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The italian way


DAtrains

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Hello everyone!

I read the forum recently and first of all I would like to congratulate all of you for the excellent work that I saw.

I saw so many differences from my home country... Being italian, I like italian trains first, but I've spent more than one year in London and Hastings, enough to appreciate British stuff, slam-doors EMUs especially.

 

Until I'll find the time to build up a british based layout (still working on the idea), I thought you might be inetrested on my first fully functionally layout, based on the ligurian riviera, northern Italy (been on Model Rail n?°115).

 

litoranea_50.jpg

 

More pictures and other stuff on my website http://datrains.eu

 

Will continue to read. Best regards!

Silvio, Milan, Italy

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Welcome Silvio!

 

I've always had a soft spot for those older Italian electrics ever since I was a kid and a friend of my father had a load of Rivarossi stuff.

 

I haven't much time to look in detail at the moment, but I'll keep an eye on this one smile.gif

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Yes indeed, welcome aboard smile.gif

 

I am very impressed with the pictures I have seen so far, they capture the atmosphere in such detail. Do you have any further information on your layout, and stock? A track plan would also be great.

 

Thanks for sharing!

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Welcome, Silvio! As one who has travelled extensively on Italian railways and spent many happy hours waiting for and watching the trains, it was a revelation to see your website, the EB700 and some of your buildings look really good :icon_thumbsup2: I haven't seen many models of Italian railways before and hadn't really thought about modelling them. Just as well, really, as I have far too many other projects at the moment but, having seen yours, it will be difficult to resist :blink:

 

Nick

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I've been waiting for you to post since I saw your pics in recent uploads section. I love your layout, the lines threading along the steep coast works really well and captures the feel of photos I have seen of the real thing. It also makes for a convincing reason for a long thin layout! I notice that there are two levels of track, I look foward to more pics and/or a trackplan so I can piece it all together!

 

Edit: I've just been to your site as well. The photo of the railcar on the main page, I thought it was a photo of the real thing for quite a while and it took me a minute of two of examination to work out it was a model! I suggest every interest do look at the site, otherwise you will miss stuff like this

http://datrains.eu/o...tecniche_07.jpg

Also I was suprised at how big the layout was, with rising and falling tracks everywhere! But what is that Virgin Thunderbird doing?

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Yes, welcome. I very much enjoyed your layout in Model Rail. I became obliquely interested in Italian railways when researching ferry traffic through Harwich; I was lucky enough to get in touch with a very knowledgeable enthusiast ansd he sent me enough information to produce these:

 

itrake_zps7994b72b.jpg

 

There's some fascinating Italian stock and I barely scratched the surface. Some nice kits available too, but they're a bit pricey.

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A beautiful model of a beautiful part of the world. Had a pleasant few days there some years ago. Although the Ligurian Coast line is an important strategic link between Marseille and Genova, large parts were built as single line, though most (all) has been double tracked in recent times. Sadly, this means that much of the line- certainly that through the Cinque Terre- is in tunnel or covered gallery. One of the best ways to see the trains is to catch one of the tourist boats that ply the coast.

The easternmost of the Cinque Terre has a curious monorail, used to take supplies from the road beyond the station to the vineyards, which are some of the most precipitous I've ever seen.

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Welcome, Silvio - and from what I could see from your images you did a great job on this layout! :icon_thumbsup2: Makes me wish for a trip down to the Ligurian coast!

 

One question, if you permit: Looking at this image from your gallery, the catenary mast looks a bit like the kind originally used on the old three-phase network which existed around Genoa and in the hinterland - or am I mistaken?

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Hello!

Thank you very much for the warm welcome!

 

You can find more photos (and track plan) of the "riviera layout" here: http://www.datrains.eu/album/photo_04.htm

The layout is inspired by the old railway line running in northern Italy between Savona and Ventimiglia (next to the french border), just after the conversion to 3.000 V CC electrification (instead of three-phase) as evidenced by some old masts. And quite before Italian Railways decided to double the line and put it into tunnels... So my "ideal" period is 1975 to 1990.

 

By the way I'm working on a new bigger layout, still based on the Ligurian coast line but far to be finished: http://www.youtube.com/beetrains#p/search/0/b_nOPkK_vG8

Well, actually the class 57 Virgin has nothing to do leading an italian Intercity train, but it was just a test :)

More info here: http://www.datrains.eu/omwb/archive/20070606.htm and in the index page of OnMyWorkbench section.

 

Thanks again to everyone!

Bye!

Silvio

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  • 3 months later...
  • 1 year later...

Hello everyone!

I've added few more photos of my Riviera Layout in the gallery

Hope you enjoy! I also added some pictures of an EMU from "Ferrovie Nord Milano", private railway that operates in Northern Italy, entirely self-made in two-component resin. Hope you enjoy it too.

 

Greetings from Milan,

Silvio (more photos on My Blog) @datrains

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Hi Silvio, I saw your images in the Gallery strip at the top of the home page and though "Ooh, some interesting prototype stuff". How wrong I was, in the nicest possible way. They're absolutely superb but this one really does it for me - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/33210-img-1183/

 

Given the quality of these images have you ever tried any image-stacking? I have a feeling your work would suit it really well.

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Welcome, Silvio

 

Your layout and pics are superb!

 

It's great seeing an Italian layout of such high quality. I take my holidays in Italia almost every year, usually Lago di Garda, a beautiful area.

 

I try to take pics whenever I can. Here are a couple of pics.

 

First on old electric loco, at Trento

 

post-7898-0-19332900-1321007492.jpg

 

Next my favourite small diesel at Lago di Garda

 

post-7898-0-19594500-1321007586.jpg

 

A few years ago I bought a Roco version of this diesel and built a small layout.

 

Please keep the pics coming.

 

regards,

 

Mal

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Many thanks to everyone! I'll keep on posting photos...

 

@ Andy Y: actually I've never tried any image-stacking (mainly because I'm lazy), but I'll write down on my to-do list :)

 

@ Alcanman: personally I liked italian trains till the yaer 2K. After that, trains have begun to resemble each other, due to a massive provision of older material and because of a livery very "sterile". By the way, few months ago an Italian manufacturer called Os.Kar produced a superb model of the small diesel D445 (have a look HERE).

 

Cheers,

Silvio

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  • 1 year later...

Hello there!

Many things have changed in the last year. Among other things, a few months ago I started building my new layout!

Every time I progress I always updating my blog, but I thought I'd share them here on the forum, where I often see amazing stuff.

 

 

For this new adventure I have a room of 4.5 meters by 2 where, in addition to the layout, there must also be the library and of course all trains and accessories. And the workbench. Mission impossible? Almost.

 

 

Regarding the track plan, because I like to see trains passing by, the layout foresees a continuous passage and of itself is quite simple, structured on two levels and based on an oval. The ambitious idea is to reproduce an urban section of the city of Milan, while on the other side there will be a section inspired by a route connecting Milan to Genoa and ... a small piece of Liguria (inspired by Vernazza) which takes its name from the village above. Because of its location and because of a "Tolkien" influence is named Pietrariva. And since I will not be missing anything, the station reproducing Pietrariva will be removeable and considerable like a diorama itself.

Hundreds of miles in a little over 10 feet ring and an average depth of 50 cm, but the real "big deal" will be to create the access of a large station in a few large centimeters: Milan Chiaravalle.

 

Please have a look at my blog www.datrains.eu

 

(looking for a translation? Click here. Layout beginning: Here. Want to follow DaTrains on Facebook? here's the group)

 

IMG_1756.jpg

 

Greetings from Milan,

Silvio

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  • 5 months later...

Hi Silvio

Just having returned from a weeks visit to Italy and travelling

from Montecatini to Florence by Train as well as spending

a few hours on the main station in Florence/Fierenza I was well impressed

great modelling

David Wexford

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Thanks everybody! Unfortunately I'm not uprgrading this post very much... By the way works on the layout are running slowly mainly due to... laziness.

The most upgraded source of information is still my blog www.datrains.eu (in italian only, but google translator hepls a lot). 

Anyway thanks a lot for supporting!!!

 

Regards,

Silvio

 

011.jpg

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