FS Class 691
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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 estate ...
(FS; Italian State Railways) Class 691 ( it, Gruppo 691) is a class of
4-6-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. The locomotiv ...
'Pacific' locomotives; they were the fastest and most powerful locomotives ever built for the Italian railways.


Origin

By the end of the 1920s the FS were considering the possibility of building a new class of Pacific locomotives for mainline express duties; the existing Class 690 ones were poor steamers (because of the small firebox) and therefore not being successful (with the much lighter Class S.685
2-6-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels, six coupled driving wheels and two trailing wheels. This arrangement is commonly called a Prairie. Overview The major ...
locomotives having the same performance as them). This class, which should have been the Class 695, would have had however a very high axle load (as much as 21 t), which would have required strengthening of the lines they were supposed to serve; as electrification was becoming more and more prominent, such an expense was considered unwarranted. Therefore, a less ambitious plan, which involved rebuilding the Class 690 locomotives (and which would have entailed a lower axle load), was approved. The boiler of the Class 690 was replaced by the one fitted on the Class 746 locomotives; the trailing axle was replaced by a
Bissel truck A Bissell or Bissel truck (also Bissel bogie or Pony truck) is a single-axle bogie which pivots towards the centre of a steam locomotive to enable it to negotiate curves more easily. Invented in 1857 by and usually then known as a ''pony truck'' ...
, to sustain the weight of the new, larger firebox, and a Nielebock-Knorr pre-heater was added. The 33 locomotives were rebuilt, part by the FS workshops, and part by the
Ernesto Breda Ernesto, form of the name Ernest in several Romance languages, may refer to: * ''Ernesto'' (novel) (1953), an unfinished autobiographical novel by Umberto Saba, published posthumously in 1975 ** ''Ernesto'' (film), a 1979 Italian drama loosely ba ...
company. Initially, they would have received the same tender designed for the Class 695, but in the end an enlarged version of the standard FS bogie tender was fitted.


Operation

The Class 691 served on the
Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
-
Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
(up to 1938, when the line was electrified) and the Milan-
Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400  ...
mainlines throughout their careers, pulling the heaviest and fastest express trains. Three of them were destroyed or irreparably damaged in the years of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. After the electrification of the Milan-Venice railway in the spring of 1957, some locomotives remained active for some time on the Venice-
Cervignano del Friuli Cervignano del Friuli ( fur, Çarvignan or locally , lat, Cervenianum) is a ''comune'' in the province of Udine, Italy. It is the most important town of Bassa Friulana. It lies at about from the Laguna di Grado and at about from the Adriatic Se ...
line, but by the early 1960s they were all withdrawn. The 691.011 scored the speed record, between the stations of
Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...
and
Padova Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...
, for the Italian steam locomotives, with .


Modifications

In 1939, the 691.026 was given a streamlined casing, which was unsuccessful; by 1946 the casing had already been removed. In 1943, the 691.004 was fitted with a smoke deflector with bad results.


Preservation

Only one locomotive of the class survived into preservation, the 691.022, which is a static exhibit at the
Museo della Scienza e della Tecnologia "Leonardo da Vinci" Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan, dedicated to painter and scientist Leonardo da Vinci, is the largest science and technology museum in Italy. It was opened on 5 February 1953 and inaugurated by Prime Minister Alci ...
in Milan.


References

* * {{FS locos
691 __NOTOC__ Year 691 ( DCXCI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 691 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era b ...
4-6-2 locomotives Breda locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1928 Standard gauge locomotives of Italy 2′C1′ h4 locomotives Passenger locomotives