There is a prototype for everything... (Worldwide Rail)

[Socimi]

Nothing excepitonal here, an italian experimental locomotive undergoing evaluation tests and trial runs... in Hungary!

 

http://gigantclub.hu/gigant_club/pic/it/electric/E492/121-12.JPG

 

from http://www2.chem.elte.hu/gigant_club/pic/New/New_2002_3_1/index_hu.html

 

In the 1980's the italian national railways (FS) decided to electrify the main line between Sassari and Cagliari, Sardinia's (one of italy's two main island - the other is Sicily) biggest cities. Unlike the mainland network (wich runs at 3Kv DC), the electrification system choosen for this line was 25Kv AC 50Hz, in order to experiment a new type of electrification already successfully implemented by many other european countries (the prime examples for the sardinian project were France and Portugal).

 

The new locomotives were to be based on FS' lastest locomotives, the E632 class, altough using a standard B-B wheel arrangment rather than the E632's B-B-B one.

They were built by Fiat Ferroviaria and Ansaldo, and by 1987, 19 locomotives designated E491 (for 160Km/h passenger service) and 5 E492 (for 140Km/h freight service) were made.

 

While the construction of the locomotives (thanks to a modular design and use of already in-production components) was extremely fast (they were finished ahead of time by a couple of years), the construction of the infrastructure proceeded very slowly.

 

Funding problems, shifted company focus (on the 2nd generation Pendolino and ETR500 projects) and a general distrust of an unporved tecnology (atleast by italian standards) determinated the slow advancement of the project, but it was ultimately killed when a fatal flaw fas found: the armonic interferences of the 25Kv alimentation interfered with the railway signalling and comunications, to the point that re-doing all the island's interloking, communication and sigialling systems was deemed necessary for the (already expensive and overbudget) project to proceed.

 

The project was cancelled, thus no more 25Kv AC, but you can't simply throw away 25 prefectly working locomotives, so in the mid to late 1990s FS rushed to find new buyers. The SNCF was contacted but they refused as they were alreading rolling out their "Sybic" class BB26000.

 

A ray of hope came from Hungary, where they could have been used on express passenger trains (due to their 160Km/h max speed), and in 2001, E491 004 was shipped to Hungary along with one of the original designers at Ansaldo (and an Hungarian interpreter).

It was used on the 902/903 rapid trains togheter with a back-up V43.

Altough appreciated by Hungarian drivers (due to it's quiet sound-proofed and comfortable cab), it suffered quite a few issues, due to a long outdoor storage time,

the obsolescence of the components used for traction control (mind, these locomotives where designed with a full-wave rectifier+thrystor chopper controlling a brushed  DC motor, wich was standard in the mid-1980s, but by 2000s the GTO and later IGBT Inverters controlling AC motors were already commonplace), thus the deal ultimately fell trough and E491 004 was shipped back to italy.

 

In 2007 the Serbian Railways showed interest, but ultimately refused, as the locomotives were sitting 15 years out in the open (with some clearly rusting away) by then.

 

Finally, starting in 2012 they were sent to the scrapyard and disposed by 2016.
 One locomotive only, E491 011, has been saved and restored by Fondazione FS and it's now being preserved semi-static (it can circulate on the national network, but of course it has to be hauled by an another locomotive).

 

Trivia:

 

- Unit 004 was the choosen to be sent to Hungary (and prepared/maintained accordignly) because it was the easiest one  to move out of the sidings where the group was stationed (as it was the closest one to the exit).

 

- The 902/903 rapid trains hauled by the E491 004 were the first and only regular service trains hauled by an E491/492 class loco.

 

-An another usage proposed for the E491/E492 class was to run high-speed freight trains on (then being-built) high-speed lines.

 

- One of the problems encountered by hungarian drivers familiarizing with E491 004 was with it's brake notches: in hungarian practice, the closest position to the driver of the brake lever is emergency while the farthest position is relase. In italian practice this is reversed, the closest position to the driver is relase while the farthest is emergency.

 

-The other problem was with the accellerator(s), as since the inception of the E632 project back in 1977, italian locomotives have two distinct accellerator levers:

 

 

The one to the left of the driver's seat is the LCM, wich is  a combined dynamic brake/accellerator (it controls the locomotive's output in Kilowatts) and the one to the right is the LCA wich is the one normally used, controlling the speed of the locomotive (togheter with the LV, wich is a speed limiter, similar to the german AFB).

The LINV is the reverser lever.

Of course, you don't use both accellerators, one of the two must be in the neutral position, if not the locomotive's system reads them as both neutral.

 

Links

 

Italian-language reportage of the Hungarian test runs (includes detailed wiews of the cab and electrical circuit diagrams)

 

Image gallery of the units stored at Foligono and Livorno depots

 

Hungarian report about E491 004 being displayed at a Budapest railway station togheter with an UIC-X coach in"TrenoNotte" (Night Train) colors

Edited November 22, 2018 by cteno4
added cab image

[railsquid]

An EMD diesel pulling DB Silberlinge in mixed Regio liveries, while discarded settrack litters the sides of the embankment;

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RAI_40-12_Sepid_Dasht_1.jpg

[Suica]

1 hour ago, railsquid said:

An EMD diesel pulling DB Silberlinge in mixed Regio liveries, while discarded settrack litters the sides of the embankment;

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RAI_40-12_Sepid_Dasht_1.jpg

Quite amazing scenery though.

And still looking better than anything going on with ex. DB coaches in current-day Albania

 

Trigger warning! Disturbing images

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:02.10.13_Vorë_T669.1057_(10101257713).jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Inside_a_train_in_albania._Line_from_Vora_to_Shodra.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:67_HSH_Tirana.JPG

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Railway_coaches_of_Albania#/media/File:67_HSH_Tirana_Interieur.JPG

 

Keep in mind that Albania received those coaches AFTER the war.

 

Albania makes for a cool budget layout theme though. Just buy a bunch of old DB, ÖBB or FS junk coaches that fell off people's layouts and you're good to go.

Edited January 31, 2019 by Suica

[Yavianice]

In the category of TGV/ICE, here is the Eurotrain. TGV Duplex cars with ICE powercars in 1998

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eurotrain_München_Laim.jpg#/media/File:Eurotrain_München_Laim.jpg

 

AVE RENFE series 100 with two different power cars

 

 

And for railjet (the fastest loco pulled trains in the world) lovers, here is a compilation video of the CD Railjet running together with a CD local train:

 

 

And here the OeBB Railjet coupled together with regional, long distance Oebb cars, and even with car transportation wagons.

 

 

[Socimi]

Okay, your high-speed train can be as short as you want... but atleast, make it double ended!

 

 

 

1989 RaiUno newsreel about the test runs of the ETR X500 (the prototype of the ETR500 family of high-speed trainsets) on the Roma-Firenze "direttissima" high-speed line, opened in 1977.

In one of these test runs, on the 25th of May, it achieved the world speed record under 3Kv DC catenary, at 317 Km/h.

Eventually, in february 1990, two similar experimental trains were introduced: the ETR Y500s; these had a more realistic compostition of 10 units (2 power cars plus 8 trailers) as they were intended to carry passengers on the first commercial trial runs (unlike the ETR X500 wich was a strict testing-only train).

The two-car ETR X500 was used in various test runs until 1994. It has been preserved and it's now awaiting restoration.

Edited February 19, 2019 by Socimi

[Yavianice]

7 minutes ago, Socimi said:

Okay, your high-speed train can be as short as you want... but atleast, make it double ended!

1989 RaiUno newsreel about the test runs of the ETR X500 (the prototype of the ETR500 family of high-speed trainsets) on the Roma-Firenze "direttissima" high-speed line, opened in 1977.

In one of these test runs, on the 25th of May, it achieved the world speed record under 3Kv DC catenary, at 317 Km/h.

Eventually, in february 1990, two similar experimental trains were introduced: the ETR Y500s; these had a more realistic compostition of 10 units (2 power cars plus 8 trailers) as they were intended to carry passengers on the first commercial trial runs (unlike the ETR X500 wich was a strict testing-only train).

The two-car ETR X500 was used in various test runs until 1994. It has been preserved and it's now awaiting restoration.

 

Looks like the coupler broke and they shrugged, and just went with it.

[Densha]

Yes, Combino trams are all manufactured by Siemens, but that doesn't mean you can run the Amsterdam, Düsseldorf and Hiroshima versions together on your layout.

 

http://www.lrta.org/mag/articles/art0206.html

[Suica]

21 hours ago, Densha said:

Yes, Combino trams are all manufactured by Siemens, but that doesn't mean you can run the Amsterdam, Düsseldorf and Hiroshima versions together on your layout.

 

http://www.lrta.org/mag/articles/art0206.html

If only someone would make all those models.

[Yavianice]

 

A composition you don't see every day, an SBB ICN RABDe 500 connected with a BR 612 DB Regional diesel train (an inspection set).

 

 

And a defective ICE3M being hauled by a dutch VIRM set.

Edited September 4, 2019 by Yavianice

[railsquid]

Got a Dosto on the truck which is too high to go under a bridge? Simply lay some rails on the road under the bridge.

 

 

 

[GDorsett]

Only have one locomotive for a Train Set? Missing some of the couplers shrouds on the front?

Don't worry about it!

 

 

[Yavianice]

"Where are we gonna put the locomotive? Oh, in the middle is fine."

 

 

"Oh no! Our regional train is too short! And all the normal cars are in use! Lets just hook up some intercity cabin cars after the locomotive. Nobody will notice!"

 

 

 

[railsquid]

Short of space on your North American layout but want to squeeze an extra house in? No problem.

 

 

[Socimi]

TGV in Poland? No problem.

 

 

[disturbman]

Demonstration tour for when Poland was looking at building a HSR or HerSR network?

[disturbman]

1 hour ago, disturbman said:

Demonstration tour for when Poland was looking at building a HSR or HerSR network?

Found a source, tour for the 150 years of rail transport in Poland in 1992.

https://docrail.fr/les-escapades-des-tgv-a-letranger/

Lots of nice pictures and texts. Some unexpected formations, like the TGV 325 pulled by a 475 steam locomotive of the CSD.

Edited December 3, 2020 by disturbman

[railsquid]

A different take on "truck hits underside of railway bridge":

 

 

[cteno4]

Omg! That’s just not right! The slow motion of it all, the horror, the horror...

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

Efficient way to remove roofs from multiple cars 🙂

 

[roadstar_na6]

Reminds me of this 🙂

[GDorsett]

3 hours ago, roadstar_na6 said:

Reminds me of this 🙂

There's a video of that bridge being raised and someone in the comment sections just said that they'd bring bigger trucks.

That guy in the comment section was right. They brought bigger trucks.

[Kiha66]

No real railroad would use a selector plate to move trains between tracks, that's only found in OO shelf layouts!

 

 

[Yavianice]

Did you:

- lose your second ICE 1 motorcar and most of the cars?

- drop your ICE head first and did the nose piece go missing?

- accidentally melt a bogie and kitbashed another ill fitting bogie on one of the cars?

 

no problem!

 

 

[katoftw]

It is running on a wheel dolly. Much have had an issue with the wheels.

 

https://images.app.goo.gl/aKCvtnMy7vamP1bS9

 

 

Edited January 17, 2021 by katoftw

[katoftw]

17 minutes ago, Yavianice said:

Did you:
- lose your second ICE 1 motorcar and most of the cars?

- drop your ICE head first and did the nose piece go missing?

- accidentally melt a bogie and kitbashed another ill fitting bogie on one of the cars?

Glad i am not the only one.