The
FS Class E.380 was a small class of
three-phase electric locomotive
An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or g ...
used in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, introduced in the 1900s.
Overview
The locomotives, which entered in service in a small batch of 4 units, were characterized by a central cabin with two large hoods at each end. Built by
Ganz
The Ganz Works or Ganz ( or , ''Ganz companies'', formerly ''Ganz and Partner Iron Mill and Machine Factory'') was a group of companies operating between 1845 and 1949 in Budapest, Hungary. It was named after Ábrahám Ganz, the founder and th ...
, they had a similar mechanical equipment to the
E.360 type. The E.380s showed a series of problems, so that two were refurbished as E.390.
Technical details
The two fixed speeds were obtained by changing the motor connections. For high speed the motors were connected in
parallel
Parallel is a geometric term of location which may refer to:
Computing
* Parallel algorithm
* Parallel computing
* Parallel metaheuristic
* Parallel (software), a UNIX utility for running programs in parallel
* Parallel Sysplex, a cluster of ...
. For low speed the two motors were "cascaded" by connecting the
rotor
Rotor may refer to:
Science and technology
Engineering
* Rotor (electric), the non-stationary part of an alternator or electric motor, operating with a stationary element so called the stator
*Helicopter rotor, the rotary wing(s) of a rotorcraft ...
of one motor to the
stator of the other. This caused both motors to run at half speed.
Withdrawal
The low power output at the highest speed, and the limitation of use to only two fixed speeds (due to the control arrangement of the three-phase motors) led both classes to be retired after a short service period.
References
1′C1′ locomotives
E.380
Railway locomotives introduced in 1905
Three-phase AC locomotives
Standard gauge locomotives of Italy
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