The

Ferrovie dello Stato Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A. ( "Italian Railways of the State"; previously only Ferrovie dello Stato, hence the abbreviation FS) is Italy's national state-owned railway holding company that manages transport, infrastructure, real estat ...

(FS, Italian State Railways) Class 625 ( it, Gruppo 625) is a class of

2-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. ...

'mogul' steam locomotives in Italy. The class is commonly known by the nickname ''Signorine'' (Italian for 'young ladies', also shared with the similar Class 640 locomotives), or ''Signorina'' in the singular, because of their perceived grace and beauty compared to other locomotives.

Design and construction

The Class 625 was the superheated and simple-expansion version of the pre-existing mixed traffic Class 600 design. Following the success of the Class 640 (itself a superheated and simple-expansion version of the older Class 630 engines) previous designs were altered accordingly, and 108 of the class were built by various companies in Italy between 1910 and 1914, with a further 80 constructed between 1922 and 1923, the last 25 by

Berliner Maschinenbau Berliner Maschinenbau AG was a German manufacturer of locomotives. The factory was founded by Louis Victor Robert Schwartzkopff on 3 October 1852 as ''Eisengießerei und Maschinen-Fabrik von L. Schwartzkopff'' in Berlin. History The facto ...

; the gap in the production run was caused by the events of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Class 625 3xx conversions

From 1929 onwards the existing 188 class 625 locomotives were supplemented by a further 153 locomotives rebuilt from older

FS Class 600 The Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FS; Italian State Railways) Class 600 (Italian: ''Gruppo 600''), formerly Rete Adriatica Class 380 and Società per le Strade Ferrate Meridionali Class 380, is a 2-6-0 'Mogul' steam locomotive; it is considered by ...

engines; those, that could be distinguished from the Class 625 only from their being

compound Compound may refer to: Architecture and built environments * Compound (enclosure), a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall ** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive struct ...

and non-superheated locomotives, had been constructed between 1904 and 1910 by Gio. Ansaldo & C.,

Costruzioni Meccaniche di Saronno Costruzioni Meccaniche di Saronno was an Italian company producing steam locomotives and cars, active from 1887 to 1918. Origins The origins of the engineering company are to be found in a framework of political agreements of the economic-militar ...

, and

Henschel & Son Henschel & Son (german: Henschel und Sohn) was a German company, located in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting vehic ...

. A total of 153 class 600 engines were

superheated A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into superheated steam or dry steam. Superheated steam is used in steam turbines for electricity generation, steam engines, and in processes such as steam reforming. There are ...

, fitted with

Caprotti valve gear The Caprotti valve gear is a type of steam engine valve gear invented in the early 1920s by Italian architect and engineer Arturo Caprotti. It uses camshafts and poppet valves rather than the piston valves used in other valve gear. While basi ...

and reclassified as class 625 machines between 1929 and 1933. Their class number changed from 600 to 625; they retained the sequential numbering from their original classification, but with the initial number altered to a 3. Thus the original 600 008 became 625 308, for example. After 1933 the remaining unrebuilt 95 class 600 engines were gradually scrapped.

Operation

The locomotives were designed for mixed-traffic operation (use on both passenger and freight services) and were designed to operate on steep gradients. The first examples of the class entered service upon completion in 1910, and the final operational examples were withdrawn from mainline service in 1976. A number of locomotives in the class were retained in mothballed working condition as part of Italian Railways' policy of keeping steam locomotives in reserve, well into the era of internal combustion and electric motive power. The final withdrawal from the reserve fleet was locomotive 625 100 in 1998.

Class 623 conversions

In the early 1950s a total of 35 class 625 locomotives, of which ten were ex-Class 600 rebuilds, were rebuilt into the class 623. Fitted with the

Franco-Crosti boiler The Franco–Crosti boiler is a type of boiler used for steam locomotives. It was designed in the 1930s by Attilio Franco and Dr Piero Crosti. The main difference between it and conventional feedwater heaters widely used on the continent is that t ...

(with two pre-heaters placed on the sides of the boiler), these engines were visually distinctive. The design was not successful, and these engines were all withdrawn by the early 1970s, with none surviving into preservation.

In popular culture

A number of scale models of class 625 locomotives have been manufactured by Italian model company

Rivarossi Rivarossi is an Italian manufacturers of model railways. In 2004 it was acquired by Hornby Railways. History Rivarossi was founded in 1945 by Alessandro Rossi and Antonio Riva. In the 1990s Rivarossi acquired Lima (1992), Jouef and Arnold (1997 ...

. Locomotive 625 116 featured in the 2013 Italian cinema film ''The Magistrate'' by

Giulio Base Giulio Base (born 6 December 1964) is an Italian film director. He has received two doctorates, one in Literature and Philosophy and another in Theology, and has been a member of Mensa International since 1996. Career Base began his career a ...

. Locomotive 625 017 has gained some attention through operations on the Vatican Railway (the world's only national railway network to own no locomotives). The engine hauled a train for

Pope John XXIII Pope John XXIII ( la, Ioannes XXIII; it, Giovanni XXIII; born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, ; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death in June 19 ...

in 1962, and in 2015 hauled the inaugural train of

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

's weekly train service from

Vatican City railway station The Vatican Railway ( it, Ferrovia Vaticana) was opened in 1934 to serve Vatican City and its only station, Vatican City ( , or ). The main rail tracks are standard gauge and long, with two freight sidings, making it the shortest national r ...

Castel Gandolfo Castel Gandolfo (, , ; la, Castrum Gandulphi), colloquially just Castello in the Castelli Romani dialects, is a town located southeast of Rome in the Lazio region of Italy. Occupying a height on the Alban Hills overlooking Lake Albano, Castel Ga ...

. The engine has also hauled the Italian royal family.

Preservation

Twenty-five Class 625 locomotives survived into preservation; amongst them 625.100, 625.116 (private museum owner), 625.142 and 625.177 are currently operational and available for heritage trains.Many of these locomotives may be located throug
Steam Locomotive
database. Of particular note is 625.308, the only remaining FS locomotive with internal

, currently being restored at

Pistoia Pistoia (, is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of a province of the same name, located about west and north of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno. It is a typi ...

References

External links

Locomotive Gruppo 625 FS drawings (Archivio Fondazione FS Italiane – www.archiviofondazionefs.it)
{{FS locos

625 __NOTOC__ Year 625 ( DCXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 625 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar er ...

2-6-0 locomotives Gio. Ansaldo & C. locomotives Berliner locomotives Costruzioni Meccaniche di Saronno locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1914 Standard gauge locomotives of Italy 1′C h2 locomotives Mixed traffic locomotives