Can anyone tell me if the Fiat factory and the docks at Citavecchia have their own rail lines or do the cars need to be put transported elsewhere first?

MattHarris19872016 said:

Can anyone tell me if the Fiat factory and the docks at Citavecchia have their own rail lines or do the cars need to be put transported elsewhere first?

Click to expand...

Well the factory does from a quick check on google earth. about 8 long sidings too
https://www.google.com/maps/place/S...bdd13fd0d819595f!8m2!3d41.075935!4d15.7162442
and there is a line by the docks.
I'd say yes.

Robert G8RPI.

Pretty odd question?

Maybe the OP is a train spotter

Maybe the OP has just got a new car made there, and has paint contamination?

Used to happen a lot in the 80s-90s with Rover Group vehicles. The rail wheels and tracks produce fine metallic (ferrous) dust, that on windy days blew around and might settle on the cars. The ferrous dust would then start to rust, which ate into the paint on all flat surfaces, roof, bonnet, and boot of saloons. Only fix was a bare metal respray. The garage I worked at in Dorset did quite a few of these. This is why most cars come wrapped in industrial 'cling film'. The wax used back then just helped the dust to stick, and gave little or no protection.

Wonder how many vehicles used to suffer this sort of damage? I put in a stint as a trainer, light vehicle repair and maintenance, late '70s into the 80's. One of my colleagues had worked as a warranty claims officer for a large local Ford dealership. He told me of similar damage which used to occur to new vehicles supplied to them, don't know if the culprit was industrial pollution or train dust or what but the result sounded very similar and the remedy was the same - complete vehicle respray! It became known to local dealers as the "Pumpherston plague"! Named after the area where the holding park was situated.

Haven't heard anything of this sort for many years so presumably the modern white stick on plastic panels have addressed the issue? We never saw it on the BL products but I don't know if our stuff followed the same delivery route as the Ford's.
Kind regards
Jock

Surprising that you never experienced the ferrous dust on BL cars, as normal route to Scotland would be by rail. Brake fluid leaks from upper cars onto the lower ones on transporters was sometimes an issue too.

portland_bill said:

Surprising that you never experienced the ferrous dust on BL cars, as normal route to Scotland would be by rail. Brake fluid leaks from upper cars onto the lower ones on transporters was sometimes an issue too.

Click to expand...

"Rail Iron" has often been mentioned with the plethora of basic WHITE 500's



the OP is a "student" and likes to ask weird stuff.. for projects

if you look at threads they've started .. you'll see a pattern

portland_bill said:

Surprising that you never experienced the ferrous dust on BL cars, as normal route to Scotland would be by rail. Brake fluid leaks from upper cars onto the lower ones on transporters was sometimes an issue too.

Click to expand...

Well, Portland Bill, perhaps I should rephrase my statement to say "I never noticed it-------" The larger garage I worked in was "Halls of Musselburgh" long gone and the smaller one was "Lothian Motors Dalkeith" also long gone although I think the family still own a garage to the south of Edinburgh somewhere. I was very much a humble grease monkey in both establishments doing general service and repair tasks. I had nothing to do with body repair or car sales and little to do with new car preparation, PDI's etc. So perhaps that explains it? I still occassionally see a chap I knew from those days, must ask him if he encountered it. Brake fluid leaks would be a nasty one too and there'd be plenty of time for that to happen all the way to us up here! 'fraid I don't have any particular memory of that problem either. Oh dear, is this proof of advancing senility?
Regards
Jock

Pugglt Auld Jock said:

Oh dear, is this proof of advancing senility?
Regards
Jock

Click to expand...

Not at all. If you never knew, not remembering is not a problem.
I was involved with new cars, storage, allocation, preparation, PDI, and delivering to customers. For a while was workshop supervisor in charge of all sales vehicles, new and used. The garage did about 300 new cars a year, and about twice as many used.

thank you for posting . nice job