FS Class E412 - History

History

In the early 1990s, Ferrovie dello Stato started an operational plan to organize an integrated rail system with the countries on Italy's northern border, following the European political-economic unification process. Austria and Germany used different railway electrification systems, necessitating the use of a locomotive able to use a variety of electric systems: alternate and direct current, varying from 1,500 to 15,000 Volts.

The E.412 class was to be used on the longest, steepest and hardest mountain-crossing line, connecting Verona Porta Nuova and Brennero/Brenner, crowded with cargo and passenger trains and with different electrifications. Before the E.412's were introduced, the route required three locomotive changes. The Italian railroad's goal was for trains to reach Germany without changing locomotives.

The contract was signed in 1993 with an Italian-German consortium, Adtranz, headed by ABB Trazione and AEG, based in Vado Ligure. The first unit was delivered on 14 April 1997. It successfully passed its initial tests, showing excellent performance and strong reliability. The remaining 19 units in the first batch were delivered shortly after the completion of the test to the Italian railway administration. Another 8 (Polish class EU43) were ordered in 1996 but never bought by Polish railways (PKP). Those locomotives were afterwards bought by the Italian company Rail Traction Company to serve on the same line and still have Polish EU43 designation.

In 1998 new trials were made to for service on Swiss lines. These trials resulted in failure when the deal between Trenitalia and the Logistics division of SBB was scrapped.

In 2004 the class was certified as backup power for malfunctioning locomotives. In 2005 talks began to move the class of locomotives to the passenger division, swapping them with older E.646 and E.656 class locomotives used for passenger service (but better suited for cargo). These machines could have been removed from passenger trains, and refitted as E.645 or E.655 by changing the transmission gears. Having 3 bogies instead of 2, these locomotives have better adhesion on steep grades and could be easily fitted with multiple traction control. However, those old machines have proven not very reliable, so they have been deemed not suited to the intense use on this line.

E.412.001 was the first Italian locomotive to be built with the new unified color scheme "XMPR".

The Italian E.464 class (for light commuter trains) is based on E.412, sharing part of their components to reduce building costs and to simplify maintenance.