The
Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane
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 680 (Italian: ''Gruppo 680'') is a
2-6-2 express steam locomotive; it was the direct ancestor of the very successful and appreciated
Class 685.
Design and construction
The Class 680 was designed as the "normalized" successor of the famous
Class 500 (reclassified by the Ferrovie dello Stato as Class 670) fast locomotives of the
Rete Adriatica; in fact, even before the RA ended up being nationalized in the Ferrovie dello Stato in 1905, there was already a project (with the projected classification RA 550 for a fast 2-6-2 locomotive which shared several similarities with what would end up becoming, under the FS ownership, the Class 680.
The Class featured the widespread
Italian bogie, and the same
Plancher compound engine of the Class 500, an arrangement in which the two high pressure (HP) and the two low pressure (LP) cylinders were paired together respectively on the left and the right side of the locomotive, with each pair being served by a single piston valve via crossed ports. This ingenious arrangement was simple, but it made the locomotive somewhat unbalanced and unstable, especially at higher speed.
The Class 680 was built from 1907 to 1909 in 151 units by
Ernesto Breda,
Gio. Ansaldo & C. and
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 ...
, with the last two locomotives being built by the former company respectively in 1909 and 1911.
Initially, the Class 680 was fitted with a three-axle tender with a water capacity of , but it proved prone to derail at high speeds (especially on the
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
-
Ventimiglia
Ventimiglia (; lij, label= Intemelio, Ventemiglia , lij, label= Genoese, Vintimiggia; french: Vintimille ; oc, label= Provençal, Ventemilha ) is a resort town in the province of Imperia, Liguria, northern Italy. It is located southwest of ...
line); therefore, those were swapped with the bogie tenders of the
Class 625, with a higher capacity of .
Service
A brief success
The first locomotive, when outshopped from the Ernesto Breda factory in 1907, was initially assigned the classification FS 6401, but a few days later it was reclassified FS 6801. Over the next years, new classifications with five and eventually six numbers (with the class and the running numbers separated by a full stop) were adopted, the class ending up as 680.XXX.
The Class 680 proved to be a thoroughly good locomotive, replacing the Class 670 from the most important services on the
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
-
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
and
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
-Rome railways. During a trial run, the locomotive 6801 (later 680.001) pulled from
Parma
Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...
to
Piacenza
Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...
a special train weighing , reaching a top speed of .
However, its success was relatively brief, as in 1912 the
Class 685, basically its simple-expansion and
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 ...
version, entered service; the new locomotive was more powerful and had smoother riding qualities, and thus the recent Class 680 locomotives ended up obsolete.
Rebuilds and conversions
The last two locomotives built, the 680.150 and 151, had been fitted experimentally with a superheater from the start, but results had not been positive, as the theoretical increase in performance was offset by the reduction of steaming ability. Nevertheless, this experiment paved the way for a general rebuilding campaign for the whole class, in a bid to achieve the same performance as the Class 685.
From 1918 to 1924 seventy-three locomotives were rebuilt with a new small-tube superheater; initially allocated to the subclass 680.2XX, they were eventually reclassified in the new Class 681. A further fifteen locomotives (with two more being obtained by modifying two Class 681) also received larger HP cylinders ( instead of ); these, initially allocated to the 680.4XX subclass, were eventually reclassified Class 682. The latter were the maximum evolution of the Plancher compound engine for passenger trains.
In 1924 and 1925, the Class 682 locomotives were assigned to the shed of
Ancona
Ancona (, also , ) is a city and a seaport in the Marche region in central Italy, with a population of around 101,997 . Ancona is the capital of the province of Ancona and of the region. The city is located northeast of Rome, on the Adriatic ...
and subjected to comparative trials against the Class 685; the results proved that, although the former were slightly more powerful than the latter ( instead of ), they had higher consumption of water and coal, and did not ride as smoothly at high speed as the 685s. This resulted in the decision to stop any further rebuilds, and instead outright convert not only the remaining Class 680 locomotives, but also the 681 and 682, into Class 685 locomotives.
These conversion lasted from 1925 to 1933, at the end of which only four Class 680, twelve Class 681 and fifteen Class 682 remained unrebuilt, with all the remaining 120 locomotives becoming the subclasses 685.3XX and 685.5XX in the Class 685, and the separate Class S.685.5XX.
The last years
The unrebuilt locomotives continued to serve on secondary roles for the rest of their careers; before World War Two they were already being used sporadically, but during the conflict they were returned to active service. After the war, their withdrawals began, and by 1955 these were all completed.
Preservation
One Class 680, the 680.037, survived in preservation; after a lengthy stay in
Merano
Merano (, , ) or Meran () is a city and ''comune'' in South Tyrol, northern Italy. Generally best known for its spa resorts, it is located within a basin, surrounded by mountains standing up to above sea level, at the entrance to the Passeier ...
, she was eventually transferred to the
Pietrarsa railway museum.
References
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{{FS locos
680
2-6-2 locomotives
Compound locomotives
Gio. Ansaldo & C. locomotives
Breda locomotives
Berliner locomotives
Standard gauge locomotives of Italy
1′C1′ n4v locomotives
Passenger locomotives