Ansaldo 'steam' locomotive query

[Robinson102]

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone might be able to help me with a query.

I've recently acquired an image of a Locomotive built by Ansaldo, which appears to be either a 4-6-2 or 2-6-4 locomotive of some kind. It appears to have cylinders, coupling rods, spoked wheels, a bunker etc... But it also appears to have some rather confusing features such as a radiator, a very diesel-looking bonnet, and some sort of cylinder mounted on top.

I've never seen anything that looked remotely like this - I've attempted some research on Ansaldo locomotives, and can mainly only come up with diesel and electric locomotives.

I can attempt to post a scan of the image, if this would help.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

 

[duesselmartin]

I once read an article somewhere that Greece obtained post-war Ansaldo steam locos. It was part of the FYRA discussion where someone mentioned that those steam locos were also notoriously unreliable.

 

[Zoidberg]

Hi all,
...

I can attempt to post a scan of the image, if this would help.

...

I imagine that an image would help muchly

 

[Robinson102]

Hi all,

There should hopefully be an image of this strange Ansaldo locomotive attached to this post.

Any information/help would be much appreciated!

 

[Zamracene749]

Looking at it, the diesel tanks, heat exchanger and lack of steam anywhere suggested diesel compressed air drive- with a bit of help from google translate it turns out that was indeed the case.

From what I can make out, it was one of a series of experimental locos trialing different types of diesel transmissions. The brochure is here, http://www.trenidicarta.it/pdf/3/3869.pdf but it's in Italian (which I don't speak) so anybody that can give a basic translation.......

Apparently a similar locomotive was trialled in Germany too

 

[theageofthetra]

Have a look on the 'Unusual Locomotives' part of

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/diesair/diesair.htm

Looks like Marklin even made a model of a German version.

 

[Zamracene749]

Fascinating link, amazing how the thing ended up on a Tuvalu stamp!

 

[Robinson102]

Hmm... Now that's interesting. It's a very strange looking locomotive, that's for sure!