Clive Barlow does it again!! Amazingly Italy had a number of locally built Maybach engined locomotives in service from 1958 until the mid 1980's and Clive is the only person who mentioned it! While these days Italy is known for its second hand V200's, it appears that in the late 1950's the Italian State Railway Company constructed a number of similar looking (ugly) locomotives, perhaps initially as a trial. Sounds a bit like what was supposed to happen in the UK at around the same time!
Anyway, the first locomotive we are interested in was in the class D341, the various sub types of which were fitted with FIAT, Paxman or Maybach engines with electric transmission. While a number of the other types of D341 were built, only one D341.4 was completed and this was fitted with a single engine rated at 1600hp. Clive passed me some information gleaned from an Italian publication that states this engine was a Maybach MD865. The locomotive was numbered D341.4001 and was built by Ansaldo in 1959. It is a shame that this was the only D341 sub type not duplicated. It is unlikely this locomotive still exists.
Links for D341's:
http://www.locod.it/d341.htm - Technical details in Italian
http://www.locod.it/locostory/d341.htm - D341 history in Italian
http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/it/diesel/D341/pix.html - European Railway Server page for D341's
http://www.photorailform.com/phr1-leFS/d341.htm - General D341 pictures
http://www.altomareweb.it/treni/d341/pix.htm - More pictures
The second type of Maybach engined locomotive built in Italy predates the D341.4 and was the D342.4, this time fitted with two smaller Maybach engines. Seventeen D342.4's were built by Ansaldo between 1958 & 1962. The engines fitted to D342.4001-4014 were the Maybach MD435 rated at 700hp, with MD440's rated at 875hp fitted to D342.4015-4017. Both the MD435 & MD440 are turbocharged V8's sharing the same basic block design, the principle difference between the two types being the addition of charge air cooling on the MD440. The transmission type was the Mekydro K104u. Looking at some of the pictures in the links below give indication that at least one of these locomotives has been preserved in working order and at least three others preserved in various states of repair.
Links for D342's:
http://www.locod.it/d342.htm - Technical details in Italian
http://www.locod.it/locostory/d342.htm - D342 history in Italian
http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/it/diesel/D342/pix.html - European Railway Server page for D342's
http://www.photorailform.com/phr1-leFS/d342.htm - D342.4 pictures, some looking very recent
http://www.italvapore.it/rotabili/gruppo%20342.html - Well informed info about D342.4's in Italian
http://www.altomareweb.it/treni/d342/pix.htm - More pictures
The third type of Maybach engined locomotive was supposed to be the Italian V200. A single prototype was built by Ansaldo in 1958 and was numbered D442.401 (later D442.4001) and it was fitted with Maybach MD650's and Mekydro K104 transmissions license produced by Ansaldo. Each engine was rated at 809kW (roughly 1100hp) at 1500rpm, which made them equivalent to the German V200 in power. The locomotive was obviously not considered to be successful enough to duplicate but also not as unsuccessful as to be disposed of as it survived in sporadic service with FS until 1976. The locomotive was scrapped in July 1999, having evaded the scrap dealers interest for 23 years!
Links for D442.4001:
http://www.photorail.com/phr3-gli%20updates/articoli2002/maggio_2002.htm - History of D442 & V200 Family in Italian
http://www.photorail.com/phr1-leFS/images/locodiesel/4424001dlrimini.jpg - Picture of D442.4001 at Rimini after withdrawal.
http://treni.valdelsa.net/schede/d442.htm - Brief techinical details of D442.4001, no pictures.