European Railroad Discussion > Italy: Two Kinds of Class 402

Trenitalia arrangements can sometimes be confusing. Like here we have interesting double classification of Italian class 402. I wonder what the true story behind this classification example is and are there similar happening just awaiting to come across. :)

Pictures of quite clearly two different bodied locomotives below. Pictures by Ilkka and Jeff Leknes.

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Yes, indeed it is confusing but for some reason FS classifies those two locomotives as the same thing. The rounded off one is basically a newer version of the 402, sometimes called a 402B by fans. The units do not even share some of the mechanical details, but I'm guessing their performance or service assignments are similar, so they stuck them in the same class. They should have, in my humble opinion, given the newer version a different class, but they obviously don't think so. Thanks for posting the photo's, and yes, it does leave one to wonder how many more of these confusing class designations are out there.

Thank you Bunny218! I do have "part 2" of this mystery coming in my hopefully next post...even more unusual in logic.

Here comes the other part of the riddle: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?17,3625333

I'm curious about the station -- Milano C.le?

The first locomotive is a 3kV DC locomotive, while the second locomotive is equipped as 3kV DC and 25kV/50Hz AC. The newer version has a body designed by Pininfarina. Note that the first version is considered as Class E402.0 while the second is Class 402.1. In addition there was an initial prototype E402-000 and 5 pre-production locomotives built six years before the production batch of DC versions. The pre-production and prototype locomotives have been scrapped. All were aassembled by Officine Meccaniche Italiane SpA in Reggio Emilia with electrical equipment by Ansaldo.

Prototype E402-000
Pre-production E402-001 to E402-005
Production DC E402-006 to E402-035
Production AC/DC E402-101 to E402-160

Class E412 look similar to Class E402.1

Interesting, what a complicated story of locomotion!

McKey Wrote:
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> Interesting, what a complicated story of
> locomotion!

These Passenger locomotives were 25% more powerful than the E444 "Tortoises" that they replaced on trains from Milano to Roma over the Firenze to Roma Directissima Line. The faster service begun with the E444 locomotives caused increases in passenger counts requiring more cars, in turn requiring a more powerful locomotive. Ferrovie del Stato (Italian State Railways) frequently bought a few Prototype and Test locomotives before committing to series production. SJ in Sweden did similarly with the six Rb Class locomotives testing both Mechanical and Electrical components before the Rc series began production.

Looks like the tortoise E444 also is quite a neat design locomotive. Unfortunately, not yet pictures of that in my collection, but it seems like many others admire the design too so net is practically flooding pics of this.

SOO6617 Wrote:
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> McKey Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Interesting, what a complicated story of
> > locomotion!
>
> These Passenger locomotives were 25% more powerful
> than the E444 "Tortoises" that they replaced on
> trains from Milano to Roma over the Firenze to
> Roma Directissima Line. The faster service begun
> with the E444 locomotives caused increases in
> passenger counts requiring more cars, in turn
> requiring a more powerful locomotive. Ferrovie del
> Stato (Italian State Railways) frequently bought a
> few Prototype and Test locomotives before
> committing to series production. SJ in Sweden did
> similarly with the six Rb Class locomotives
> testing both Mechanical and Electrical components
> before the Rc series began production.

McKey Wrote:
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> Looks like the tortoise E444 also is quite a neat
> design locomotive.

The E444 went through two body designs too - here's the the original E444 on the Rome to Florence Direttissima (the train is the Italia Express from Dortmund) and the revised E444R on a rapido to Rome at Chiusi Cianciano Terme

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Saving the day again Nick, thank you! Somehow the roundish loco looks like some design features would be from Japan, but this might be illusion.

Following this discussion, but taking a sidetrack from it - one thing I have long wondered about is the white spray that can be found on Italian tracks. As far as I know, it's the only place where I see this done. So what I'm wondering about, what is the spray for? Does anyone know? I've often thought it's weed killer or something, but in some instances it looks like it is applied to the rails themselves. Wondering.......