The Pendonlini

The Italian Pendolinis are Italian high speed trains, constructed by Fiat.

History

The first prototype of what would eventually became the pendolino was rolled-off the assembly line at the end of 1970. This was a single car unit called the Y 0160-71-99 (where Y stands for experimental, 0160 is the project number, 71 is the year and 99 is the progressive construction number). This vehicle underwent several tests between 1971 and 1973 that were conducted on a tortuous line between Trofarello and Asti (in the northwestern part of Italy) and on the fast line between Rome and Naples, in the course of which reached speeds in excess of 260 km/h and showed the ability to negotiate curves at speeds that were 15 to 30 per cent higher than in normal conditions. This train was used as the basis to develop the ETR-401 that was the first operational Pendolini. This train was delivered to Italian State Railways in 1975 and started services in 1976 between Rome and Naples. The ETR-401 was a four car EMU that seated about 120 passengers in a first-class only accommodation. The third car housed a bar and was almost similar to the later ETR-450 (the main differences were the lack of the rehostatic braking boxes on the roof, the absence of anti-shimmy shock absorbers and a slightly different headlamp configuration, it was painted in a color scheme similar to that of the later 450-series only with blue cheatline on a silver base). Unfortunately this train remained a one-off for a long period (like the APT) mainly because of the usual bribery and shortsightedness of the political class.

However the Italian State Railways continued to finance the project on a low priority basis until 1985 when in was decided to restart the development on large scale. Thus the ETR-401 was updated with the full redesign of the traction equipment (with the adoption of a full-chopper configuration)

The ETR 450

After Britain abandoned the tilting Advanced Passenger Train, the tilting technology was sold to Italy, which was further developed along with existing Italian tilting technology and the result was a few years later in 1987 the emergence of the Pendolini ETR 450, a high speed tilting train. This simplified things, because, while the ETR-401 required a gyroscope and an accelerometer for each bogie, the ETR-450 had them only at the end-cars and the rest of the tilting mechanism was electronically activated on a master-slave basis. This train entered in service in 1988 and was further developed in 1995 as ETR-460 and ETR-470 and 480.

The interesting thing about these high speed trains is that they are proper electrical multiple units (apart from 500 series), with no single engine compartment, traction motors run along the whole length of the train. This is so the weight of the train is spread out which is better for taking corners at speed.

The Very High Speed Train, the ETR 500

Recently Italy has done very well with its series ETR 500 bringing the speed up to 300km/h (186mph). It is not a tilting train, but a conventional high speed train in the fashion of the TGV and ICE. According to the State Railways plan, the ETR 500 will serve the traffic on the main High - Speed longitudinal trunk line between Milan and Naples (at present only the portion between Rome and Florence is completed) while te etr-450 series trains will be used on the transversal lines where they can gain the full advantage of their tilting capabilities.

ETR Classes

The Pendolini Class 460 was built in 1993 as an update to the 450 although it has the same top speed so it is not particularly interesting. However it is to form the basis for the British Inter-City 250 as GNER is to import two in 1999 to run on the East Coast Mainline.

The Earliest Italian electrical high speed train set was the ETR 220, the "Polifemo" which is still in existance. First constucted in 1936 with 7 surviving today all refurbished these old trains can still manage a reasonable 160 km/h (100mph) which in the 1930s was considered very high speed.

See Also:

• The Advanced Passenger train - where the tilting technology started
• The Inter City 250 - A British service using the Pendolini
• The Most Rail Friendly Countries
• Countries Operating Trains @ 300km/h or 186mph
• All about tilting trains

Related Links:

• The official site of the Italian high speed rail project
• More Pictures

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