FS class E636

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FS class E636

Image:E636014milanoclefotosnos copia.jpg E636.014 in Milan in the 1950s
Power type	Electric
Builder	Breda, OM CGE, OM Reggiane, Marelli, SNOS Savigliano, FIAT, TIBB, OF Pistoiesi, Ansaldo
Build date	1940-1962
UIC classification	Bo-Bo-Bo
Wheel diameter	1.250 m
Wheelbase	5.200 m between bogies 3.150 m between axles in each bogie
Length	18.250 m
Width	3.000 m
Height	3.380 m
Total weight	101 tons
Transmission	21/65 and 24/74 gear ratios
Top speed	110 km/h
Power output	2,100 kW
Career	FS Trenitalia
Number in class	469
First run	1940
Disposition	decommissioned in 2006

The FS E636 is a class of Italian railways electric locomotives. They were introduced in the course of the 1940s until the 1960s, and, as 2006, they are being decommissioned.

[edit] History

The E636 were designed to overcome the problems showed in the 1930s by both the E626 multi-purpose and E326 high-speed locomotives, in order to better handle the increasing railway traffic in Italy.

The E636 was the first Italian locomotive adopting the Bo-Bo-Bo configuration with chassis divided into two articulated parts pivoting on the central bogie, which will be repeated on the E645/646 and E656 classes. The presence of a great number of wheels was considered important due of the presence of a number of high-slope lines in the Italian railroad net. Weight of the new engines amounted to 101 tons. Engines were initially the same than E626, the 32R, fed from 3000 V catenary: as they showed soon inadequate, they were updated and provided with a new hollow axle transmission system. Two different gear rates were installed: 21/65 for sloping lines or heavy trains (maximum speed of 95 km/h), and the longer 28/65, with a maximum speed of 120 km/h.

The locomotive was built in three different series:

• 1st series (001-108), from 1940 to 1942
• 2nd series (109-243), from 1952 to 1956
• 3rd series (001-008), from 1957 to 1962

The first unit entered service in the May 1940. Six locomotives were destroyed during World War II, and, after the end of the conflict, the total was brought to 469, also thanks to the support from Marshall Plan. All the units were painted with an auburn livery: this was changed in the 1990s to a white one with green stripes to most of the units.

As for 2000s railway standards, E636s are old and uncomfortable machines. The original design of the cockpits proved aboslutely unfit to modern safety standards: this was showed in an accident occurred in 1996 at Sulmona, in which the engine driver died despite the low speed, without being able to leave in time the cockpit. 200 units were therefore revamped and, among the other interventions, stripped of every asbestos part.

Starting from 1990s, E636 were used mainly for goods services, save for the more backlog Sicilian lines. Some units were lent to minor Italian railroads. The phasing out of the entire class was completed in May 2006.