E645 343 and 145 20xx Calatabiano (CT)

Calatabiano, the last station (for some time now just a simple halt) in the province of Catania on the line to Messina... At Calatabiano, in Via Stazione, I spent my very earliest childhood and my first experiences with the railway world... and I came back to Calatabiano often as a railway photographer: I relived my childhood moments of happily playing among the sleepers and tracks of the abandoned yard, just as in that marvellous, enormous playground which for me was the traffic control office with its ACE desk. At Calatabiano, on 21 May 2007, I photographed this spectacular and varied afternoon freight with the E645 343, ex E646 043, leading and, at the rear, a d145 for the Bicocca yard. Back then, photographing freight trains in Sicily was still easy and enjoyable...

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