Quote:
Originally Posted by terminologist
Thank you so much everyone, all your comments have been extremely useful and educational.
Perhaps I should have provided some context - the terms all relate to the Italian railway network, and may sound a little old-fashioned since part of the document dates from the 1960s.
With the "heating unit" term, this is being used to describe units like the Trenitalia ALn 669 or 668.
I'm now wondering if this actually means an "internal combustion engine railcar", which presumably has a diesel engine which generates electricity to power the electric motors.
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NOW why didn't you say
My Missuse is half Italiano so just checked and yes the terminology is very old school Italian. It's not heating unit it's heated engine unit a very old term for diesel which works by compressing diesel oil vapour in a heated cylinder--
and the 668 class is actually quite modern considering some Italian rolling stock but the considering others it's positively ANCIENT. I mean consider the 663 photo attached these are diesel multiple units and the translation Railcar is probably the nearest to English you will get