A few pictures from my time in Italy

[Vecchio]

I spent 11 years working in Italy and I used the FS almost every day - a shame I didn't make more pictures...

 

Carnate - Usmate, Ale 582, taken on 30.03.2008. The station is under refurbiushment, main work is done. The reason why I took photos in this station there is to look in detail at point motors and automatic track locks, as I was working on 2 Italian modules at this time. uups - wrong picture. now corrected.

 

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A class 245 shunter at the border station Tarviso Boscoverde .

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An Austrian goods train runs into the station, pulled by two 1116 - nickname Taurus. They roll into the station with the pantographs already down.

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The shunter is pushing the two locomotives back into direction Austria - the couplings are not closed and wen the shunter breaks the electric locomotives roll along to the end of the station where they wait for a signal to lift the pantograph and to go back to Austria. In the background we see already the Italian locomotive which will take over the goods train.

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Here the Italian class E 402 which will take the goods train. Why only one Italian engine? Well - the border is on a pass route. From now on it goes down in direction Udine, so no extra traction power is needed.

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Edited November 7, 2016 by Vecchio

[duff man]

Hi.

Lovely stuff even excellent.

If you have any more hidden away lets see them.

Have things gone quiet on the layout?.

Craig.

[jjb1970]

Great pics!! I find Italian railways are very under rated in many ways and especially for modellers it is a very modellable country extremely well served by quite a lot of model producers offering superb products. The E402a is one of my favourite locomotives, both the ACME and Rivarossi HO models are excellently done.

[Vecchio]

Hi.

Lovely stuff even excellent.

If you have any more hidden away lets see them.

Have things gone quiet on the layout?.

Craig.

 

Hi Craig,

Still didn't get the dummy point motors - therefore no work on the layout. Found a notice from the post in the door - will collect parcel tomorrow. 7 full days from Germany...

Was just wiring the next module while better half looks at Holby City... but I think this isn't worth taking pictures.

There are a few more pics - no fear.

Vecchio

Edited November 8, 2016 by Vecchio

[Vecchio]

Made a trip to Milan with my boy one Sunday morning to look for some trains.

First we found an E 444 outside the hall of Milano Centrale.

 

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Next to it was a Swiss Multisystem E 484

 

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We looked at that one a little bit more as I have one in H0 scale - from Piko - but modified with Sommerfeldt pantographs and added red lights as well as cab light. Also I made two of the pantographs moveable by memory wire. But this should be described in another thread

 

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Further in our stroll trough the station we found an E 632 in front of a regional trin with single decker coaches.

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Later we saw a ETR 470 Cisalpino built by Fiat Ferroviaria. This is one of the tilt technology trains - the Italians call them pendolino.

 

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Now a bit faster - a ETR 500 in AV livery (AV- alta velocita). These are dual current trains, working both on the old 3kV DC as well as on the new 25kV 50Hz system.

 

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And another ETR 500 - now in the Italian Eurostar livery.

 

 

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Edited November 8, 2016 by Vecchio

[Vecchio]

As said above all pictures are from my time living in Italy - but as Switzerland isn't far away I had sometimes a look over the border. I made a trip from Tirano to St. Moritz with the Bernina Express, so minimum the start of the journey was in Italy...

 

To give the reader a better idea I copied a rout map from the RhB website.

 

RHB map

 

As you can see the whole trip is not more than 61km, but you start at 429m above sea level and go up to 2253m and then back down to 1775m this means you climb 1824 metres or in local units 5984 feet. And this makes the trip spectacular.

 

The start is in Tirano, the station was not worth a picture. The train goes trough the town on tram like track, practically along the highstreet. I have no picture of that so I use a postcard instead.

tirano

 

At the edge of the town is also the Swiss border and the train follows the river Zalende. One of the first highlights comes after about 7km, as the valley is too steep the train needs to gain height by means of a spiral - which is done via a stone viaduct - the Brusio viaduact. The cows are used to the trains and do not pay attention to it.

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The viaduct - which is a modellers dream - is quite steep

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In the station of Brusio a train was waiting for our train to pass.

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After following the valley further up the line goes back to level and follows the shore of the lake Poschiavo

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The trainline is close to a road, and a bit further up also shares the road with the cars.

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This picture is not train related but it should show you that the meadows are full with flowers at the beginning of May.

 

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Edited November 13, 2016 by Vecchio

[Vecchio]

And a few more..

After leaving the glacier formed valey the train starts climbing again. As the terrain is quite steep this is done by almost hairpin like bends. To allow these bends some tunnels were necessary.

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A view back into the valley showing also lake Poschiavio.

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We can see that the vegetation starts changing - it is much colder up here.

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After a long climb we reach a plateau where we see the still partially frozen Lago Bianco - or white lake. As it is mid May I suppose it will be white most of the year...

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A switchgear in a rather rough environment. We are at the highest point, at the station Ospizio Bernina.

 

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Going down into direction St. Moritz a quite powerful waterfall comes into sight.

 

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Views out of the train window are breath taking.

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Finally we reach the end of todays journey, St. Moritz

 

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[Mike at C&M]

The Bernina is one of the lesser known journeys in Switzerland, as people look to do the major routes. But in my opinion, it is one of the most spectacular, with impressive scenery and engineering the whole way.

 

From memory, the drop from Lago Bernina to Tirano is over a mile in altitude, with a ruling gradient of 1 in 14, and adhesion worked. Definitely a trip to remember.

[scouser999]

I too cannot speak highly enough about the Bernina route.

The scenery is truly breathtaking. I could not put my camera down.

Thanks for posting

 

Steve

[RhBBob]

I would like to put in a 'vote' for Tirano station as we did the Bernina from Chur to Tirano in 2014. A very lovely experience.

 

Then again, our local station here in Boston, on the withered arm of the former GN route, is obscured by weeds so maybe I see anywhere else as beautiful 

 

Thanks for the photos 

[Vecchio]

After a relaxing evening and some pricy food in one of the restaurants a new day has started. As we had some time before our train leaves again we explored the place.

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There are several small hydroelectric power stations, I am sure some of them have been built to provide power to the train. At the end of the St. Moritz lake water is collected for one of them.

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At the station of St. Moritz I had a stroll around to see if there is anything interesting. First I found a shunter - most other RhB locomotives are red - this one is orange.

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Whatever photo you take - there is always the lovely background of the alps (if you are lucky with the weather...). Some passenger stock connected to the electricity for pre-heating.

 

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Some shunting takes place.

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These Swiss guys are strong.

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All prepared, time to get on the train again.

 

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Edited November 14, 2016 by Vecchio

[Mike at C&M]

Couldn't resist this photograph which is taken a couple of kilometres outside St.Moritz, on the line to Samedan. This is what the Cresta run looks like from the train...... in summer.

 

[backofanenvelope]

Thanks for the great pics Vecchio. I have a question probably a dumb one; in the fourth and fifth pictures with the Taurus rolling in, why are the rolling are they not getting power for braking with pantos up?

[Mike at C&M]

backofanenvelope,

   I can answer this one for you. The station at Tarvisio Boscaverde is where the 15kV a.c. of the Austrian railway system meets the Italian voltage - which I believe is 3kV d.c, even though this is one of the recently built high speed lines.

 

  The Austrian 1116s are not fitted for 3kV d.c, and so must NOT draw current from the overhead wires when under these wires. As luck would have it, the junction between the voltages is indicated by the various signs within the overhead on the third picture.

 

  As the train approaches this junction between the voltages, the pantographs are dropped. There is sufficient power in the batteries to power the brakes to bring the train to a halt. The batteries are then recharged once the 1116s are back under Austrian wires.

 

  This is a standard procedure across much of Europe where differing voltages meet at a border station. The following photo shows a similar scenario at Venlo, where the Dutch 1500V d.c. meets the 15kV of German railways. The German 110 is under the 15kV and is backing on to its' train under power, the Dutch locos are being pushed back to the other end of the station where they raise their pantographs under the d.c. voltage.

 

[backofanenvelope]

Thanks 87029 for the info no it makes sense. All I was thinking was when one turns off the key in the car things get a bit hairy

[Fat Controller]

Thanks 87029 for the info no it makes sense. All I was thinking was when one turns off the key in the car things get a bit hairy

The joys of power-steering and servo-assisted brakes.

[The Stationmaster]

This is maybe why it is called the 'White Lake' - the water is very pale under sunlight (when there actually is any water - which might also explain the name as at times the lake virtually dries up)

 

 

 

[Mike at C&M]

This is maybe why it is called the 'White Lake' - the water is very pale under sunlight (when there actually is any water - which might also explain the name as at times the lake virtually dries up)

 

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There are two lakes at the top of the Bernina Pass, Lago Bianco (the 'White Lake', as discussed), and Lago Nero/Lej Nair - the 'Black Lake'. The two are shown to the left of this screenshot taken from Google Earth, no adjustment has been made to the colouring, they really do differ in colour that much.

 

Lago Bianco drains to the south, via a dam. The water from here ends up in the river Po and then the Adriatic Sea.

Lago Nero drains to the north, into the River Inn, then the Danube and ultimately the Black Sea.

 

I would like to put forward an alternative theory as to why Lago Bianco is white, and that is the amount of ice that there is in it. I visited Ozpizio Bernina in July, and the lake was still full of ice even in high summer.

  The blackness of Lago Nero could be due to a number of reasons - shallower lake which thaws more quickly, and possibly sitting in a peaty landscape which will retain heat and give it a darker colour.

 

[Vecchio]

I suppose the colour of the white lake comes from the glacier sediments. As glaciers are constantly crumbling or even rather milling the stones they lay on - the water gets white from the sediments. Especially if you have softer stones like limestone in the area. The Austrians call such a stream which is almost white "Gletschermilch" which means glaciers milk. There is also a cocktail available carrying the same name  

 

Well I can assure there is no alcohol in the white water - I have tested it...

[hayfield]

The past 2 years we have holidayed in Italy using trains, mostly so relaxing as we spent 2 days on each journey, both times travelling back through Switzerland staying at Mullhouse. Last year we also travelled on the Bernina Express, what a journey, would love to do it again when the snow is still about 

[brushman47544]

Great to see photos of trains in Italy. Compared to other European countries Italy does not seen to be as popular for some reason. Having said that my wife is Italian and we visit regularly, yet I take very few photos of trains... I must do better :-)

[Vecchio]

Time to go down again. We had to wait at Pontresina for a train from direction Chur. The tracks that are forming a huge track triangle near Pontresina go parallel for a long time.

 

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now we are climbing back up to the white lake.

 

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The snow moves back and flowers - in this case small pale crocus - pop out immediately. The summer is short at that sea level, if nature wants to survive it has to hurry.

 

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On the plain near the lake the ski season is still on. We have May 17th...

 

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The station Bernina Diavolezza gives direct access to the cable car.

 

On we go - the signal shows attention - so probably we will have to stop soon.

 

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Actually it was the signal before the station Bernina Hospitz, which we see in the back of the next picture. Today the white lake looks quite turquoise,.

 

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Now we are entering the slope where the train goes down in hairpin bends.

 

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A lot of bridges and viaducts make this possible.

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Turning into an avalanche protection.

 

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And another viaduct

 

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We see a bridge quite a bit below us

 

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And after a minute or so we are entering this bridge

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Just to see it from the next terrace-now high above us.

 

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Here we see how the train shares the road on the way trough Boschiavo.

 

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Back again along the lake Poschiavo

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Close to Brusio, the slope is held by a stone wall.

 

 

 

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The town of Brusio and below the spiral viaduct. You can see that there was a massive landslide the winter before, and a team of builders is still working on the repair of the line.

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And another view of the spiral viaduct

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And down we go.

 

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Finally we are back in Italy, at Tirano, where the whole journey started. I hope you enjoyed the trip.

 

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Edited November 15, 2016 by Vecchio

[Allegheny1600]

Thank you!

I certainly did enjoy the trip, it's lovely.

I can see why so many fall in love with and model this line - I'll have to stay away else I may do the same!

Cheers,

John.

[Vecchio]

Well - there is no excuse to make such a model - you find models at BEMO in their H0m (or H0 - I don't like that as is not a model if the track width is wrong) range but also in bigger scales like G (LGB) ...of course there is an excuse - the cost...   

Vecchio

[backofanenvelope]

There's also the Kato N range though not scale sized.