On
a rainy day of 1987 ... to be short, full story
is in another page, i was travelling Siena-Sinalunga-Arezzo. In the
same page you will find the pictures of the station
of Siena.On
a rainy day of 1987 ... to be short, full story
is in another page, i was travelling Siena-Sinalunga-Arezzo. In the
same page you will find the pictures of the station
of Siena.
Siena
is also the place of the most important (and the only one that does maintenance)
diesel deposit in Toscana.
This one was the first in Italy to receive in early sixties the then new
diesel-hydraulic train locomotives, to substitute for steam.
At that time where under test the two diesel flavours: The american one
(diesel-electric), locomotives with odd group numbers and german one (diesel-hydraulic)
with even group numbers. The electric ones (D341) went to Taranto while
the hydraulics (D342) come to Siena.
The first locomotives were used to haul passenger trains to Empoli, were
the train was taken in charge by an E424. This until they had not enought
diesel locomotives, to allow trains do the full Siena-Firenze on diesel
traction, so saving time for change of locomotive (the present Empoli-Firenze
line is not so fast, and only on 14 out of 35 km allows speed above the
130 km/h of diesel locomotives, so the lose of time of using a slower loco
is well balanced by not having to do a change of locomotive).
Eventually the Electrics ones proved having better overall performances,
so next order were all od DE ones (groups D343 D345 D443 and D445 - the
latter the only ones equipped with electric heating and remote control
capability, also painted in the Push-pull trains livery).
But the 342 remained at Siena until end of their live, when were substituted
by 445 for passenger services and 345 for freight service.
And
at that time I could see two of them in Siena: The first one is a truly
museum type: The 4002, one of the few ones built by ansaldo, that eventually
went to the MFP (as a museum piece). (note that diesel equipment in FS
have 4 figure serial number: the thousandth one identify the builder -
Fiat, Breda, OM or Ansaldo, this to better identify spare parts for engines.)
At the time The Siena deposit had received the first Aln663 that you can
see near the gas distributor, confront their livery wityh the 668 on left,
but still used the D345 for passenger services, you can see one in front
on the picture below on left, the two tracks on centre are the lines to
Monte-Antico and Asciano;
these locomotive did not have the electrical equipments for car heating
and control of passenger trains, so were coupled on the first time to steam
generator, later with these (picture or right) electrical generator cars.
Currently it is very rare to see that cars, since after complete electrification
of Bari-Lecce and Bari-Catanzaro lines, as well the catania-Palermo one,
there is a surplus of diesel locomotives, so passenger trains are all given
to the 445 and freight to older ones, often also on electrified lines,
orphan of the "death" of group E626
.
Just the time to get these images and now leaving to Sinalunga. The two lines to Monteantico and Asciano where build by two different railroads, that had two different stations in Siena. The line to monteantico, on left in the picture, had its station slightly NE than the current FS one, so it crossed the "Centrale" (That is the Empoli-Siena-Sinalunga-Chiusi line) after a few km. On the picture on left you see, from the train, the parallel line to Monte Antico, and on right the bridge where the line to Chiusi overpass it. After were unified the stations in Siena, the line run parallel, then to recover their previous trackage.
Along the line to Asciano some remains of the steam time: An old tank car raised to be a temporary substitute for a rusted or damaged water reservoir.Note on picture on left its service number and on right the 3 in a circle, that specified that that car could run in the 3rd class of speed (70 km/h)
And two historic images: The first of a string of rusted 772, a DMU of the forties, that run along this line until mid eigties, and the water reservoir of
The historical event are the arrival of a train from
Monte Antico ad Asciano, on a line now closed, but where there is a regular
tourist service with historic DMU in summer
sundays. There is an "historic" eroor althought even more
common nowadays: The indication on the train is Siena->Grosseto but
the train actually is coming from Grosseto.
On the left the image is not very good, but you can see the old uniform
that have been changed in november 1997 with a new one, with the new corporate
colours of FS.
Right: The line is old, but maintenace is current, and older wooden ties are changed with concrete ones.
Bottom Rigth: We have been arrived at Sinalunga. This is the bells that
announce arrival of train. Note the different sizes and shapes of the bell:
This is not unusual, since bell must ring everyone with a different sound,
so the announcement can be easily understood. Note for casual traveller:
the bell stop ringing when train enter the block adjacent to the station,
so some time can lapse before actual arriving of train.
