Italian motors

Benny wrote:In general, stations on the border with Switzerland and Austria (that use this monophasic 15,000 V) have each end electrified with a kind of current and a neutral central stretch. Trains arrive pantographs down. In Domodossola track #1 is convertible to one or the other current.

Ciao

You have to admit that Brnny is knowledgeable about the Italian railways, knowing about track 1 in Domodossola, which presumably not his home town.

Italian steam Treno a vapore Cassino Avezzano / Liri valley steam train 2015
abruzzonascosto

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKTm9J0-eXU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In the second half of the 70s the evolution in power electronics made possible the drawing of a completely new project.
FS was in need of substitute the older classes and at the same time increasing power and speed, and the answer has been classes E 632/633. These locomotives, differing between them only in gearing, have three two axle trucks under a rigid body, each truck being driven by a single motor, feeded through a chopper column; during electric braking the generated energy is dissipated by a rheostat on the roof. Turning of the truck is not given by a central hub but by deformation of four spiral springs that guarantee the return to the right position too. The hourly rating is 4700 kW, approx. the same of an E 656 but far more exploitable because of the fault of motors combination and the extremely fine power regulation, and maximum speed is 160 km/h for the E 632 and 130 km/h for the freight version E 633 (100 and 81mph).
Around 1980 industry provided five prototypes that were extensively tested and showed various defects but before these were solved series production was ordered. This implied that the so called "tigers" had a very low reliability and needed some years to become good machines. Finally, after various changes of components, the two classes became useful for service and in total were produced 66 E 632 and 151 E 633, the last series of the latters with multiple working device. When in service, the passenger units were mainly used for express or direct trains (I remember a ride at 160 km/h on the Turin-Milan line) also in push-pull mode, but the freight ones, being alike equipped for push-pull service, were mostly dedicated to commuters traffic.
It had to wait until the rolling stock division between the FS sectors to see E 633s at the head of freight trains.
For many years tigers worked hard but now, after new regulations about one man driving and doors opening, class E 632 has been stopped; class E 633 is still soldiering on but, with the enormous crisis of the FS freight sector, they became uneconomic so general overhauls were suspended and, at the end of mileage, locomotives are dumped.

E 632.051 pushing a direct Milan-Verona service made by rake of MDVE coaches through Sommacampagna station on February 1997. Photo by S. Paolini courtesy of Photorail A freight from the austrian border to Turin at the hook of E 633.234 has been shooted near Castelfranco Veneto on June 22, 2016. A clean loco is now very rare. Photo by M. Cantini

Ciao

"Turning of the truck is not given by a central hub but by deformation of four spiral springs that guarantee the return to the right position too".
Interesting , I think I have seen photos of this system . Am I right that the only form of mounting the trucks is the four springs. I.e there is no central hub , and no other locating attachment. It relies on a springs tendency to return to its central position. killing 2 birds with one stone, presuming the springs also provide suspension.

Very informative post, Benny. Grazie. Bravo. Some time you might tell us more about "the enormous crisis of the FS freight sector." Also, does "new regulations about one man driving and doors opening" mean that there is only one employee on some passenger trains?
Ciao Benny.

Benny wrote:For many years tigers worked hard but now, after new regulations about one man driving and doors opening, class E 632 has been stopped; class E 633 is still soldiering on but, with the enormous crisis of the FS freight sector, they became uneconomic so general overhauls were suspended and, at the end of mileage, locomotives are dumped.

Sad to see. This had been rumored to be going on for a while; thank you for the confirmation.
The dumping of carload freight seems to have done terrible things.

"The dumping of carload freight seems to have done terrible things." LCL only freight in Italy?

LCL used to be Americanese for "Less than Carload Lot," but looking for it on Wiki now, all I find is "Less than Container Lot".

A better term is probably loose-car freight, which FS stopped in 2012 (I think). Elsewhere in Europe similar things are happening, with Germany still maintaining full support.

Trenitalia may have stopped Carload freight (as opposed to Trainload or Unit trains), but DB Cargo and SBB Cargo both offer Carload service to limited areas of Northern Italy.

philipmartin wrote:Very informative post, Benny. Grazie. Bravo. Some time you might tell us more about "the enormous crisis of the FS freight sector." Also, does "new regulations about one man driving and doors opening" mean that there is only one employee on some passenger trains?
Ciao Benny.

Reasons for the FS freight sector crisis are various: low productivity of personnel, excessive costs charged to clients for low level services, bad use of rolling stock, bad management... but fundamentally I think there is the political will (strongly supported by rubber tyred lobbies) of destroying the railway system, that is seen as problem and not as a solution.
Evidence of it is that, when private operators have not been hampered by the infrastructure manager (from FS area), generally freight returned to the rail.

About new regulations, now the majority of trains have only one driver and often no guard but to do this, in passenger sector, the National Railway Safety Agency (ANSF, Agenzia Nazionale per la Sicurezza Ferroviaria) imposed various obligations, between them the way to pass from the driving cabs to accommodation, intercom between passengers and driver,
mirrors on the sides of the cabs, emergency brake overriding... it was uneconomic or impossible to fit older locomotives so they were dumped, also in the light of the strong number of E 464s, bought partly because of the Bombardier menace of closing the Italian plant and dismiss workers.

Ciao

What you folks are telling us about the ferrovie is certainly drepressing.

After lots and lots of changes, finally E 632/633 became reliable locomotives but, thinking in an increase of power, project managers preferred redesign the electric and electronic parts mantaining the same body and mechanical parts.
Because of this, at the end of the 80s, born E 652 class, the last six axle locomotives built for Italian railways. The so called "big tigers" are universal locos with an hourly rating of 5600 kW and a max. speed of 160 km/h (100 mph) that resulted good machines from the beginning and became useful on mountaneous lines (it's not a case if the first depot to have them has been Bussoleno for the Frejus line).
After sectorization of rolling stock, the entire class has been assigned to the freight division and is being regeared lowering speed to 120 km/h (75 mph) with the aim of reducing current absorption and have a better tractive effort.
The class is still on use and very appreciated by drivers, being far better than four axle locomotives to start heavy trains.

An unidentified E 652 pulling an Eurocity train at Dolce', on the Brennero line on July 12, 1997. Photo by S. Paolini courtesy of Photorail E 652.027+124 double heading an heavy coils train climbing the Giovi line from Genoa to the north on July 9, 2016. Photo by M. Cantini Ciao

Here's a Wiki description of the Brenner Pass between Austria and Italy.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenner_Pass" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I get so much pleasure being able to travel to these places vicariously. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us, Benny.

As Chiasso was discussed earlier in the thread, here's a DVD I purchased which covers operations at this location as trains move between Italy and Switzerland. The program is quite fascinating as we see a mix of passenger and freight activity...highly recommended.

http://www.tee-usa.com/store/product3656.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

All the best,
Bob

NorthWest wrote: The dumping of carload freight seems to have done terrible things.

According to Fred Frailey in the September 2016 "Trains" magazine, concerning North America "the carload business in general continues to slowly erode." Here's a link to his article: http://cs.trains.com/trn/b/fred-frailey ... rlman.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;