Product Features and Details
Only 50 were produced worldwide, we only have one in stock.
Model: The Micro Metakit Italian Class E626 is a handmade brass model and is painted in the attractive Prussian Brown Green Livery. It features full cab interior, functional boiler hatch with full boiler details and a Faulhaber type brushless, ironless bell-shaped motor. Model is a masterpiece and it features too many technical and optical details to list. Model is very limited, only 80 were produced worldwide.
Micro Metakit models are handmade museum quality models, there dedication to quality and high standards have made these brass locomotives the most sought after by collectors throughout the world. Original Micro-Metakit® models feature "Faulhaber" type brushless/ironless maintenance-free motors, Full cab interiors (see below), functional boiler hatch, boiler interior, sprung buffers, Functional cab doors and step plate between tender and cab, All 4-cylinder locomotives are fully functional, Handmade brass construction in extremely limited quantities, and Detailed Cab Interiors and Window Glazing. Each Original Micro-Metakit® has complete cab detailing, including all of the gauges and controls found on the prototype. They've even included scale window glazing. An examination of one of these locomotives will reveal details that will surprise even the most discriminating
collector.
Prototype: The Italian Class E626 Electric Locomotives were produced for the Ferrovie Dello Stato in the 1920's and remained in service until the 1990s. The E626 was the first locomotive fed by 3,000 V DC overhead line in Italy. The E.626 class is the result of a requirement issued in 1926 by the Ferrovie Dello Stato (FS, Italian Railways) for a new locomotive to be used under the new 3,000 V DC line being built between Foggia and Benevento. The design was carried out by the team of Giuseppe Bianchi, the "founder" of modern Italian railways, at the FS Traction and Material Service in Florence. The requirement specified the locomotive should have six traction axles, to improve adhesion on steep lines. The E.626 series totaled 448 units in three series, each with only slight electro-mechanical differences. It was old-fashioned but reliable, and it became the mainstay of the new FS lines which gradually spread to the whole peninsula. In 1930 the mass production was started, with the first series of 85 units. In the meantime, the E.625 were re-converted to E.626. In 1934-1938 a record number of 308 units was built, while in 1939 the last series, with low gear ratio, was shipped (they were later standardized). The new E636 of the 1940s initially shared the motors and some of the electro-mechanical devices with the E.626. After the destruction of World War II, in 1946 an updating and repair programme was launched. Some other units remained in the countries previously occupied by Italy. Seventeen locomotives were ceded to the Yugoslavian Railways (Class E361) and, in 1958, four were given to Czechoslovakia (Class E 666.0). Now inadequate for the passenger role, the E.626s were transferred to freight service, apart from working commuter trains in some areas of Italy.
In the 1970s, the E.626s fell out of favor, partly because of complaints from trade unions about poor working conditions for the crew. Fourteen units were sold to private railways and the remaining units were gradually replaced by more modern classes and scrapped. The last unit to be decommissioned was E.626.194, which was used for rescue trains, in 1999.
