FS E.323 and E.324
The E.323 locomotives and E.324 motor trailers were two sets of 3000 V direct current electric locomotives of the Italian State Railways (FS) used for shunting service in large rail yards and in embarking and disembarking from ferries.
| FS locomotives E.323 and E.324 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FS locomotive E.323.018 in service at Genova Brignole railway station on March 10, 1996. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
Unlike the E.323s, the E.324s were locomotives lacking the driver's cab and pantograph and were used in double traction with multiple control with the former to double their performance.
They constituted the sequel to the FS E.321 and E.322 classes, of which they resumed the design of the electrical part, updated on the basis of experience in operation and technological advances, while the mechanical part was designed from scratch.
In the early 1970s, as part of a collaboration between the FS and the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Rome "La Sapienza," it was decided to use a unit from the E.323 class to develop the design and testing of an electronic converter suitable for powering a three-phase traction motor, an idea later abandoned as a result of developments in power electronics related to the design of the E.402 locomotives. This would have been the world's first application of a three-phase traction motor to a 3 kV DC locomotive.