You must watch this. Note the "USA" locomotives:

http://youtu.be/kkkUtzpuX1o

Interesting, if sad at the end; curious to see people raising chickens in locomotives (reminiscent of a scene from "Oh, Mr. Porter!"), and the sights of kids playing on and around the engines, something that would definitely be frowned upon today. I have to admit to being puzzled by someone in a helmet apparently living in a sand dome! Officials are as imperious as ever, with their scrapping orders--and Mr. Big Cheese is in a chauffeur-driven Cadillac--American imperialism, or American technical superiority of the day, take your pick. But what's with the scrappers, looking like they are from outer space? Italian sensibilities and interpretations, I suppose. The trees with name tags look to be memorials to Italian soldiers (or, in this case, likely railroad workers) who had died in the then-recent WW II.

Things like this get me looking around, and here is a relatively recent video clip of dead electrics at Milan--and some appear to be of the same V-nosed, two-unit type that appears in the scene of the enginemen leaving the locomotive for the last time. . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvm_bLd5 ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGHyG4Gp7mQ&NR=1

Also prominently appearing is the ETR-300, a semi-articulated MU train also called the Settebello. Below is a film about the construction of these trainsets, which were apparently a semi-custom job (three built between 1953, and I think 1961). As a ride they would have been very stylish--but I would hate to be in that front lounge if the train hit anything even remotely solid at a grade crossing, and they have those in Italy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlXjxpyhcfk

http://www.photorail.com/phr1-leFS/etr300.htm

http://www.mdlsestosg.it/citta/industria/etr300.jpg

http://www.photorail.com/oldies/WHardme ... TR300j.jpg

http://www.tomari.it/slides/CABINA%20DI ... TR300.html

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/39 ... 2.jpg/sr=1

In a dead line:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyAZo1I-Xjg

Alas, it looks like only a portion of one of these semi-articulated trains was saved.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sette ... er_car.JPG

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=17703

http://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/trains/italy03.htm

At 9:58, the shunter moving the steam locomotive is a former USATC Whitcomb 65-ton centercab that appears to have been re-powered.

The tags on the trees read "Caduto sul Lavoro", killed on the job.