The P.V.Z. freight wagons
ย edited by DG
(and PG for parts in italics)
I note that my house has not only the quaint little noise, but also a characteristic silence.
It is not true that silence is just silence, but, for those who know how to listen, even silence can express himself, be characterized, make themselves understood … ..
For example, when my husband is in his rooms, although apparently our house is immersed in the absolute quiet, I know very well what he is doing.
Let me see if at this moment I guessed : he took the ladder and is pulling down a box from above the white wardrobe.
At this point I decide to leave my sofa and my Sudoku
… And I want to go see if I was right ….
… . the curiosity is woman … !! …
Yes, I was right: he has on his table my former shoe box that says “Carri P.V.Z. “…….
(Pvz03)
… .and another, far more luxurious, with a label “PVZ” in blue and golden letters …
(pvz04)
I think, when he opens one of these boxes, he feels the same emotion that I feel when I open a living book of monsters that I not looked for a long time ….
… By the way, did you know that my pop-up monsters love trains?
One of the nicest things is sharing an emotion with the person you love, so I approach him and ask if I can open one of the two covers ….
What shows up in my eyes is first a series of spots of color in the shadows ….
…. the blue, red, brown, black, silver …. like when you throw a first look at some works of Macchiaioli
… Then the patches of color take on the better defined contours and outline tanks, cranes, logs of wood, wheels, sentry boxes ….
(Pvz09)
… .and even two colored pickup trucks ….
How beautiful !!!
Gathered in this table there are many years of passionate research, which sometimes I participated me too ….
… .and that “shot hunchback”
was this complete set with locomotive … !! …
(pvz10)
… And then, you should have seen him when, returning from a trip, a visit or a stock market trading, he showed me one of these colorful wagons triumphantly: … “… .Look, Honey, I still found a PVZ bandwagon … !! … “…
ย My husband has already spoken of locomotives of this brand on Cuccioloazzurro in the article “Maurizio D’ Agostini: The king and queen – PVZ 428 – 685 Conti.”
In addition to these wonderful locos ….
(Pvz11)
… The tracks, the transformer …
(pvz12)
… PVZ produced a series of freight cars, all with carriages, in all-metal construction, with or without a brakeman’s cab, which may well be an interesting theme of the collection right in its own .
Strangely, while PVZ only produced cars with carriages , the other mark of three letters of the time, GEM, only proposed two-axle wagons.
My husband pointed out to me another oddity: freight wagons PVZ ill accompanied to 428 of the same brand whereas in reality, at the era, it was used exclusively for fast passenger trains.
(Pvz13)
I remember well when, in the early 70s, stopping on the railway bridge during one of our walks (guess because often befall there “by chance” ), we saw it darting to tow trains of Milan – Venice Express ….
I own only a slip of the Milan store Mastro Geppetto, long disappeared, indicating its willingness to January 1, 1950.
(Pvz14)
Stronger than my skill to decipher the mysterious acronyms in use, especially in France, where the present day even the “bums” or “Clochards”
are called “SDF” (= no fixed address), and my well-known ability to solve Sudoku ….
(Pvz15)
…. I dare to ask my partner if the MC stands for “Freight carriages.”
In fact, it is!
ย Now, proud of my insight, I can venture to do observe that the paper has listed 11 cars, among them, however, it lacks the MC 9, perhaps because either unavailable or exhausted ….
… It will most probably it is a closed wagon with other advertising signs and lack, for that matter, the locomotive, the transformer and the armament.
As the wagons, this list might therefore not be exhaustive if some lovers should be aware of the existence of other models, all information would be welcome.
From good former math teacher I have attempted to estimate the today price in Euros at the era of this material ….
The estimate is not easy, especially as a function of purchasing power, to whom they are nonetheless sure is that they were certainly not for all the bags !!
Our wagons all have the same frame of sheet metal bent, but can mount two types of trucks that are distinguished by examining the lower part.
(Pvz16)
The wagon at the top in the picture has the axes supported by the sides of the carriages, one at the bottom has the axes mounted on a central support made of sheet metal bent into a “U” and their extraction involves disassembly of the flanks and one of the wheels. The wheels could be metal or, more rarely, in black bakelite.
The sides of the carriages are clearly derived from those of the bogies of 428.
(Pvz17)
I therefore enjoy to follow the Mastro Geppetto list to take hold and observe one by one the freight cars.
Opens the series the MC 1, the easiest, the wagon with high sides with sentry box ….
(Pvz18)
One thing that I really appreciate about models like this is the fact of being able to take hold without fear of leaving deadly fingerprints on delicate paints, to bend rails finer than a human hair, to destroy microscopic details ….
…. Then he follows his “almost twin”, which, when I smell, “corked”,
well justified thing as this wagon MC 2 …. “High sides with stones” …, by trucks with sides not exactly equal to the previous stands out for its load of cork fragments.
(Pvz19)
PVZ is not the only manufacturer to that age to use this material to simulate the natural or colored stones and coal ….
Much more elaborate is the wagonload bond MC 3 ….
(Pvz20)
… With its cargo of tree trunks held by stakes in metal section and chains in burnished brass …
(pvz21)
The list then has two transport wagons vehicles, MC 5 and MC 6, but here there is just one …
(pvz22)
… Carrying two pickup trucks Mercury.
Not to show off a deep railways culture which I do not not known, but simply because my husband is showing other wagons, I note that at the era also Conti, GEM and subsequently Pocher endowed their wagons with some nice vehicles of this brand …
(pvz23)
This wagon closed doors (MC 7), dedicated to meat Simmenthal
has sides in tin, like the cans of Simmenthal meatย ย …
(pvz24)
… I never liked any kind of canned meat, which my husband hates as reminding him the service army, and I must say that the unusual color “greenish” of this car makes me appreciate even less ….
In contrast, the chocolate Tobler (MC8) is entitled to a wagon from the red-brown color certainly more appropriate to the product advertised …
(pvz25)
In those years they often used the term “wagon-barrel” instead of “tank wagon” and so this is called Shell wagon with silver pit, and not typical of the brand yellow, it referred to as MC 10 ….
(Pvz26)
… .while The blue “barrel” marks that of AGIP which over the years, now prefers yellow, other than Shell …
But perhaps the most beautiful of the PVZ wagons is the MC 12, the “wagon with revolving crane” …
…. that in the list of Mastro Geppetto
is also the most expensive.
ย The floor boards are reinforced with burnished brass profiles, which also improves the look …
The crane, consisting of parts made of sheet metal sliced โโassembled with screws, …
… .it is equipped with a small hand-cranked winch on which is wound a cotton cord woven, hook and gravity weight is in turned brass.
I remade myself the lanyard , since the original was all frayed ….
It happen that I help my husband in his restoration work, for example, I am very good to cut decals … !! …
Also this time we conclude with some family photos,ย of the PVZ wagons …
They are all very beautiful, especially for that time, but still today ….
Only too bad that they have not had descendants … !!!
Of course, today they might be criticized as they are certainly not faithful reproductions of real vehicles …
… I would say instead that they are “evocative”, representing “the good railway wagons” as we might imagine if we squint a bit the eyes ….
But why to this day we want at any cost to judge everything and everyone ..? ….
We seek instead to admire them with an eye less critical and free from prejudices such as it would , for example one of the Macchiaioli, with a more poetic view, and why not, more dreamer …
…. a bit as it expresses Pascoli when he says: … .. “… the dream is the infinite shadow of true …” ….
and now Giovanni Fattori
(@ April 19, 2016)