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Littorina Builder's Information

Littorina Builder's Information

Builder's Information on Eritrean Littorina.


Car Diagram FIAT Model Sigla esercente Year Qty Wheel Argmnt Type of Engines Horse power Top Speed (Km/h)
011 A 60 1935 2 1A-A1 Gas 2 X 120 79
025 A A 62 1935 6 1A-A1 Diesel 2 X 115 68
025 C A 68 1936 1 1A-A1 Diesel 2 X 115 68
025 D A 69 1936 2 1A-A1 Diesel 2 X 115 68

The above material was extracted from a table provided by Renato Gaudio titled "Automotrici FIAT in circulazione prima del 1940."  He says that the first red littorina image and the control stand image come from the Periodical italian Magazine "Mondo Ferroviario" issue 55, January 1991.  The other photos of this page come from an old catalog issued by Fiat.

The Eritrean Littorina were built by FIAT. That railway has 950 mm gauge.  FIAT has posters of the Littorina on their corporate website.  Here, I have captured a few.

Please notice that the table shows a total of 11 railcars. Two of which have gasoline engines. The earliest Jane's World Railways I have found only had show eight diesel cars. Both gasoline and one diesel must have died before 1966.

Motor Coach · Littorina · Undergoing Finishing Processes

The view of the factory floor shows a Littorina bound for Eritrea under construction. . Prior to 1940, only the colonial cars for Libya, Ethiopia and Eritrea had the distinctive double roof shown on them. The Eritrean model was shorter than the others and had a more vertical front.

The top model is the Eritrean. The middle Ethiopian and the bottom Libyan.  This double roof helped stave off the high desert heat in the flats between Massawa and the mountains. Massawa is only about 15° above the equator. I had seen it over 140°F (60°C) at midday during my visits. During a trip down the mountain, it remained cool inside until about 1/2 the way across the region between the mountains and Massawa. We called this area the flats.

The drive on the Eritrean Littorina I rode was a manual transmission. Left to right, the above pictures show the final drive, drive truck frame and drive truck frame with engine. The final drive is standard gauge. The other two look as though they may be narrow gage. In this particular case, this shows a gasoline engine.

The driver's control panel that I remember looked very much like this:


Unless otherwise specifically noted,
all pictures on this page were courtesy of Renato Gaudio.

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