Guya, this post is mainly to help traingeekboy match a set of ITA regional passenger cars to their locomotive. Since he needs pictures of them, and they also look kind of gaudy, I thought these pics can also interest some other trainboard member. Lets start with the diesel D445 Link to Wikipedia D445 in "MDVC" regional livery In the ugly XMPR livery
Same livery, different loco E646 - link to wikipedia E646 MDVC ... three of them XMPR the cars are the one Traingeekboy bought
Here they come E424 Link to wikipedia MDVE "red" livery with a mix up of regional cars in MDVC and MDVE livery XMPR with the same coaches The original brown was also not bad... and a little backgound it all started as Traingeekboy bought a set of MDVE/MDVC regional cars. MDVC/MDVE are two models of an unified railway carriage for medium / short distance traffic (Medie Distanze) built in the 80s. They differ from the size and position of the doors MDVC have larger doors that divide the car in three, while MDVE have narrower doors at the end of the coach. Livery for these has been a mess until the XMPR (white and green) put an end to it by using a single set of colors for all carriages. At the beginning you had: MDVC regular cars (light grey / orange / violet) lets call it orange MDVE regular cars (medium grey, red and orange) lets call it red MDVC cab cars (small cabs with diaphragms) for electric locos = orange MDVC cab cars (big cab) for ELECTRIC locos = red (you see a TE rectangle below the cab) MDVC cab cars (big cab) for DIESEL locos = orange (you see a TD rectangle below the cab) Now everything is the same color: the ugly XMPR. The nice things about this mess is that the carriages were always used randomly: any train could have any mix of cars, even if generally MDVC were used for trains with more passengers as the big doors eased loading and unloading For the locos it was the same Red E424, Orange E646 and D445, and of course anything else they could put together as Green E646 (older livery), Blue E656, E633, E632 and even brown E636 and E645. You can mix up everything as you like (just avoid TE cabs with D445 and TD with electrics) and enjoy. Pictures you can find here www.photorail.com Wikipedia (ITA) https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrozze_FS_tipo_MDVE https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrozze_FS_tipo_MDVC
Here the cab cars Traingeekboy’s original (new “ugly” colors), the bar compartment was taken away after a few months due to low patronage. A diesel cab (MDVC livery - all big cabs were with central door regardless of the livery). An electric cab (MDVC doors but MDVE colors) Wonder what to do if you need an electric cab in MDVC colors? A small cab with diaphragms.... But they mixed all up anyway..... The loco is a blue E632 ... 6MW, and the blue car is a MDVE modified as a night car with reclining seats (these also were converted back after a few years)
The confusion for me was because the passenger door definition of MDVC MDVE seemed like a color definition like XMPR. So my set says it's MDVC and really it is a mix of both MDVC and MDVE. I saw that on the real trains with alternating door arrangements. But -- my set is XMPR paint scheme! And an early one at that, so the most realistic loco would be the d or e you first posted. But of course being kind of obsessed with newer locos I keep looking at the engines I saw last month in Italy. I will have to wait and see what appears on the auction site as to what loco I end up with for it. Just to add to the discussion a bit. What manufacturers make appropriate locos for this? Lima Rivarossi Vitrains A.C.M.E. Roco
Very welcome for Boxcab, Griff, Single cab E464 is made by ACME and Vitrains (I prefer the latter), D445 Hornby and Oskar, E646 (orange) Roco, Hornby, ACME LE Models..... on ebay you could find some older LIMAs at bargain prices (in europe however). That is your XMPR E464 This one is in the new colors (quite better) We have more the 700 of these, but sometimes they have to put 2 in MU as they are very light and struggle with more than 10 cars. The best livery for these is the watermelon below from FER, a regional company in northern italy
At the beginning, as I wrote, MDVC/MDVE also stood for the livery (except the cab cars, that were all built as MDVC), this made a lot of confusion, and also a not always good mix of colours on the trains, to have consistent livery unfortunately we had to wait XMPR....
I have been eyeing the vitrains version. They do a lot of versions! he he I did spot some new more toy like lima D445's. They seem to be more from a toy train line of models. I really prefer electrics so I will wait and get something like that. I got some odd loco shots while in Italy. I need to spend some time prepping my photos so I can upload those.
Hey. Just about all our locomotives are electrics. Do you really expect Electro-Motive and General Electric to build diesel-hydraulic engines? Admittedly, they burn a lot of oil generating that electricity on board. But they do run on electricity!
Acptulsa, here in Europe both Diesel Electrics and Hydraulics rate as Diesel, my "electrics" refer to locos with pantographs and catenary and WITHOUT prime movers..... as you can see above. . For us a main line is by definition wired and double tracked..., I give you as present a picture of the 3MW 428 series from the 30s looking like US GG1s (especially below the bodywork). For big diesels we had to buy in former USSR, now Ukraine...., here the biggest european road diesel (electric ), the former east german 130, some of them still go around europe, but in the last years, most were scrapped due to electrification. No need to say that I bought a HO scale model .... for my layout.
Yeah, here too. I was just kidding you. Though, truth be known, the diesel-electric might have been a longer time developing if it hadn't been a development of electric locomotive technology.
I know... yeah, our first road electrics are from 1903 ... the first road diesel (electric) 50 years later (in the USA would probably not even rate a switcher). Germans are the specialists in hydraulic though, diesels not built in Germany are 99% electrics. Here it is D341, FIAT 12V diesel turbocharged, but barely more than 1000hp at the wheels, little more than the steamers they were replacing, but managed to keep the service weight to 66 tons, the limit for 90lb rails. Kind of ugly too, but definitely reliable (some of them are still around). Link to english wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FS_Class_D.341
There has been, and still there is due to the lack of concern by the railway company (they just care about high speed sets), quite a lot of vandalism, that is also one of the reason for the change to XMPR livery, so that instead of the paint they used a plastic film that could be cleaned should writers strike.