Development
In the 1930s, the Italian state railways, Ferrovie dello Stato, electrified the main line Milan-Bologna-Florence-Rome-Naples and needed a fast train to use on it and on other newly-electrified ones. The project was started in 1934, using new technologies for steel and aerodynamics. The innovative nose of the train was developed after studies in the wind tunnel at the Politecnico di Torino engineering university. The first example was built by Società Italiana Ernesto Breda in 1936, with three cars on four bogies, two of which had a single T 62-R-100 motor while the others were provided with two similar motors each.
The train had been designed for speeds up to 175 km/h, but the first pantographs caused problems over 130 km/h. The ETR 200 entered service in 1937 on the Bologna-Rome-Naples line. They were considered the most comfortable and fast trains in Europe, and Benito Mussolini had one sent to the Universal Exposition in New York of that year. On December 6, 1937 ETR 212 established, in the central sector of the Rome-Naples line (Campoleone-Cisterna), a new top speed record by running at 201 km/h.
On 20 July 1939, the ETR 212 driven by chief machinist Mr.Alessandro Cervellati, established a new world record running at 203 km/h from Pontenure to Piacenza (on the Milan-Bologna line). A popular myth says that Benito Mussolini himself was at the controls, but is proven to be fake.
The production of the ETR 200 was halted by World War II, and many were damaged by Allied bombings. In the early 1960s the remaining sixteen units were converted to ETR 220/230/240 by adding a fourth car and other changes. They remained in service until the early 1980s, and were later used for charter trains up until the 1990s. Unit ETR 232, former 212, has been converted as a historical train and is fully working. Another non-working unit is stored in Ancona.
Read more about this topic: ETR 200
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