Crossword Genius

Serving to illustrate Old English representative on the Italian railway (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

exemplary

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'serving to illustrate old' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.

'english representative on the italian railway' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'exe' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'representative' becomes 'mp' (Member of Parliament, a representative).
'on' says to put letters next to each other (in a down clue, letters appear on others).
'the italian' becomes 'la' ('the' in Italian).
'railway' becomes 'ry' (abbreviation).
'exe'+'mp'+'la'+'ry'='EXEMPLARY'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for exemplary that I've seen before include "Worthy of imitation" , "Worth following as an example" , "Perfect" , "warning" , "Ideal" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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