Trains in Italy - To Rome!

Back in late May 2017, my wife and I went to Italy for a lovely spring vacation. It was our first time in Italy and we enjoyed it immensely. We definitely want to go back. Since this is a train blog, I'm not going to talk about all of the vacation aspects, but instead cover the train-related parts of our trip... and there were a lot!

Getting to Rome

We flew in three phases - Winnipeg to Toronto (YWG-YYZ), Toronto to Frankfurt (YYZ-FRA), and Frankfurt to Rome (FRA-FCO). It's always a little sobering to think that you are flying 10 km above the ocean, hundreds if not thousands of kilometres from any land, at a large fraction of the speed of sound. I often take air travel for granted, but it's pretty amazing when you think of it.

In Frankfurt I saw these little automated airport trains zooming around.

Airport trams in Frankfurt

We arrived in Rome - but my wife's suitcase did not. We had to spend some time in the airport at the lost luggage counter, filling out forms and so forth to arrange to get her bag. It wasn't totally lost, just lagging a little behind us. It would end up being delivered to our hotel that evening.

To get from the airport (the Leonardo da Vinci!) to downtown Rome, we took the airport train, the Leonardo Express. The station is in the airport itself, which is common in Europe and very convenient.

Train station in Leonardo da Vinci airport

I really enjoyed some of the signs on the yellow posts.

Pericolo di Morte

"Non Touche - Pericolo di Morte" translates as "Do Not Touch - Danger of Death".

After a little wait in the airport, our train arrived.

Leonardo Express train

This is an ETR-25 "Jazz" electric multiple unit (EMU) train, built by Alstom. It is very comfortable and whisked us downtown. It's all coach seating, of course, with no service on board, but it doesn't take too long so there's no need for drinks or anything like that.

Inside the Leonardo Express

I managed to grab the window seat (sorry, honey) and took a lot of photos of the trackside structures, maintenance equipment, and whatever else I could see. It's always interesting to see the railways of other countries and see how they differ from North American railways.

Maintenance equipment at Ponte Galeria, Italy

One thing I noticed quickly is that there is a lot of graffiti on the maintenance equipment. Also, the graffiti increased as we approached Rome. As you may know, I hate graffiti and it saddened me to see it here. I shouldn't have been surprised, since the word derives from the Italian "graffiato", meaning "scratched".

We passed a few small diesel locomotives.

Diesel locomotive in Italy, with graffiti (sigh)

Like Belgium, Italian trains are mostly electric, but there are some lines that are not electrified, and of course if you are doing maintenance on the wires, you need another way to move your equipment.

There are several train stations on the line between the airport and Rome, including Roma Trastevere, seen below. We didn't stop at any of them.

Roma Trastevere station

After about 40 minutes, we arrived at the Roma Termini station, the main train station in Rome.

Trains at Roma Termini

My long suffering wife was OK with me spending a few minutes photographing the trains in the station before we set off to find our hotel.

(Above) Locomotive E464-226 is a Bombardier E.464 class, the most common locomotive in service in Italy. 728 were built. It's capable of 4700 horsepower and a maximum speed of 160 km/hr. On that train, it was coupled to a regional train of passenger coaches. I've tried to find some information on those coaches but I can't find anything. My Google-fu has failed. :(

(Below) This is a "Vivalto" train set, manufactured by Hitachi. This is a six car consist, with one motor car and five trailers, with a total of 725 seats and a total capacity of 1,300 people including standing passengers.

Trenitalia "Vivalto" trainset in Rome

 Check out that sweet streamlined train in the background below!

Trains in Roma Termini

We left the station, and after a bit of wandering around, found our hotel.

We stayed in Rome from the 28th to the 31st of May, hitting the highlights, like the Colosseum, the Forum, the Vatican, and so forth. Rome is a marvelous city. I remember that it was very hot and I was glad that Rome has many free water fountains scattered around the city that you can refill your water bottle from. We drank a lot of water!

I did take a few photos of the outside of Roma Termini, but to be honest, it's pretty boring, in my opinion. The station was built in the 1950s and definitely has a modern look to it.

Roma Termini - exterior

I took a photo of the arrivals and departures board in the station during our stay in Rome. There are quite a few trains through here!

Trenitalia arrivals/departures board

I'll have a separate post about the trams we saw in Rome.

I won't bore you with a bunch of vacation photos, but here are two that I like.

Panorama of the Colosseum (L) and Arch of Constantine (R)

How could you not like the Colosseum? I liked it so much that I went back at dawn the next day to photograph it again.

My wife and I in the Gallery of Maps in the Vatican

That Gallery of Maps was definitely our favourite part of the Vatican - even more than the Sistine Chapel. Oddly enough, when we were in the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel was closed for a few hours. It turns out that our prime minister, Justin Trudeau, was visiting the Vatican at the same time that we were, and they cleared the chapel out so he could be alone in there.

Let me tell you, it was pretty crowded when we went in! I have no photos, because photography is not allowed in the chapel, even though a lot of people were sneaking photos. sigh

Coming Up

After Rome, we boarded a train to take us to the Cinque Terre area of Italy, which is a set of five ("cinque") small fishing towns. This is a beautiful area of Italy, and although we only spent one night there, we fell in love with it. It was also a great place to do some railfanning!

READ MORE

See Also

• Not Just Waffles and Chocolate - Trains in Belgium
• Trains in Paris
• Trains in Amsterdam
• Public Transit in Vienna
• On to the Czech Republic

Not Just Waffles and Chocolate - Belgium is a Railfan's Delight

After I visited Train World in Brussels, I walked to the adjacent Schaerbeek train station to catch a train back to the central train station. My luggage was in a locker in the Centraal station, so I had to get that first before proceeding on to Aalter, my final destination.

There are a lot of trains passing through the Schaerbeek station. This is a snapshot of a bit over 2 hours for a Sunday afternoon at Schaerbeek.

Schaerbeek Trains

These are just the trains that stop at Schaerbeek. I'd say the same number passed through the station without stopping when I was there.

I just missed the train I intended to take, so I had to wait a bit. It turned out that I waited for almost an hour. In retrospect, I certainly could have left earlier, had I known more about Belgian train schedules. Trains going to Antwerp, for example, also stop in the central station along the way, and I could have taken one of those. All I had to go by was the video display and paper schedule posted in the tunnel under the tracks, and that showed the next train stopping in Centraal was in about 50 minutes.

Fortunately, it wasn't cold, and I wasn't in a hurry, so I was happy to wait on the platform and photograph trains as they went by.

I'm going to share some of the photos I took in that hour of waiting. I'm not sharing every train, but just the ones I found the most interesting. Also, these aren't in order of appearance.

Domestic Trains

Class 18

1858 and a double-decker train

This is a Siemens class 18 (EuroSprinter ES60U3) locomotive pulling a "double-decker" train on a passing track. SNCB, the Belgian train operator, purchased 120 of these electric locomotives starting in 2008. I saw quite a few of them when I was in Belgium.

SNCB 1922 at Schaerbeek

In fact, I saw at least 3 while I was waiting for my train!

SNCB 1907 at Schaerbeek

I rode in a few of the two-level trainsets. They are pretty comfortable but I imagine it can be difficult for people who have trouble with stairs, as you have to climb or descend stairs to sit anywhere. This is what the top deck looks like from the inside:

Desiro

Siemens Desiro ML

These Siemens Desiro ML trainsets are all over the place in Belgium. I photographed quite a few of them. I was glad the sun came out for a little while so I could capture this image of the train in front of the old station. I especially like the two old gentlemen standing on the platform.

Siemens Desiro ML by Platform 9

You can see I was standing on platform 9 waiting for my train.

Number 9

Pig Nose

Wonder why it's called a "pig nose"?

The above train is an MR-75 / AM75 electric multiple unit (EMU) train. There are 44 of these trainsets, built between 1975 and 1979. Refurbishment started on these in 2015 and should be complete by 2020, extending their life by another 15 to 20 years. They are called "pig nose" trains for fairly obvious reasons.

AM96

Not the most attractive train

These AM96 trains seemed the least attractive to me. They remind me of this:

(that's a sandworm from Dune, in case you're not a science fiction geek like me)

One more domestic train before we move on to the international trains I saw at Schaerbeek.

Not sure what kind this is!

International Trains

Thalys train at Schaerbeek

This Thalys trainset also did not stop at Schaerbeek. Thalys is an intercity train serving Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. I've always liked the look of their trains.

A Dutch train!

The above train bears the logo of the Nederlandse Spoorwegen, aka the Dutch national railway (Dutch is a great language). The blue and yellow is a classy look, in my opinion.

Class 186 (TRAXX) locomotive

There was a class 186 locomotive on either end of this train. These Bombardier TRAXX F140 MS locomotives push/pull the international trains between Amsterdam and Antwerp. They operate on the HSL-Zuid high speed rail line but these locomotives are only capable of 160 km/hr, so they take a back seat to the much faster Thalys trains.

This train just LOOKS fast

I was pleased to catch a German Intercity-Express (ICE) train going through Schaerbeek. I believe this is an ICE 3 trainset - a Siemens Verlaro - capable of 320 km/hr speeds. It certainly wasn't going that fast through here!

Maintenance of Way

Spoorworken. What a great language!

The above vehicle is a Plasser and Theurer tamper - specifically a Unimat 08-275 3S. Tampers pack (tamp) the ballast under railway ties to make the track more durable. Check the link for a video showing the tamper in action.

"Spoorworken" means "railway work" and Vanormelingen-Stas is an equipment rental company.

Medisa VM500 SAB

This vehicle is a Matisa VM500 SAB. As far as I can tell, it has platforms on the roof that can be raised for working on overhead electric wiring.

A closeup

Off to Aalter

Eventually my train came and I took it to the Centraal station, fetched my luggage, then got on the train to Aalter. I had to switch trains in Ghent (known as Gent-Sint-Peters station) so I took a few photos from the platform there while I waited. You'll see more photos from that station in another post.

Autoracks in Belgium!

 I find it very interesting that European trains still have cars and trucks in open autoracks. In North America almost all road vehicles are shipped in enclosed autoracks to protect them from theft and vandalism. Clearly that's not as much of a problem in Europe. In fact, as you can see, they are shipped without any covering at all, not even the vinyl coverings over the headlights and other vulnerable bits that you see in North America.

Another Desiro trainset

Another Desiro ML trainset came rolling through Ghent while I was waiting.

My train was a double-decker with a class 18 EuroSprinter locomotives on each end. I took a video, which I will upload later when I merge several of the short clips I took together into one longer video. Here's a snap from the video:

Keep your hands to yourself!

No children were harmed in the making of that video.

By the time I got to Aalter, it was dark and my railfanning was done for the day. It was a great day to see trains, and Belgium is indeed a railfan's delight. So many trains, and all different from what I normally see in North America!

I think there will be two more posts in this series - one featuring trains at night and the other featuring trains spotted at Aalter, Brussels and Bruges. More to come!

See Also

• Part 1 - Trains in Belgium
• Part 2 - Train World

Sperry Rail Vehicles

SRS 870 in Saint John, NB

If you've spent any significant amount of time railfanning, you've probably seen one of these vehicles on or near the rails. Sperry is a leader in the rail inspection business and has been performing rail inspections since 1928. They perform induction and ultrasonic inspections to detect defects inside rails before they cause a major failure of the rail.

When Sperry started, they refitted old passenger "doodlebugs" with their induction equipment. I presume this was done because the doodlebugs were ideal platforms, being self-propelled with a large empty interior space.

SRS 136 in Calgary, Alberta

SRS 863 at Diamond outside Winnipeg, Manitoba

In recent years their rail-mounted trucks have become more prevalent and I heard all of the rail-only vehicles have been retired... but I'm not convinced that's true quiet yet. I'm sure the doodlebugs were getting old, and trucks are easier to get to locations because they can switch between road and rail with ease. Also I expect the equipment is getting smaller so large vehicles are no longer required.

Closeup of SRS 863

The very first "doodlebug" Sperry vehicle I photographed was at Valjean, Saskatchewan between Chaplin and Parkbeg. It was during a blizzard and I happened to spot it rolling west on the CP main line. We pulled into the tiny, tiny town of Valjean and I photographed it at the crossing.

SRS 144 at Valjean, SK

SRS 144 at Valjean, SK

The next one I photographed was SRS 119 in the CP yards here in Winnipeg, around Christmas 2004.

SRS 119, Winnipeg

I captured SRS 136 (see top of post) in Calgary, Alberta just outside Alyth yard. I see a couple of other people did too.

The last "doodlebug" I photographed was SRS 131 in Kamloops, BC in 2013. I think it's more or less permanently parked there.

Jeff Keddy photographed SRS 138 in service near Rosser just west of Winnipeg on the CP main line back in early 2011.

SRS 138 near Winnipeg. Photo by Jeff Keddy.

Here's his video:


The most recent "doodlebug" photo I found was this one of SRS 125 on Railpictures from 2014.

Get used to more of these...

SRS 971 outside Winnipeg

I see them a lot around Winnipeg, either parked at their favourite hotel on the south end of Pembina Highway, or out on the rails. Often I don't bother photographing the trucks but I'm glad they are out there doing their thing to help keep trains safe.

More information:

• Sperry history
• Eric Gagnon caught SRS 119 in 2011