Società Italiana Ernesto Breda

Società Italiana Ernesto Breda
Industry	Engineering
Founded	1886; 138 years ago
Defunct	2001; 23 years ago
Fate	merged with Gio. Ansaldo & C. to form AnsaldoBreda
Successor	AnsaldoBreda; BredaMenarinibus
Headquarters	Milan, Italy
Products	Transport aircraft; Bombers; Experimental planes; Air force trainers; Seaplanes; Ships; Locomotives
Subsidiaries	Breda Meccanica Bresciana; IMAM

Società Italiana Ernesto Breda (lit. 'Ernesto Breda Italian Society'), more usually referred to simply as Breda, was an Italian mechanical manufacturing company founded by Ernesto Breda in Milan in 1886.

History

The firm was founded by Ernesto Breda in Milan in 1886. It originally manufactured locomotives and other railway machinery, but later branched out into armaments and aircraft. Occasionally, not continuously, the company also built trolleybuses. In 1935, it acquired the railway division of Officine Ferroviarie Meridionali and, soon afterwards, the aircraft division of the same company.

Breda-designed machine guns such as the Breda Model 30 and Breda Model 37 were standard issue weapons for the Royal Italian Army during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, the Italian Invasion of Albania and World War 2.^[1] At the peak of its wartime production, the company had 26,000 employees.^[2] By 1954, its workforce had been reduced to around 8,000.^[2]

In 1962, Breda was nationalised as part of EFIM, but was liquidated in the 1990s. The train and tram manufacturing division fused with Ansaldo to form AnsaldoBreda, the armaments division became an independent entity as Breda Meccanica Bresciana, as did the research division as Istituto Scientifico Breda.

Products

Warrant of the Società Italiana Ernesto Breda per Costruzioni Meccaniche, issued 1. February 1929

Aircraft products

Rolling stock products

Ernesto Breda, c. 1920

Locomotives

DMU and EMU

Metro

Tram and light rail

ATM Class 1500
ATM Class 4600 and 4700
LRVs for RTA Rapid Transit (Cleveland)
MBTA Green Line Type 8 (production continued after merger)
LRV2 and LRV3 for Muni Metro (San Francisco)

Trolleybuses

The production of trolleybuses was a small part of Breda's output, carried out through its subsidiary Breda Costruzioni Ferroviarie (it), and was not under way continuously. Between 1936 and 1940, the company built a total of 28 trolleybuses, most for the Rome system but including six for Genoa.^[4] At various times between 1938 and 1956, more trolleybuses were built, but totalling only 16. Production resumed in 1988. Almost all of Breda's customers for trolleybuses were Italian trolleybus systems, but a notable exception was an order of 236 dual-mode buses that Breda built for the Seattle system between 1988 and 1991.^[4]

References

^ "Small Arms Archives".
^ ^a ^b Hoffman, Michael L. (October 8, 1954). "Breda Industries of Italy Revived". The New York Times. Section 1, p. 5. Retrieved 2022-12-07.
^ "old STEAM LOCOMOTIVES in South Africa". steam-locomotives-south-africa.blogspot.it. July 2009. Retrieved 2013-04-12.
^ ^a ^b Murray, Alan (2000). World Trolleybus Encyclopaedia. Yateley, Hampshire, UK: Trolleybooks. p. 106. ISBN 0-904235-18-1.

External links

Fondazione Isec - Breda (in Italian)
Mostra fotografica online Fondazione Isec - La Breda produce (in Italian)
Treccani.it BREDA, Ernesto (in Italian)

[1] "Small Arms Archives".

[NYT-1954-2] Hoffman, Michael L. (October 8, 1954). "Breda Industries of Italy Revived". The New York Times. Section 1, p. 5. Retrieved 2022-12-07.

[3] "old STEAM LOCOMOTIVES in South Africa". steam-locomotives-south-africa.blogspot.it. July 2009. Retrieved 2013-04-12.

[murray-4] Murray, Alan (2000). World Trolleybus Encyclopaedia. Yateley, Hampshire, UK: Trolleybooks. p. 106. ISBN 0-904235-18-1.

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