Hellas-Express

These fascinating vehicles were built in Italy in 1950/51 and have the classic Italian peak roof and brake hut. They were built for ferry traffic and were thus to the smaller British loading gauge, had British pattern lever handbrakes and were I believe dual air/vacuum braked, the photos showing what appears to be a standard British type vacuum brake pipe connection on the body end. They were used on meat/fruit and veg traffic and certainly ran in Germany as well as making the trip to England on the Zeebrugge-Felixstowe train ferries. There seem to be no photos of one in England, but I live in hope! There exists one poor quality image (below) from an old Greek publication of one being loaded on to a ship at Zeebrugge. Construction details as follows:

ΣΕΚ /CΕΗ EARLY REFRIGERATOR CARS: TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Total number : 25
Built: 1950/51 by “Costruzioni Meccaniche Adriano Cecchetti - Societa per Azioni – Civitanova Marche”, Italy
Clearance: British standards
Length ( without buffers ) : 10.920m
Capacity: 29,5m3
Loading surface: 17m2
Loading: 21,5t (reduced by ΣΕΚ to 17.5t)
Ice: 2,5t
Ventilators: 6
Hooks: 75 (double)
Inside walls: Metal
Roof: Aluminium covered wood
Insulation thickness: 140mm
Allowed speed: Cars marked with S: 80-100km
Cars marked with SS: 100-120km
Specially equipped for loading on train-ferries (hence the stencilled anchor marking)
Classified as: Ψ1 (Psi-1) “ΙΝTERFRIGO”, numbers Ψπτ 18651-18675, later Ψ1 11 73 804 3 000-024. (Thank you Jason!)

One van still exists in original condition and has been dumped near Strimon since at least 2000. As per Jason's thread, viewtopic.php?f=13&t=210, 20 of the 25 built were converted to brake/crew vans. The photos below were all taken by George Handrinos of SFS and are his copyright.

Tim the last photo is Great, thank you !!!!

Interesting, isn't it? I think the wagon in front is French, possibly one of the conversions done on the old WW1 TP vehicles, but the picture is too poor to be certain.

A clearer photo (I hope) of the same theme


from a Greek language magazine


For all scratch builders/3d printers/kit bashers/ACME researchers/drawing collectors/etc worldwide. These wagons used to cross the Channel into UK rails. The anchor on the inscriptions on the side denotes a ferry wagon.

christo.

Good morning,

I've been making comparisons between TimCC6558's measurements and Christo's diagrams

TimCC6558 says that Length ( without buffers ) : 10.920m, that is 12,55 cm in H0

Due to Christo's diagram, total lenght (even with buffers) is 11,027 cm



(Sorry for the spanish notes)

I'd like to give you a surprise, but...I really need help at this point...

Regards

Balkanexpress

BalkanF,

I do not know the source of Tim's dimensions but I think the drawing is accurate. I checked with photographic evidence and it shows the drawing's dimensions to be correct. Good luck with the surprise .

christo.

BalkanExpress wrote:Good morning,

I've been making comparisons between TimCC6558's measurements and Christo's diagrams

TimCC6558 says that Length ( without buffers ) : 10.920m, that is 12,55 cm in H0

Due to Christo's diagram, total lenght (even with buffers) is 11,027 cm

The underframe length (total length without buffers) is not 10920 mm, but 10290 mm.

The length of the buffers is 620 mm and that makes the total length including the buffers to be 10290 + 2 x 620 = 11530 mm.

The length of the brakeman's cabin is 690 mm, hence the length of the underframe excluding the cabin is 9600 mm.

Some additional basic dimensions:

Distance between axles: 6000 mm
Distance between the axles and the end of the underframe: 2260 mm (brake cabin side) and 2030 (side without cabin).
Height from top of rail to the lower part of the underframe beams: 935 mm
Height from top of rail to the lower part of the body vertical beams: 1145 mm
Height from t.o.r. to the floor of the wagon: 1195 mm
Body width: 2590 mm
Max height (up to the tallest ventilator) 3800 mm
Max roof height: 3639 mm
Max body side height (up to the lower angles of the triangular roof): 3372 mm
Door opening width: 920 mm


I.Z.

Apreciate GAZKGK, good morning

So grateful for your measurements

Let's continue working

regards

BalkanExpress

Those are the measurements (not worried about height) by GAZKGK



BalkanExpress