www.iberianrailwayssociety.org Issue No. 15 Winter 2009 he inaugural IRS meeting took place at the Model T Railway Club in London on 22nd February 2006, and was attended by about 20 prospective members from all around the UK. A general discussion took place and introductions, suggestions and proposals were made. At this meeting a small committee was voted on and tasked with setting up the Society on a formal basis. The Committee members are: Chairman David Stevenson Secretary Charles Phillips Journal Editor Michael Guerra Treasurer & Membership Secretary Tony Bowles Publicity & Exhibitions Myles Munsey THE BASICS The remit of the Society is to stimulate interest in and disseminate information about railways on the Iberian Peninsular and the Balearic Islands. It was felt at this time that extending this remit to Spanish and Portuguese speaking areas of the world would be too ambitious. It is proposed that a Society Journal be published four times a year and that this would be the main conduit between members. Local meetings and branches were also to be established wherever possible to encourage membership from the widest possible area. A fledgling library could be made available to members as time went on. Consideration would be given to organising trips from the UK, both formal and informal, as a way of enabling members to meet in a very convivial atmosphere and whilst indulging their passion for rail travel! MEMBERSHIP Membership was to be open to all and would entitle the member to receipt of the magazine, use of the Societies’ facilities and attendance and voting rights at an Annual General Meeting. MEMBERSHIP RATES FOR ONE YEAR – APRIL 2009-MARCH 2010 UK £13.50 EUROPE £16.00 REST OF WORLD £17.00 Web Download £5.00 Payment CHEQUE (Payable to: Iberian Railway Society) - Send to: Tony Bowles 1 Station Cottages Stow Road Toddington Cheltenham GL54 5DT Those joining during the year pay the Annual Rate and will receive all copies of the journal for that year. Membership of the IRS is subject to the rules and constitution of the IRS. Membership records are held on a computer database in accordance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act. 2 Title Page The Society 2 The Chairman’s Page (& AGM Notice) 4 The Editor’s Page 5 Northern Spain & Portugal Part 4 6 Developments on La Mancha 17 Spanish Railway Travels - 1964, Part 2 19 Valencia New 28 IRS Sales 28 North Spain 2009, Part 1 29 Contributions for publication should be, if possible, by email or computer disk (to avoid time spent transcribing text). Photos should be of good quality, sharp, well composed or of significant historical interest. Prints, slides, digital photos or good scans can be accommodated. All prints and slides should be sent by recorded delivery, they will be scanned as quickly as possible and returned by recorded delivery. Scans of 6”x4” prints should be scanned at 300dpi, 35mm slides should be scanned at 1600dpi, digital photographs should be 1920x1200 minimum. Articles can be of any length, though generally of between 500 to 800 words for a book review, and up to 4,000 words for a main article. Maps should be of a good clear line, and legible at quarter page size. Submissions should be to: Michael Guerra, 6 Nash Close, Welham Green Hatfield, HERTS AL9 7NN Email (pref): [email protected] Front Cover: Silla station. Renfe Class 251-029 passing through with small containers on flatbed cars. October 2009 Photo by Geoff Eley 3 HOLA! (This time in Spanish!) reat News. We have finally reached 50 members. Just to be clear that's 50 in one G year rather than reaching Membership Number 50. This is the first time we have achieved it and it's been my aim since we formed in 2006 and hopefully marks the start a move into bigger things. We got to 49 when my friend Phil Blackman, unbeknown to me I should add, joined at Sutton Coldfield. Then following a web enquiry from Malcolm Clements we reached 50. Many thanks Malcolm, it really bucked me up. By the time you read this we will have been at the National Model Railway Exhibition at Warley and with a bit of luck we might get a few more members there as well. It's too late to suggest you come up and make yourselves known but if you did many thanks. The show saw the introduction of some new Sales Items, the details of which are in a separate item elsewhere. If you buy from us it does help to bolster our reserves and enable us do more in the future. I did say at one point that it was my intention to retire as Chairman, however for several reasons I have decided to throw my hat into the ring again. We have reached 50 members, no one else has come forward and several members have contacted me privately and asked me to reconsider, which I have obviously done. We still need some help though so if anyone wishes to volunteer their services please let me know. Sales Officer anyone?? As is traditional at this time of year: Feliz Navidad con mis mejores deseos para el año para el año que viene. Adios, David Stevenson, Chairman – Iberian Railways Society 3, Aldersey Road, Worcester, WR5 3BG Tel: 01905 358440 Email: [email protected] Notice of the 2009/2010 Annual General Meeting he Annual General Meeting of the Iberian Railways Society will be held on Saturday 30th T January at 1200 in the library of the Model Railway Club Headquarters, Keen House, Calshot Street, London, N1 9DA. The meeting is intended to be procedural only to pass the accounts, elect the new committee and to deal with any outstanding issues. The regular Social Meeting will be held later in the year on a date to be confirmed and to which we hope as many as possible will be able to come. Members may wish to note that the Italian Railways Society is holding it's winter gathering on the same day at the same location. This is on the same lines as our regular gathering and is a very enjoyable day and I am assured you would be very welcome here as well. If you need any more details or precise locations please contact me. David Stevenson, Chairman 4 e are still going through the ‘swag’ of our trip along the Camino de Santiago. W Postcards, leaflets, tickets, receipts etc. all bring to life a holiday adventure that pictures alone cannot do. We store all this stuff in the 350x250x75mm boxes our fish man uses to deliver, after we found that WH Smith A4 box files were not up to the job. The contents of each fish box is carefully scanned and archived, before being marked up and stored as ‘treasure’. They are proving to be a useful resource for various school geography projects, hopefully they will serve the grandchildren equally well. We are not going to the Balkans next year as planned, it has been delayed a year to allow our 20th wedding anniversary to arrive (May 2011), and so we will have an excuse to travel back from Venezia on the VSOE. Hopefully the management will approve. Instead, next Easter we are limiting ourselves to 10 days around Avignon and Nice. It will be the first time we have travelled into Europe without taking a night train, possible as it is to leave Welham Green at 07:24 and arrive in Avignon at 16:27; and returning from Nice in a day via Lille. That being said, 7 hours on a TGV is pretty tortuous in their uncomfortable 2nd class seats, so we shall be booking 1st class for the return. Christopher Elliott has been sending me regular reports as to the progress on the Perpignan to Figueres section of the LGV to Barcelona. Given the success of the LGV Méditerranée, at around 7 hours it is not difficult to see how attractive a direct service from Lille to Barcelona will be for UK travellers (if it can be made to connect with the 09:01 from St Pancras to Bruxelles), but how much more attractive an 8 hour direct night train would be. Currently the line is complete, but awaiting completion of the stations at Figueres, Girona and Barcelona. Figueres is getting an out-of-town station at Vilafant 3.5kms from the centre of town, while Girona is getting an underground station which is running a year or so late (which is unsurprising given the scale of the project). It will be 2014 before Paris (or Lille) will be connected to Barcelona directly by LGV, and it will be interesting what effect that will have on the Joan Miro Trenhotel, despite the main market (hopefully) transferring from the airlines. Renfe have started using Series 7 Talgos for new Trenhotels, and given the age of the Paris-Madrid, Paris-Barcelona and Genève/Milan-Barcelona sets one wonders whether the old stock will be replaced before the new LGV has had an affect. One also wonders whether the Trenhotel (if it continues) will continue to use the old route via Port Bou, or use the LGV and start from Paris Lyon. Time will tell. Interestingly, RZD (Russian Rail Network) is looking into using Talgo Series 7 Trenhotels on their Moskva-Warszawa-Berlin overnight services. Finally, I must thank David Stevenson for not resigning. It is certainly a huge relief to me personally, as he really has become the perfect lynch-pin for the Society. We may be small, but without his expertise and ability it would have been far harder for the Society to function.