In 1928 Ferrovie dello Stato (FS), the italian manager of the state railways, began testing the 3000 v DC wiring and, due to the excellent results against the previous three-phase and third rail DC systems, it became the standard for new electrifications.
This gave way to a development in the field of self propelled vehicles but, contrary to what happened in the endothermic railcars, the so-called "electric light vehicles" born primarily for fast and high level services and then was understood their usefulness in minor ones.
Firstly I want to explain the three kinds of vehicles to which I will refer.
The electric railcars are motor bidirectional vehicles that can be used singly or coupled with similar ones or with trailers, driving or not.
The Electric Multiple Units, EMUs, instead are complexes of two or more vehicles, motor or not, that can be separated but cannot be used singly because of not being bidirectional or because of the fault of some components.
Between these two categories there is a third one: the articulated railcars that are single bidirectional vehicles but composed of various bodies that cannot be normally separated, often use Jakobs bogies and have the power equipment divided along the vehicle.
The articulated railcars were a typical Italian specialty and the electric ones were named ElettroTreno Rapido (ETR) that typified a fast, aerodynamic, modern and comfortable vehicle.
This name remains on use still today, sometimes not properly used as we will see in the next chapters.
The classifying system of the ETRs is simply based on a three digits class number in which the last one or two indicate the unit number, e.g. ETR 212 was unit 12 of ETR 200 class. There is not a connection with the vehicle characteristics.
Numbering of electric railcars, trailers and EMUs instead is always preceded by the initials ALe (that means Automotrice Leggera elettrica or light electric railcar) if a motor or Le (Leggero elettrico, light electric) if a trailer. The capital letter R that meant rimorchio, trailer was quickly eliminated to avoid confusion with the narrow gauge FS stock equally prefixed R.
After these letters there are six numbers: nnn.nnn; the first two digits are the number of seats of the unit and the third a progressive number for different models with the same number of seats. These three numbers represent the class: e.g. class ALe 883 is a 88 seats railcar and is the third class with the same number of seats.
the three figures after the point are the progressive number of the unit inside the class. E.g. ALe 540.005 is a 54 seats railcar and it's a the fifth unit of its class.
Sometimes the fourth digit has been used to differentiate between different subclasses: e.g. Le 803.102 is an intermediate trailer, instead Le 803.015 is a driving trailer.
As a curiosity the number 880 has been used by FS for four different classes: steam locomotives 880, diesel railcars ALn 880, the relative trailers Ln 880 and electric railcars ALe 880; and this is not the sole case. This is why, speaking about FS stock, its necessary specify the complete class digits.
OK, that's all, folks, in a short time the next chapter.
Ciao
This gave way to a development in the field of self propelled vehicles but, contrary to what happened in the endothermic railcars, the so-called "electric light vehicles" born primarily for fast and high level services and then was understood their usefulness in minor ones.
Firstly I want to explain the three kinds of vehicles to which I will refer.
The electric railcars are motor bidirectional vehicles that can be used singly or coupled with similar ones or with trailers, driving or not.
The Electric Multiple Units, EMUs, instead are complexes of two or more vehicles, motor or not, that can be separated but cannot be used singly because of not being bidirectional or because of the fault of some components.
Between these two categories there is a third one: the articulated railcars that are single bidirectional vehicles but composed of various bodies that cannot be normally separated, often use Jakobs bogies and have the power equipment divided along the vehicle.
The articulated railcars were a typical Italian specialty and the electric ones were named ElettroTreno Rapido (ETR) that typified a fast, aerodynamic, modern and comfortable vehicle.
This name remains on use still today, sometimes not properly used as we will see in the next chapters.
The classifying system of the ETRs is simply based on a three digits class number in which the last one or two indicate the unit number, e.g. ETR 212 was unit 12 of ETR 200 class. There is not a connection with the vehicle characteristics.
Numbering of electric railcars, trailers and EMUs instead is always preceded by the initials ALe (that means Automotrice Leggera elettrica or light electric railcar) if a motor or Le (Leggero elettrico, light electric) if a trailer. The capital letter R that meant rimorchio, trailer was quickly eliminated to avoid confusion with the narrow gauge FS stock equally prefixed R.
After these letters there are six numbers: nnn.nnn; the first two digits are the number of seats of the unit and the third a progressive number for different models with the same number of seats. These three numbers represent the class: e.g. class ALe 883 is a 88 seats railcar and is the third class with the same number of seats.
the three figures after the point are the progressive number of the unit inside the class. E.g. ALe 540.005 is a 54 seats railcar and it's a the fifth unit of its class.
Sometimes the fourth digit has been used to differentiate between different subclasses: e.g. Le 803.102 is an intermediate trailer, instead Le 803.015 is a driving trailer.
As a curiosity the number 880 has been used by FS for four different classes: steam locomotives 880, diesel railcars ALn 880, the relative trailers Ln 880 and electric railcars ALe 880; and this is not the sole case. This is why, speaking about FS stock, its necessary specify the complete class digits.
OK, that's all, folks, in a short time the next chapter.
Ciao
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