Italian Getaway

The platform area is quiet as an Italian commuter train awaits departure in Vicenza Italy.

This was a personal vacation in August 2011 to visit my brother and his family near Vicenza, Italy where my brother works for the U.S. Army. In the process I was trackside a few times and a couple of those times I was actually able to sit around and watch the proceedings. Let's just say I wasn't near Danville Jct. anymore! The action was almost non-stop, and though I have little understanding or appreciation for the equipment I was looking at, the operations were fun to watch. A few pictures are scattered here for your amusement. A map of the Italian Rail System is at this link. Vicenza is between Venice and Verona on the map.

The first batch of photos were on a Sunday trip to Venice. My brother and I went to the train station at Mestre, one stop from the city - which is across a causeway. The largely pedestrian and boat bound landmark city is tough to park in so the train made sense. The first train to town was this double decker MU commuter train that was absolutely packed, yet we found a place to stand. Later as we were leaving, I got a shot of the middle-aged streamliner and the newer "Freccianargento" high speed train arriving (red and black). The stations were relatively modern and dealt in volume of passengers fairly well. One thing that baffled me was the tracks. In the station areas, the tracks looked like someone dusted the tracks with lime dust. Maybe it was the proximity to the ocean or something. It was only the station area but I saw the same dust in other areas further inland. This little trip was where my brother showed me how riding a train in Italy worked, or didn't. You buy a ticket and then stamp it on the platform within an hour before you leave. A conductor then checks it on the train, sometimes. I guess this keeps people honest. The little yellow ticket stamping machines were scattered around the platforms and didn't always work. I photo'd one to the right.


Most of my railfan time was at Vicenza "Stazione" watching Trenitalia. There are two mainline tracks, and two station tracks along the 4 covered platforms of the station. The station also had two stub ended tracks with another covered platform between for locals to Schio and Thiene. The mainline itself is a major artery between Venice and Milan but connections nearby in Verona connect it north to Austria via Brenner Pass and south via Padua. The container traffic to the Adriatic coast and beyond was constant.

The first shot above left is a pair of typical Trenitalia ticket machines. These particular ones are temporarily out of order, which was fairly common. Part of the station area itself follows below. The next one to the left is a double decker local passenger train hitting the sunlight just right. It was push-pull with a cab car on the far end.



The old steamer was sitting near what must be the former engine facilities. Since I know very little Italian, I couldn't tell what any signs around it said. I shot it from the platforms and I didn't see a better way on foot.



This next pair of shots shows the ends of typical double decker locals. These were apparently getting old and the A/C is unreliable according to my brother. Grafitti was a problem too. I think these pretty much followed the mainline making all the stops. Nearly everything I saw was electric powered. The local branch commuter trains were spiffy looking new diesel dmu's, though I did spot some older models in Mestre. Locals and regionals were push-pull and the longer distance trains were often double ended. No reason to turn anything. Once in a while an Austrian passenger train headed to Venice passed through the local proceedings (the red one on the right) adding a bit of color.



The mid-grade Italian trains were The "Frecciabianca" - Euro Star trains (left). They seemed to be the equivalent of the Acela Regionals but longer. These were double ended long distance trains that pretty much hit only the larger stations. They looked like the recipients of better equipment displaced by the latest high speed cars. The paint scheme was a nice grey and red. The big let down is that the electric locos at each end have a resemblance to Amtrak's "mud missle" Genesis locos. The loco's were only slightly better to look because they were nicely painted to match the cars. The trains were fairly classy looking and I did ride one over to Verona for the day. The cars were very modern and had nice, reserved seating. But, I prefer the "Amtubes" for leg room and seating arrangement. I paid the equivalent of a full ride on the Downeaster for the 25 minute x2 round trip. It was fast and non-stop. There was a vastly cheaper local that took an hour each way to do the same trip. I think that was it on the right. I was hoping to ride the very fastest "Frecciarossa" train further south but it was very expensive and time ran out anyway. At least I sampled the middle level Frecciabianca.

Many shorter locals had new MU and DMU equipment as seen to the left and right. Since the manufacturer may have been local, that may explain their presence. These seemed to be everywhere on the line. The ones for the local branches were always diesel. No wires I assume.

The east end of the freight yard at Vicenza pretty much began by the platforms. Each time I was present, at least one electric unit was sitting with a string of cars waiting to head out east. At one point there were three, but they were right in the sun so I didn't photograph them. The lone unit to the left had just detached itself from its train and was headed off to the east so it was therefore moving into slightly better light. The next time I came to visit a 6 axle electric was waiting its turn to leave (right).



Freight didn't all go through the yard. This Trenitalia train on the left was a westbound of empty container cars that passed through on the mainline. The next one down is an Austrian container train headed toward Venice. It was fast and loud. I saw Austrian freights and passenger trains coming south out of Austria near Trent on the Brenner Pass line as well as through Vicneza so my guess is that a run-through arrangement to the Venice area exists. All mainline freight was a mix of Italian, Austrian and leased electrics of many vintages and types. A lot of the freight was in containers. I even saw container tanks parked by warehouses in "wine country" around Soave, so those might move by rail as well. Other types of freight moved in relatively short trains of similar cars. Lots of standard height boxcars that looked almost as long as our 86' hi-cube cars ran in homogenous strings. A couple of hopper trains passed as well. Those looked more like Conrail (PRR) "ore jennies" except they were closer to 40' long. I have no idea what they carried but there are lots of minerals in the area.

The yellow unit turned out to be a lease unit from Dispolok. Not only did they have "foreign power", they had "leased power" as well. It was a short train and apparently following the signals right behind another train. This gave me time to read the various things on the unit and grab a photo of the owner's name.

I couldn't tell if Vicenza was a re-crew point but it certainly was a base for local jobs. A couple of three axle diesel switchers prowled the area, one on each end of the yard. One of these little rigs actually pulled an electric unit and its train out to push it into another track. It sounded a bit stressed. The area still has some industrial plants using rail, including a small steel mill. Italian Railways - Trenitalia - has a major shop that works on their "Frecciaargento" high speed passenger fleet there. I didn't see any of those trains operate on this line and couldn't understand the Italian on any of the signs so it could have just as easily been the manufacturing plant too.

The last photo is a very strange beast that is basically an articulated bus guided by a single rail and powered by trolley wires. Pairs of tracks wind their way through the city of Padua. These move quietly and smoothly compared to rail trams. They seem to cut through traffic well also. The tiny bit of orange behind this rig is a standard diesel bus following close behind to take advantage of the traffic clearing abilities I presume. Padua was an amazing city to photograph and I took my best shot of the city a few feet from this spot.


Well, that's a lot of tidbits. I felt like I only got a small glimpse of all the variety available on the Trenitalia system. But, considering that I didn't know if I'd see anything at all, it was plenty. I was there to enjoy other things, which I most certainly did, so this taste of Italian railroading was not a disappointment.

Clip on this picture from Padua if you want to be bored with all the non-rail photos of my trip.


BC

Skull's Excellent Adventures 2011

Only speaking for myself, I'd say Skull brought his usual luck for finding the unusual or different. (Just look at the archives under any July) Despite PAR District 1's reluctance to show us much, it still showed the strange, odd and curious from time to time - trackworkers at "the Keag" for example. We also followed WASJ for quite a bit of its journey, catching it at "the Keag" a day later. Lacking power but consisting of the same 50+ WASJ cars, we watched as it was picked up by NBSR for the trip to St. John.

The words and photos are all mine unless otherwise noted, and all is subject to revision from time to time as facts become known or mistakes are found. HAPT members mentioned are working from their nearby homes and Skull was based out of the very comfortable and reasonably priced Sleepy Time Motel in Auburn, ME - a great location at the bridge overlooking "Rumford Jct. West", and minutes from Danville Jct. and Lewiston Jct.

TUESDAY:
The first day was pretty routine with a visit to Danville Jct where the DT&I Fan was also posted. I was the third to arrive. DJ-1 was finished for the day before anyone showed up but PORU was on the scanner doing some kind of power swap at Leeds Jct.

DT&I Fan had to leave for work so Skull and I headed to Leeds Jct. where PORU was likely to be lurking. It was, sitting on the siding but long enough run past the crossovers. We found the three engines were displaying the last three paint schemes. With little else to do we got our pictures, listened for any info and headed north up the branch. RUPO was around Jay but sounded like it was headed south through Livermore. Either way, we gave up for lack of light around the DeCoster grain elevators in Leeds. Here is an excerpt from Skull's report for the day.

DJ-1 = 348 (MEC)

AYWA @ 10:50 503 - 507 - 511 - 337(B&M) - 515 - 334(B&M) 75 cars. Through Danville Junction.

AYWA cutoff its front 3 engines and a long cut of cars at Leeds Junction, then turned its remaining power on the Y track and took its remaining cars to Waterville. As of 21:00 PORU MEC 503(E) - 507(W) - 511(E) was still at Leeds Junction as RUPO was finally down to MPR-2. Then Brad and I headed over to the SLR at

Lewiston Junction where there was NOTHING happening, same power as earlier so it seems no # 393 tonight. Short cut of cars on Rumford Junction Siding.

Quiet on District 1 today.

Till Next Time Railfans.

WEDNESDAY:
I think this day was to be relatively low key but we started early at "the junctions." As we will see, the rail gods of district 1 didn't want Skull to see much, at first. Danville, Lewiston and Leeds junctions were quiet. PORU(?) was gone from Leeds Jct. though. We headed north to Waterville to see what we could shake loose. Before we hit town we heard WASJ on the scanner, making noises about leaving town. We made a quick trip to the yard office area and then tried to locate it down the line. It turned out to be behind the Chinet plant and it was going to leave soon. We knew just where to go too. We found a parking place on the Benton side of the river and walked out onto the Rt. 100 Kennebec River bridge. We could hear the train blowing for all the Fairfield crossings and watched it pass through the last crossing next to CPF 110. We got some nice shots of the train crossing the river. A canoe even obliged us and crossed the river right in front of us, almost on cue.

We proceeded to leapfrog in front of the train to several spots. The first was CPF107 at the other end of the siding in Benton on Bellsqueeze Road. I noticed that the siding still had an electric switch despite the fact that the siding is usually used for car storage. It wasn't much of a chase so we were way ahead by the time we got to Burnham Junction and the former B&ML. From there we proceeded to Pittsfield. We photographed the train by the depot and broke off the chase. It turned out that we saw one of the several Pittsfield area rail buffs (Tom) when we filled the gas tank and we asked him about another (Brandon) who works downtown. It turns out that Brandon saw the same WASJ about 100 feet away from where we were. We decided to return to Waterville and leave the "field of pits"- former home of "the Fiddler". We planned to go north the next day anyway.

Not much to see at Waterville. Apparently SAPPI-3 had just arrived and the power was down by the yard office (left photo). No more "Geeps". At least the unusual #381 (low nose headlights - right photo) was apparently doing the switching chores. No more traffic on the scanner so we headed home.

Back near Lewiston we heard scanner chatter in or around Danville Jct. so we checked it out. Before we could get there we heard something about the brakes on #348, which was doing DJ-1 duties. When we arrived WAAY was backing out of the siding and leaving town. Maybe there was an aborted pick-up of the unit? Skull confirmed the train symbol by asking the passing crew who nodded and waved back.

THURSDAY:

On this day we were joined by "the Videoman". We made a fairly leisurely departure from Danville and headed north up the turnpike. Not much going on via the scanner so we made a bee-line run to Waterville and NMJ. Waterville was very empty and quiet, apart from a mill job somewhere. NMJ was a little better. The two PAR units in the depot area did move a bit but the yard was unusually empty. No scanner chatter at all from the MMA.

From here we worked our way up to Old Town and Route 2. The idea was to follow the line to "the Keag". Since we were expecting to see little, we took our time. However, as we approached Mattawamkeag the NBSR channel became more active. An MOW foreman was looking for clearance for work from the St. John RTC. The RTC in turn, by the sound of it, was expecting the EB freight out of Brownville to be calling at about the same time. In the end we found out that an actual NBSR train would be passing if we simply waited. Excellent! We set up at the Rt. 2 crossing around the entryway to the Verso pulpwood yard. This provided a good view of the unusual bridge over the Penobscot River. My best shot is at the top of this post.

It did take over an hour to anything to arrive. Sunscreen was called for in this case and the "biteless black flies" were a nuisance. But, it was more than worth any discomfort. The train came over the bridge with 4 of its cars and picked up the 56 cars of the former WASJ chased the previous day from PAR. Then it backed the whole thing over the bridge and unified the whole train. This gave us some time to skip ahead to the depot area.

The NBSR MOW crew was taking a break near their vehicles in the lot and were very friendly. We introduced ourselves (Videoman's Train Time video got their attention) to some who were chatting near their cars. They said trains run on Tue-Thu-Sat. We got lucky. As the train neared the crew lined up on either side of the tracks to inspect the train. We set up nearer the Mattawamkeag River bridge. The full train was over 100 cars and about 25 of them were auto racks - something seen in few places but the old CP line in Maine. As the train crosses the river an MOW guy gets on the radio and says something to the effect of: " I hope you guys were smiling for the Channel 9 News". Like playing "telephone", it was mentioned earlier that Train Time can be seen on Augusta channel 9 public cable, and the latest translation was just too funny.

Here's an excerpt from Skull's post:

After many years of going to the "KEAG" We hit a homerun. We caught the east bound train from Brownville Junction. He picked up a long string of cars off of Pan Am's main line. Most were on yesterdays

WASJ.. Also 2 track cars, MOW machines on PanAm. They have been doing a lot of tie and ballast work on the line. The NBSR power was 9802 - 2612 - 008(SLUG) - 2318. He went east on the "Mattawaumkeag Sub" at 14:40. The NBSR / Maine Eastern had a lot of MOW guys working the line. Told us the NBSR runs

over to Brownville Junction on Tuesday,Thursday & Saturdays.We then swung up thru East Millinocket,

completely dead with rusted rails. quite a few cars in Millinocket Yard along with ex Conrail B23-7 2000.

Over in Brownville Junction the yard was hopping as they were building a train for Montreal with a long string pushed over the bridge on the NBSR Main Line. I could see 2 C-30's and 1 B39-8E at the east end of the yard but we couldn't get close enough to get the numbers. Derby Shops were closed up so we headed down to "DYSARTS TRUCKSTOP" in Hermon for our annual H.A.P.T. Dinner. A Fun day today.

Till Next Time Railfans

As you can see we continued to make the big loop over to Millinocket, Brownville, Derby and NMJ, with a final stop at Dysarts to dine with HAPT's "Northern Correspondent". Millinocket was about the only other place pictures were taken. The yard had cars this year but only the former Conrail B23-7 #2000. The inactive engine house area had a scale car which I worked into a photo. Not much to photograph at any other location though Brownville was "active" but obscured by trains, trees and lack of access. Another good day for a drive in the woods up north though. The NBSR made the whole week.

FRIDAY:
It was a bit tougher to roll out and get going after all the driving up to this point. It was early afternoon before we headed towards Portland to see what was moving. Low key day as it turned out. We rolled through Danville and turned south to New Gloucester and Royal Jct. The usual drive to catch something east out of Rigby. Very little seemed to be moving during the day as before so we suspected that work on the Downeaster extention to Brunswick was the culprit. At Royal we saw lit signals, plenty of track work completed and a work truck parked past the switch. Previous experience with nosy local law enforcement dictated that we move on.

We stopped by the Downeaster terminal at Thompson's Point. Plenty of equipment was on hand and it appeared that the departure due to run in 10 minutes might be slightly delayed. The train was sitting just past the crossing and spare units and cars were in two places. Skull got out for some quick pictures but we took off in a hurry for CPF201 in South Portland. The tiny delay gave us plenty of time to arrive at the private crossing and get ready. As happened last year when we saw the Downeaster, Billy's luck caught a day when two cars and a "mud missile" were headed to servicing in Boston. We proceeded back to Rigby to see if anything was stirring. Other than the usual sights and sounds, nothing appeared to be following the Downeaster.

We hoped for a freight since there was about a 5 hour window on the Portland end to sneak a train through. There were no westbounds so maybe an eastbound was hiding in Wells or beyond. So we headed south following the line on Rt. 1 and Rt. 9. Nothing. We turned in at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunk. I decided to look through the book store (I did buy a couple of books) but no tour since they were going to close in 30 minutes. Skull told me lots of tidbits about a bunch of "T" items seen from the parking lot. That made for an interesting stop. Most times any of us go by this area it's early, late or out of season s0 the place is closed. This was much better than usual.

We headed straight back at that point. We had a "slide show" planned for my living room at 7pm. On the way we heard tidbits on the scanner about a train running out of time around Rockingham Jct. in NH. Apparently PH-1 was going to take over. Well, that was too far and too long given our circumstances. At least something was moving though. We did have time for some really large calzones at Mario's in New Gloucester on the way. Slides by the Wheelman; Train Time segments by Videoman; and a few odd photos by me on the LCD screen. A fun way to end the day. The four of us quit around midnight.


SATURDAY:
We were beginning to think Skull was hated by the District 1 gods. Fewer trains than usual were seen during this visit. This day seemed little different at first. Skull and I had breakfast at Roy's and they do change over to lunch at 11am as we were told. Lunch conversion took place at 11am sharp while we finished. But, while we could see the D-1 tracks, no trains went by

After picking up the DT&I Fan, we struck out for Leeds Jct. We planned to go over the Rumford branch. This is nearly "home turf" for me since I've been commuting to work in the valley for going on 20 years. Though we hoped to see something, not surprisingly we saw empty tracks all the way to Rumford. There we found that RUPO had just arrived. Past practice seemed to be that it took about an hour or so to unload one train and take off with another, if it left was going to leave right away. We grabbed soda and snacks at McDonalds and returned to find the power tied up at the roundhouse. I guess they weren't leaving soon after all. Time to return down the branch. The scanner was totally dead the whole way except for occasional locals around Waterville. We were hoping for a branch train of some kind but would settle for a WB on the freight main. It was not to be.

Luck changed as we approached Lewiston. Scanner chatter picked up. We had time to go to Danville Jct. and found POWA working the junction right away. They had a nice large set of power with new blue units up front and the old "sludge gray" in back. We arrived as they pick up DJ-1 unit #348. They'd already set out and picked up their cars. They were on the siding to get 348 sitting on the old main spur over the now gone diamond. They disappeared toward Black Cat Rd. as they worked back to their train on the mainline. The siding and the SLR track have stop signs on either side of the grade crossing which we watched in use. Apparently the crossing signal circuits don't activate until that point and by stopping, the gates have time to respond. The circuits also don't send the gates down for every move in the yard either. The main track has plenty of lead time for the gates to come down though.

While all of this happened we heard horns on the SLR. Something was coming down. As POWA did their inspections to leave, down comes SLR's LLPX#1512 and A small train to work the interchange. Unlike the old days, the two trains went about their business without conflict. In the days of the diamond they would have held each other up waiting for the signal to cross. Now they carry on on parallel tracks. POWA left town as the SLR train disappeared into the yard. We gave chase, but this is Pan Am not Union Pacific, so we stopped at Irving to grab snacks. We heard the SLR crew on the scanner mention something to the effect; "The cameras have scattered. They didn't care about us." when they re-emerged from the yard and we had made our escape.

We had plenty of time for this chase. Being a Saturday, traffic was minimal in Lewiston so we headed to Strawberry Ave. for a photo. We were ahead by a few minutes. From there we got ahead to the "Lady in the Field" - the defect detector at 157.9 on Merrill Rd. No pictures there since the evening light was in our face, but we wanted to be sure it came through town without stopping. Our last wait was in Greene. We stopped at Barrel Shop Rd. (Barrel-Ass Rd. to some of us.) This was shady but the sun was all wrong anyway so I made the best of it. A local resident and railfan came out with his video camera to film while we were there. DT&I Fan knew him and had a conversation as the train neared. We left while the train was still passing and the video camera was still rolling. A re-crew was waiting in a cab at Leeds Jct. so we simply watched the approach from Roy and the train asked where to stop for the changeover.

Light was failing and exhaustion from over 900 miles of railfan road trips was setting in. Another excellent day was ending and with it the end of our exploits with Skull for another year.

BC