European Railroad Discussion > Milan, Italy ?

Hello All, 

I will be in Milan, Italy for about a week at the end of next week for business. What railroad-related sites should I see?  Models and 1:1 ? 
Please let me know your thoughts. 

Thank you, 
Mike "Mikado" Anderson

The railway station is impressive. The tram restaurant Atmosfera offers a unique experience, riding a streetcar while dining. Others may have additional suggestions.

ATM's 1500 class tram cars are derived from Peter Witt cars. Don't know how frequently they are out on the network. A friend of mine was there a few weeks ago and got to ride one.

Both from Milan, taken about 15 years ago.

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mikado Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hello All, 
>
> I will be in Milan, Italy for about a week at the
> end of next week for business. What
> railroad-related sites should I see?  Models and
> 1:1 ? 
> Please let me know your thoughts. 

Not mentioned so far is the name of the main station
Milano Centrale. The station faces the Piazza
Duca d'Aosta looking southwest and is located on the
edge of the central city. The primary long distance
trains diverge about a kilometer northeast of the station
to head to Torino and France to the west. To the southeast
to Venezia, Firenze, Bologna, and Rome, and also north
to Monza, and Switzerland. As far as train watching 
unless your really into watching EMUs or virtual EMUs. 
I prefer to watch the freight trains. The main freight yard
is located where the passenger line to Verona, and Venezia
diverges from the belt line around the east side of the city.
Milano Lambrate station just north of that divergence is
probably the busiest location for freight in the Milano area.
Double check the schedules but at the time of my visit lines
S5 and S9 served Milano Lambrate from Centrale. The 
problem with Lambrate station can be the number of
platforms since the freights tend to keep to either the
western most or eastern most tracks, due to the steady
passenger train traffic. The other spot I liked for watching
freight was Gallarate station located north of Milano
Malpensa airport. Just east of Gallarate station is the 
very large Hupac Intermodal Terminal, and across the main
line is the smaller Ambroggio Intermodal Terminal. The
Hupac terminal sees 33 train pairs per day on peak days.
Gallarate station can be reached by taking the Regionale
Express towards Domodossola.

I was in southern Switzerland back in late September, and had a daytrip by train to Milan on my agenda. Normally an easy, quick trip, it got nixed by a bit of bad luck - not the railroads' fault - and I only got as far as Bellinzona. But this discussion and the photos show some of the reasons why I wanted to make the trip, particularly to visit Milano Centrale, truly one of the great stations.

Thanks to everyone for the images and comments - and particularly the detailed information on operations at the outer junctions and stations. Very informative, and just the ticket for a future visit, probably next Spring. Multo riconosente!

MC

Great thread, thanks for all the info!