Friday, December 27, 2019

Electro-mechanical lever frame at Albacina, 1990

Deutsche Version dieses Postings

On one of the next days, we made a trip to Macerata via Albacina. Here is the first handful of photos, up to Albacina.

The first two pictures show signals for a level crossings ("segnale di protezione di un PL", where PL means "passaggi a livello", i.e., level passage). Similar to FS's signal book, I show them in reverse order, because the signals were for different crossings. The first signal is a protection signal proper (segnale di protezione) indicating that the barriers are closed and hence the track is free (via libera):

Level crossing protection signal, Cancelli di Fabriano, May 1990

The second one is the corresponding distant signal (segnale di avviso), which tells the driver that the following protection signal will show "via libera" (avviso di via libera):

Level crossing protection distant signal, Cancelli di Fabriano, May 1990

Rusty tracks contained some old steam locomotives—I think this was at the junction station Fabriano, but I'm not really sure:

940.006, Fabriano?, May 1990

Steamers, Fabriano?, May 1990

At Albacina I was allowed to take photos of the lever frame, an electro-mechanical one like the one at Ciampino::

Lever frame, Albacina, May 1990

Lever frame, Albacina, May 1990

At the upper right, one can see the line block instrument—it looks brand-new and quite British. Here is an enlargement from the first of the previous images, without any more explanations, as I don't know the details of its workings (a nice picture of a similar instrument is show in the master's theses "Il Segnalamento: Principi e Tecnologie per la Regolazione del Traffico Ferroviario" by Ludovico Zampiero from 2016, which can be found on the internet as a downloadable file):

Block instruments, Albacina, May 1990

A work train occupied on of the tracks:

Work train with diesel locomotive, Albacina, May 1990

This starting signal (for the track on the right of it) can show digits 1 or 2, depending on whether the train departs on the left line towards Falconara or the right one to Macerata:

Starting signals, Albacina, May 1990

A zoom of the signal to the left of it (click on the picture shows it in full scan resolution) surprisingly reveals that also this signal can show both digits—even though it is not possible to traverse to the track to Macerata from there:

Starting signals, Albacina, May 1990

Here is the somewhat shabby station building:

Station building, Albacina, May 1990

And here is a last image of the lever frame. Signal or track relays are placed even above the frame—somehow, it seems that the signal box became too small at some point:

Lever frame, Albacina, May 1990

Saturday, December 21, 2019

Alcune vecchie locomotive in Tuscany

Deutsche Version dieses Postings


Here is a handful of photos of locomotives in Tuscany. The first one shows a very common general purpose Italian diesel class:

D345 1087, Firenze Santa Maria Novella, May 1990

This geared diesel locomotive—which looks very German—found its last use for work trains:

Work train locomotive, Firenze Santa Maria Novella, May 1990

On the line from Arezzo to Sinalunga, LFI's class EDz 12/13 was still in its original livery. Since then, they apparently have been rebuilt and repainted (see e.g. on this website) and continue in passenger service:

EDz of the Arezzo-Sinalunga line, Arezzo, May 1990

The Pendolinos of class ETR 450 were much younger than the oldies above, but they did not survive—some patents problem stopped them in their tracks:

ETR 450, Firenze Santa Maria Novella (?), May 1990

ETR 450, Firenze Santa Maria Novella (?), May 1990