreciated the good power permitting the regain of delays and the driving simpleness. But the fault of spare parts (in the last years there was
an incredibly intense movement of railcars between the two depots for exchange of parts and maintenance work) and the presence of asbestos condemned them. One unit (3023) was temptatively re-engined but remained alone.
During the second half of the 80's the class has been written off and a working unit that became part of the historic fleet but sadly it has been completely burnt in a fire few years later.

Ln 990.3008 was leading an unidentified motor when was caught running on the Milan "belt" in 1975. At the time they made a mid-morning fast train Mantova-Cremona-Codogno-Milan and returned to Cremona as a stopping train via Treviglio.
Image by B. Cividini courtesy of Photorail.

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Two couples motor+trailer were shooted in 1980 when crossing in Casalbuttano station. OM units can easily distinguished from the Fiat ones because of the electro-pneumatically operated doors and the metal letters OM on the front ends.
Image by C. Cerioli courtesy of Photorail.

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ALn 990.3010 was immortalized during one of its last services at Casino Di Terra, on the disgraced line Cecina-Saline di Volterra. This stretch is what remains after the cut of the rack and pinion section to the historical town of Volterra and always had a skeleton service. Today there are seven pairs a day but only four are made by train, and only if stock is available.
Image by L. Carnesecchi courtesy of Photorail.

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Ciao

[Benny]

In the second afterwar the Cosenza-Paola line, partly rack and pinion operated, saw an increase in passengers and FS, to avoid the complications of using steam traction on the rack section, ordered to Fiat this little class of six railcars classified as ALn 64.1001-1006, to help the older ALn 56.1900.
These units can be considered as a standard gauge version of the Sicilian RALn 60 with the same engines (the 700 beloved in New Zealand ) and transmission and, as the smaller sisters, had not multiple working nor passage between units; all the axles were powered and each bogie was equipped with a cog wheel that was used as emergency brake on the rack stretch. Delivered in 1955, they passed all the time shuttling between the two calabrian towns until the closure of the line, substituted by a new one electrified and in tunnel, in 1987.
The railcars were dumped for a while waiting for a possible tourist use of the scenic old railway but were then scrapped and no units were preserved.
It has to be noted that in the tunnel of the new line, in December 2017, derailed a train and it's still closed because of inquiry and checks.

The crossing of ALn 64.1005 & 1004 at Rende station in 1985. The design of these units was very anonymous, if not ugly, not helped by the depriment painting.
Image by W. Hardmeier courtesy of Photorail.

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ALn 64.1002 is leaving San Fili station in 1985. The white smoke shows a problem to the engines.
On the left the water crane for the purpose built class 981 steam locomotives.
Image by W. Hardmeier courtesy of Photorail.

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A magnificent shot taken in the long gone 1973. An ALn 64 and an ALn 56.1900 toiling on the slope with the Tirreno sea in the background; zooming on the track you can see the rack (strub system) in the middle.
Driving when different railcars were coupled was not easy because the gear ratios of the gearboxes were different and there was risk of "shake" during the changes of speed.
Image by B. Studer courtesy of Photorail.

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This was the last class painted in brown (castano and Isabella): next post something in better colors.
But... A little query. Apart NorthWest, is there somebody else interested in this thread?

Ciao

[NorthWest]

Thanks, Benny. Unfortunately the Worldwide Railfan forum has been dead for awhile. Other forums I chat on have been, too.