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Issue No. 34 Autumn 2014 he inaugural IRS meeting took place at the Model Railway T 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 (post available) Publicity & Exhibitions Myles Munsey (post available)

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 was proposed that a Society Journal be published four times a year and that this would be the main conduit between members.

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 2013-MARCH 2014 Web Download £5.00 Payment CHEQUE (Payable to: Iberian Railways Society) or Paypal (from website) 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. IRS SALES Correo on CD. All previous issues up to the preceding year in PDF format. £5.50 inc P&P. DVDS -The Society now sells the Ticket to Ride DVDs Out & About Barcelona. £25 inc P&P Out & About Lisbon. £25 inc P&P Cabride - to Girona £20 inc P&P TALGO Cabride - Girona to Barcelona £20 inc P&P TALGO Cabride - Barcelona to Reus £20 inc P&P Algarve Cabride - Lagos to Tunes (with a Class 1800) £20 inc P&P Algarve Cabride - Tunes. Faro to Vila Real (with a Class 1800) £20 inc P&P COASTERS - 4 scenes from FGV, RENFE & FEVE £6.50 inc P&P For all items please send a cheque to: IRS Sales, 3 Aldersey Road, Worcester, WR5 3BG. Overseas members should enquire first about postage costs, send an email to [email protected]. Payment can be made via Paypal for overseas members only.

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Title Page The Society 2 The Editor’s Page 4 Pajares: A Wet, Warm Tunnel 5 Formentera’s Salt Pan Railway Part 2 26 Colchoneros vs Merengues 27

IbRS at Warley NEC—November 22nd & 23rd 2014 Contact Myles if you can help

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: Feve DMUs 2475, 2301@ Viveiro . 06.09.1988. Photo by Graham Walker

3 trip to Madrid in June has demonstrated how important it is for any new open access operator not to employ SNCF drivers. As it happened I was not able to A use the at all, even though my connecting Marseille to Madrid AVE service was still running (I was connecting with the Paris-Cerbere couchette changing at Perpignan in both directions, which did not run), so I ended up flying. The whole horrible mess was exacerbated by the CGT union extending the strike day by day, meaning that my plan to fly to Madrid and take the train back was thwarted. My flying experiences was further put into context by the man to my left white-knuckling every time we hit turbulence (which over the Meseta is often) while the woman to my right flicked through beads while mumbling promises to every saint she could think of. The sleeper project has reached the point where we are having serious meetings with investors, suppliers and train leasing companies. The possible defaulting of the NTV high-speed service in Italy may make modern trainsets available at a reasonable price, but would need expensive conversion. In late September is the big Innotrans event in Berlin where a meeting will be had with the German border police and horse-trading with train suppliers. 36 halls, many the size of Olympia await. I will be taking plasters for the inevitable blisters. When I first started the sleeper project it was not a high-speed service (nor did I really consider the whole security and immigration issue deeply enough) and I had visions of running the more modern equivalent of the AB30 sleeper cars. These were originally built by CIWL as P-types, built of stainless-steel under license from Budd in the US. We took an AB30 from Bruxelles to Zürich as a family years ago and it has always remained in our memory as the most comfortable car we have ever slept in. So Xavier and I keep an eye on the movement of these cars and often say to each other that if we ever had the money we would buy one (we actually have an HO model now). Anyway, as Xavier was checking on a second-hand rolling stock site he came across a P- type for sale in the south of France, close to the Spanish border, being used as a museum to tell the story of Spanish refugees who crossed the Pyrenees during la Guerra Civil ; so should you be interested details can be found here: http://laviedurail.com/011- 15159-a-vendre.-une-voiture-des-wagons-lits-datant-du-plan-marshall.html and here: http://www.tvnp.fr/PFF/?p=1112 I must apologise again for the slight delay in getting this issue out; it is just weight of work (risk assessments and a lap-steel guitar for my eldest). As promised, in this issue we have Mike Bent’s expansive piece on the Parajes and Leon farces, as well as shorter pieces from Myles and Gabriel. Producing Correo allows me a little time out to do something fun, but I’m afraid that I shall have to return to the sticky business of determining the hazard level of getting a bed down or serving hot coffee. Hopefully, I will see a few of you at Birmingham in November. Take care. Michael Guerra

4 Pajares: A Wet, Warm Tunnel, and other White Elephants By Dr Mike Bent

Construction of the HSL linking Gijón and Oviedo with León is rapidly dissolving into a costly comedy of errors. The lack of proper urban or transport planning in means that land use decisions are made ad hoc, at the whims of the political parties, usually to generate projects for the construction industry. These, through the sale of building permits, help to swell the municipal coffers. There are no formal cost-benefit analyses undertaken before new railways are built. And major civil engineering projects are often embarked upon with inadequate geological and hydrological knowledge.

The 25 km Waterslide n 2003 the Aznar administration gave the green light for the construction of the 49.7 km ‘variante’ and 24.6 km base tunnel (at the time the seventh longest railway I tunnel in the world) under the Cordillera Cantábrica between Pola de Gordón in León province and Pola de Lena in the Principality of Asturias. This high speed line, engineered for 350 km/h running, was to eliminate the 1884-inaugurated single line over the Pajares pass, between Gijón and León. The estimated cost of the ‘variante’, as approved on 21 February 2003 by the Council of Ministers, was 1.058 billion euros. A five-year construction timescale, based on the progress of work on the Madrid to HSL, including the tunnel under the Sierra de Guadarrama, was announced. A 2h12 journey time between Madrid and Oviedo was promised for 2010. Since then the construction cost has tripled, and the completion date is now history. In terms of geology and hydrology the Cordillera Cantábrica is much removed from the Sierra de Guadarrama, and Mother Nature, as always in major civil engineering projects, has insisted upon having the final word – or in this case, words. At around 06.00 on 24 November 2005 the TBM heading north from Pola de Gordón in the west tunnel intercepted a subterranean watercourse. There were two similar unexpected incidents on 16 and 19 January 2006. In retrospect this was probably the point when those in charge of the project should have called a halt, and considered the best means of making the tunnels waterproof. But the project was divided into four contracts awarded to four groups of contractors. On one objective they were unanimous - getting their part of the bore completed as soon as possible, within the specified time limit, to ensure that no penalty charges were imposed. This was understandable. Although the 60-month boring contracts had been adjudicated on 21 June (two) and 15 July (two) 2003, there had been a year’s delay following the March 2004 General Election because the Zapatero administration, one of whose early slogans had been that it was ‘a government of dialogue’, wanted to demonstrate this fact by proving that all the contracts had been adjudicated legally, no matter how long this took, before anything significant was done on or under the ground. The amount of ‘dialogue’ involved meant that vital factors were overlooked. José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero’s announcement in July 2005, when the first TBM was put to work, that the Variante would be complete in ‘2009’, was also an erroneous bit of dialogue, a misunderstanding of the amount of work to be done even if the project ran smoothly, and swallowed hook, line and sinker by the

5 The joint RENFE/FEVE station at Gijón-Jovellanos (left) and La Braña (right) on 3 March 2011, looking east towards El Humedal. Note that the FEVE tracks are out of use.

A Class 130 stored at Gijón-Jovellanos on 3 March 2011. El Humedal is situated near the tall block of flats in the background between the gap in the flats behind the footbridge. Nowadays there is no trace of this station – completely razed to the ground after a life of just 20 years. 6 Looking west from the road bridge adjacent to Gijón-Sanz Crespo on 3 March 2011. Tracklaying on the RENFE side of the station is in progress, and the FEVE tracks are being lifted. The station occupies the site of an urban dual carriageway, which provided access to the late 1960s ‘Y’ motorway network linking Gijón, Oviedo and Avilés. Perhaps the closure of this access road was the best bit of urban planning to come out of the Gijón al Norte project!

The short-lived bus shuttle service to the city centre outside Sanz Crespo on 3 March 2011. 7 media (which should have known better) at the time. In spite of various stoppages, cause by the perforation of aquifers and encounters with difficult rock strata, the five TBMs moved surprisingly rapidly, the one working at the northern end of the eastern bore, ‘Vía Carisa’, notching up a national record by advancing 1,105.5 m in one month. The eastern bore was completed on 13 September 2008, and the western one on 11 July 2009, on schedule – just. Behind them, the TBMs left a lined tunnel, the 252,686 concrete lining sections, seven required for a complete ring (hence 36,098 rings), being between 500 and 600 mm thick. The costs were rising, ominously. The original estimate of 1.058 billion euros in 2003 had become 1.858 billion in February 2004, the then minister of Public Works, Francisco Álvarez-Cascos, from Asturias, boasting ‘No hay ninguna obra ferroviaria de alta velocidad con un presupuesto de 1.990 millones’ (‘There is no high speed railway project with a projected cost of 1.99 billion’). By summer 2009 Cascos’s boast had been exceeded – the projected cost of the new line was put at 2.4 billion euros. By then the incumbent Minister of Public Works was José Blanco López from Galicia, Magdalena Álvarez Arza (from Cádiz), having been dismissed in April that year. What was also rather puzzling was why, once the base tunnel had been bored, and the trackbeds from the portals to La Robla (south) and Pola de Lena (north) completed, there was the best part of a five-year interlude before other vital contracts – tracklaying, electrification and signalling/communications – were even put up for tender. This has led to suspicions that the government was tacitly allowing its various Ministers of Public Works to divert funding from the Variante to other pet infrastructure projects elsewhere in Spain. It was not made public knowledge at once that the main reason for the delays was that the boring had resulted in the unexpected tapping of 20 aquifers in each of the two bores. These, spurting out water at temperatures as high as 50ºC, generated an average output of 500 litres per second (enough to fill 180 bathtubs per minute), with peaks at double this volume at the northern (lower) end of the base tunnel, in the hamlet of Los Pontones, where the water treatment installations soon had to be expanded to cope with the extra ‘demand’. In fact such output is not considered excessive for major tunnelling projects, and is equalled or even beaten by certain Alpine tunnels. The Cordillera Cantábrica is not the Swiss Alps, neither in terms of geology nor in terms of climate. But the truth could not be concealed for very long. On the south side of the mountains, in the Bernesga river basin, the water table fell, and there was soon plenty of concern in the villages situated several hundred metres above the tunnels, where the main local water supply, used by both humans and livestock, is piped from springs. Some small watercourses dried up altogether in summer, others suffered reductions of up to 50% in flow rates. In Villamanín the level of water in one of the well regularly used as a supply fell by 160 m following the passage of the TBMs beneath the Bernesga valley. In Asturias the annual precipitation varies between 1,000 litres per m2 on the coast to possibly as much as 2,000 litres per m2 on the highest summits of the Cordillera. However, in León province, in the ‘rain shadow’ of the Cordillera, the Bernesga valley is much drier – maximum precipitation near the watershed is under 1,000 litres per m2, falling to around 700 per m2 in the capital, León. Moreover, the temperature extremes are greater – colder in winter and considerably hotter in summer, with consequent high 8 Capacity does not seem to be a problem on 7 December 2013 – this Class 130 was not scheduled to depart for around two hours. In fact this platform, shared with FEVE services (on the other side) is used regularly by services. The only physical barrier to stop FEVE passengers joining these long distance without going through the ticket/baggage check at the head of the platform is the tape, visible here!

The mid-morning class 130 Alvia to Madrid arriving at Mieres-Puente on 2 February 2014. rather surprisingly, there was no ticket check for passengers boarding here, no ticket check on the train (I spent most of the journey in the cafetería, taking photos), and no ticket check at Madrid-Chamartín! 9 The Variante de Pajares starts immediately south of Pola de Lena station. No, we did not have steam haulage on 2 February . . . Readers wishing to take photos from a Class 130 should note that it is advisable to use the cafetería, where the windows have much lighter tinted glass than those in the cars with seating accommodation. There is still the problem of reflections . . .

Campomanes village, with the A-66 motorway viaduct in the foreground, and the Great Wall, devised to protect the Variante against movements of El Argayón, in the background. View taken on 2 February 2014, from the Madrid-bound Alvia.

10 rates of evaporation from watercourses. Water is, relatively speaking, a scarce resource, and the unpredictable nature of the climate nowadays in this part of southwest Europe increases its fragility. This nasty surprise resulted in part because of the inadequate hydro-geological studies realised for the base tunnel since the initial go-ahead for the project was given in 1997 by Law 47/1997. The Pajares base tunnel was not simply a duplicate of the 1.219 billion euro (73.3% EU-co-financed), 28.38 km twin-bore Guadarrama tunnel, north of Madrid on the high speed line to Valladolid, where the easy going (the tunnels were bored between March 2002 and May 2005) was thanks to fairly homogenous granite. The geology of the Cordillera Cantábrica is considerably more complex, the bores traversing at least six large faults in sandstone, carboniferous strata and limestone. And when one considers limestone, or karst geological features, subterranean caverns, frequently traversed by watercourses, abound. It should be recalled that the geological and hydrological studies for the 57 km St. Gotthard base tunnel occupied all of a decade. For the Variante de Pajares a few months sufficed, and the geography of the aquifers was an unknown factor until they were breached. Shortly after the first problems were encountered, Oviedo University was asked to compile a new 1:25 000 geological map of the area, since the latest dated from before the surveys for the 1984 RENFE base tunnel project, which was rejected by the Felipe González administration. For a detailed cross-section of the geology of the base tunnel readers are referred to the following link (Spanish and English texts): http://ropdigital.ciccp.es/pdf/ publico/2005/2005_noviembre_3460_01.pdf On 24 September 2010 a worried ADIF announced that 236 million euros were to be spent on improving waterproofing and drainage within the base tunnel, including the provision of platforms at the trackside to facilitate evacuation of trains in an emergency. Work started early in 2011. The water is evacuated using a system devised by the Centro Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, shown in the accompanying diagram. It is neither simple nor cheap. However none of the specialists involved in the work have stated that it will provide a definitive solution to the problem. It does not resolve the problems of the dry communities in the Bernesga river basin. An early suggestion that the water emerging at Los Pontones should be pumped back uphill to the south side of the mountains was rejected because of the estimated cost of 7 million euros per annum. The latest effort to stem the flow, in spring 2014 is being realised at surface level, where the bed of the Alcedo stream on the León side of the Cordillera is being reinforced and made impermeable on sections where it has been observed that water has been filtering through. The flow volume of this stream varies between 30 and 100 litres per second, and it is suspected to be an important input to the tunnels, situated some 800 m beneath it, By 2013 a 40 % reduction to around 300 litres per second, still sufficient to fill four Olympic-size swimming pools daily, had been achieved in the volume of water flowing out of the bores at Los Pontones. However both tunnels are still excessively wet, the water jetting into them at various heights under considerable pressure. There is some concern that the lining rings, made of specially reinforced concrete to withstand the force exerted by the overburden (the maximum depth of the tunnels is over 1,000 m), might fail under such conditions, resulting in roof-falls. On 27 January 2014 the residents of the affected villages, situated mostly in the 11 Heading north now, after the second hairpin on ‘level 3’, before the line starts exploring the various side valleys, to gain altitude. We are looking westwards over Campomanes and the Huerna valley, followed by the motorway and ‘Variante’.

Looking northwards down the Pajares valley, towards Campomanes and Pola de Lena. With around 50% of the line being in tunnel, it is very difficult to locate it on the mountainside. The various trackways visible were used in the 1880s, during construction. What a superb – and compact – recreational area this could be made into with waymarked footpaths linking Busdongo or Pajares stations with those at Puente de los Fierros or Campomanes! And what a potential tourist attraction – without the need to spoil it by allowing private cars access to the minor roads! The Asturian tourist board needs to wake up to the potential of Pajares before it is too late to do anything else apart from in the near future deciding to use the abandoned trackbed as a ‘Vía Verde’ . . . 12 Once over the watershed, be prepared for a change in weather conditions! In Asturias it can be cool, grey and musty right up to the summit tunnel, while in León the upper Bernesga valley can be basing in sunshine. Conversely, on 22 February a superb spring day was dawning in Asturias, while sleet was falling all the way down from Busdongo to Pola de Gordón. But this was the surprise that awaited us on 2 February, just below Busdongo. Look carefully on the right of the photo, and you will see one of the landslide/avalanche shelters through which the line runs.

The Bernesga valley just north of Villamanín. The short road tunnel on the N-630 is on a curve, under the railway. 13 tributary valleys to the west of the Bernesga held a meeting to pressurise the Ministry of Public Works to prepare a compensation plan and to present their plight to the European Union. They insisted that what was happening was that the EU’s Habitat Directive was being breached in a district categorised as one of the Lugares de Importancia Comunitaria in Castilla y León, and fears were expressed over how the situation could develop following a succession of dry winters and summers.

The Great Wall of Campomanes The war on the ‘Variante’ is not only against water, but also against the mountain. Above the village of Campomanes, between Los Pontones and Pola de Lena, at the confluence of the Huerna and Pajares rivers, the new line traverses a 1.5 km stretch between Campomanes and Sotiello, where the mountainside, infamous for its instability, is known by locals as El Argayón (‘the big landslide’). Because of this, when in the early 1980s the A-66 motorway between Oviedo and León was built, it was routed above Campomanes on a viaduct to the right (eastern) bank of the Huerna, to avoid this stretch of mountainside. Apparently in 2007, just before work started on the ground, geologists warned against adopting the proposed route for the new line. This advice was ignored, and the penalty is now being paid. In 2011 ADIF adjudicated protective actions budgeted at 13.38 million euros to provide structures covering the line at the portals of Teso (731 m east, 840 m west) and Sotiello (909 m east, 917 m west) tunnels, and to build a massive retaining wall, to hold back the mountainside. Then, following the wet months of early 2013 a geotechnical study was commissioned, given the serious nature of the instability of the slope, and the landslides that had already occurred.

Electrification before Tracklaying Electrification (2 x 25 kV AC 50 HZ) was adjudicated to a consortium formed by Alstom Transporte and Isolux Ingeniería in November 2013 for 12.7 million euros (the work to take 14 months, followed by two years of maintenance). The same consortium was in early February 2014 awarded a contract to build a new sub-station at Pola de Gordón. Specifications state that the electrification system must be sufficiently robust to enable 300 km/h operation and the passage of trains at three-minute headways. To date, no other construction contracts have been awarded for completion of the line. In November 2011 ArcelorMittal was awarded the contract for the supply of rails, and the contract for the supply of ballast was awarded in Mar 2012. It was expected that the tender for the supply of sleepers was to be invited in November 2013. These contracts seem to have been conveniently lost en route. Fears are growing that electrification may not be technically feasible given the quantity of water entering the tunnel between the lining segments. Suggestions were made in early 2014 that Class 730 electro-diesels could be used instead of the Class 130 EMUs which currently operate services between Asturias and the rest of Spain. There is a slight complication here – the Class 730s are allowed through Guadarrama tunnel, but under electric power. They are not permitted to use long tunnels on high speed lines using diesel power. The longest bore they regularly traverse in this mode is the 5,949 m Padornelo tunnel, on the non-electrified line between Zamora and Ourense, built for double track, but only with single track laid.

14 While we are in this part of the Bernesga valley, let us spare a thought for the many villages suffering water shortages as a result of the tunnelling taking place around 800 m below. These diagrams show the Variante and the original line, the locations of the villages, and the locations of the aquifers. (El País, commons)

15 Drainage Remedies in Pajares Base Tunnel Filtración de agua – water seeping into tunnel Lechada que rellena el trasdós – The 200 mm wide gap between the lining rings and the bare rock was filled with grout. The water enters the grout under pressure (maximum overburden, 1 100 m). Dovelas – Tunnel lining rings, 500 – 600 mm thick, seven sections per ring, 36 098 rings. 4 – The original grout is being washed away by the water, and is being replaced by a more resistant grout Láminas impermeables- Impermeable inner lining rings Tubos de desague – The water is evacuated to Los Pontones via three tubes in the base of the tunnel (currently 400 l/s, not considered excessive for 60 km of tunnel) Lechada – grout layer Dovelas – lining rings

16 Nobody Mentions this 1980s Upgrade . . . The question of which gauge to use for the Variante has been a useful stalling ploy for both the Zapatero and Rajoy administrations. In fact, by laying ‘traviesas polivalentes’ – sleepers suitable for the quick conversion from 1,668 mm to 1,435 mm gauge, and by erecting catenary that can be readily switched from 3 kV DC to 25 kV AC, gauge is really no problem. Spain is now becoming proficient in the creation of main line rail corridors with three-rail . One prime example is the link between Barcelona Port and the high speed network, including the Barcelona by-pass line, through Vallès. Another is the Mediterranean Rail Freight Corridor project, involving dual gauge from Martorell to Tarragona and València. One argument against its use on the Variante de Pajares is the fact that it would, in theory, only be a short term measure, and would not be worth the cost. At present tracklaying (but now only single 1,435 mm gauge track, for reasons of economy) is now in progress on the Valladolid to Palencia and León HSL. Between León (San Andrés) and La Robla (20.6 km) Public Works has dithered for years, with various projects being submitted for environmental evaluation, and then stalling. What nobody has ever mentioned is that in the mid-1980s the original 1860s single track main line was doubled, realigned in places, and upgraded for 160 km/h running. Traffic is not particularly heavy -182 freights and 57 passenger trains per week in 2013. Public Works, following its economy drive of spring 2013 on the HSL programme, indicated that this stretch was to become dual gauge, and no parallel HSL would be built. Moreover, it will be several years yet before a complete 1,435 mm gauge route is created between Palencia, Burgos, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Donostia and the French border at Irún, this possibly favouring the growth of international freight traffic to and from Asturias as the Atlantic Rail Freight Corridor evolves. At present plans to bring both bores of the base tunnel into use are on hold. In spring 2013 the Ministry of Public Works announced that 1,668 mm gauge track was to be laid, but only through the eastern bore (the one generating the least water), with dual- gauge sleepers, so that gauge conversion can take place at an indefinite future date. In spite of the fact that tenders were to be invited ‘immediately’, no tracklaying contracts had been adjudicated by the end of January 2014. Indeed, it is questionable whether the watery conditions within the tunnels would permit the laying of track, slab or ballasted. It is therefore impossible to predict a date for the inauguration of the Variante, although in late 2013 the media were suggesting summer 2016 as the earliest feasible. By mid-2013 the cost of the entire ‘Variante’ project had risen to 3.2 billion euros. By December 2012 the Ministry of Public Works had used up 94.8 % of the co- financing provided for the project by the EU. This amounted to an initial 632.74 million euros for the boring of the base tunnel, followed in October 2009 by a further 253.95 million euros for providing the infrastructure (track, electrification and communications). This sum was used up almost entirely on the initial phases of work to control the flow from the aquifers. If there is one lesson to be learned so far from Pajares, it is that more haste and less speed should be exercised when preparing major infrastructure projects that are dependent on EU co-financing.

17 Take your Partners for the León Shuffle! Nearly 150 years of railway history came to an end on 18 March 2011 in León, the line from Palencia having been inaugurated on 9 November 1863. In connection with the development of the HSL from Valladolid to Palencia, León and Asturias, the short section of double track north of the existing station, as far as the depot and works, was closed, thus eliminating the level crossing at El Crucero, notorious for its traffic jams. The farewell act at El Crucero took place at 13.45 on the 18th, the final to traverse the level crossing being the preserved León-based Mikado 141F-2346 of 1957, and immediately afterwards workers symbolically chopped up the crossing barriers using a chainsaw. The new RENFE station, referred to as ‘temporary’ is a cul-de-sac terminus, situated immediately to the south of the existing one, renowned for its grand trainshed spanning the two easternmost tracks. Trains bound for Galicia and Asturias are now obliged to reverse, then leave León via the Variante Sur, hitherto freight-only and inaugurated on 13 September 2008 (see map). Moreover, at the triangular junction at Torneros (where the lines to Galicia and Asturias part company) trains to and from Asturias make a second reversal, this the fruit of a questionnaire survey among passengers on Alvia services, asking them whether they minded realising part of their journey with their backs to the direction of travel. They did mind. It seems nobody considered the third simple option – rotating all the seat units, Norwegian-style, at León, to avoid the Torneros reversal! These two manoeuvres add around 25 minutes to journey times for Asturias services. In fact there are two possible variations on the painfully slow León shuffle – trains sometimes reverse while on, or having reached the main line to Palencia, and also in the terminus, an activity which would have any track-bashers on board reaching enthusiastically for their yellow felt-tips and Ball Atlases, since two chords which are ‘rare track’ for passenger services are traversed. Tolkein enthusiasts would be forgiven for thinking that, in the vicinity of Bifurcación Torneros, they had been transported into Middle Earth, since to the west of the line there is a cluster of wine bodegas set into the hillside, looking for all the world like a ramshackle Hobbiton. It is worth examining the geography of León on Google Maps (currently not up to date – the Variante Sur exists, but in a state of construction). At the Bifurcación Galicia/Asturias triangle one is within easy walking distance of the station, and the depot buildings can be seen. In fact one could reach the station, on foot, in less time than it takes the train to do so! The temporary León terminus, built at a cost of 23 million euros, has four platform tracks, the platforms and concourse forming an ‘E’. It was originally intended that the eastern pair of tracks would eventually be re-gauged to 1,435 mm, for use by high speed trains from Palencia, Valladolid and Madrid, with León becoming the until completion of the section of HSL thence to La Robla. The fact that trains would have to change gauge again at Pola de Lena seems to have been overlooked. Gauge-changing involves trains slowing to around 9 km/h, and even though the Class 130s have prodigious acceleration capabilities, also extends journey time considerably. The catenary in the station area is already designed for a changeover from 3 kV DC to 25 kV AC. The station building covers 1274 m2, and has all the facilities offered by the original one.

18 One could be forgiven for thinking that this was the foundation for a new two-lane main road. In fact it is the location where the Variante de Pajares joins the main line, just south of La Robla and the bridge over the Bernesga to the right (western) bank of the latter. It should be noted here how little land-take is involved in the construction of a new double track HSL compared with a four -lane motorway. Sadly many ‘environmentalists’ still campaign against new railways (such as HS2) and encourage the construction of new roads. Drive along the north coast of Spain, between Oviedo, Santander and Bilbao, and observe the massive, hideous earthworks required for the motorway (still under construction between Llanes and Unquera). How much less intrusive the AVE del Cantábrico would have been!

The north-to-east chord which was once the main line from Gijón to León in the northwest suburbs of León. The track has been lifted, the catenary masts remain. The whitish roof in the background is the depot building, and the distance from there to the station is slightly greater than that from the junction to the depot – an easy walk! Yet to cover this distance by train now takes around 20 minutes . . . all because of one urban level crossing. The easiest solution – put the offending main road, here the Avenida Dr. Fleming, underground! 19 In the longer term it was envisaged that León would once again become a through station, though with the tracks to Asturias running underground through the suburbs at least as far as the depot, presumably roughly following the course of the abandoned stretch of main line. The recession has put an end to that costly scheme (there seems to have been no detailed project worked out), with a welcome decision announced in early March 2014 by ADIF and the Ministry of Public Works not to pursue any more schemes for putting railways underground in urban areas. This was followed by a suggestion by the Foro Asturias political party that there had been so little opposition to the provisional terminus scheme during the period was José Blanco was Minister of Public Works since the Socialists in the provinces had no wish to be seen in conflict with the ideology being put forward by their PSOE masters in Madrid, presumably fearing retribution. The numerous schemes for putting railways underground in urban areas were devised by provincial councils and Public Works in collaboration with property developers. Municipal coffers would be swelled through the sale of building permits. As we all know now, the property market in Spain is saturated, with the housing construction industry in stagnation. To make these schemes more attractive to the urban public, the railway was branded as an ‘architectural barrier’ (roads, curiously, were not seen as such), and since the turn of the millennium the Government has deliberately played upon the idea of level crossings being ‘dangerous’, while ignoring the fact that it is road users – motorists and pedestrians – who through their own impatience make them so. Invariably it is the railway company which is obliged to finance the not inconsiderable cost of replacement of level crossings by bridges. León station (the original structure) remains intact, although the track has been removed from the Bifurcación Asturias chord. In March 2014 there was talk by Public Works of restoring services to the original station, and thus eliminating reversals. The cost of replacing the track between the station and depot area, and reinstating the junction at Bifurcación Asturias would have to e shouldered by the provincial or municipal authorities. The cheapest option – a line on the surface - means a revival of El Crucero level crossing, but current plans seem to favour putting the line underground beneath the original trackbed, so as not to frustrate road users. A lot of fuss and inconvenience, for nothing, at great public cost. Who might one ask, was responsible? Not the general public – no referendum was held on the issue of El Crucero!

Gijón: Long Walk to the Buffer-Stops On 21 Novmber 2002 Gijón al Norte was founded, with the express intention of developing the urban land occupied by Jovellanos/La Braña stations and El Humedal terminus in Gijón. El Humedal, which can crudely be described as a Brutalist-style concrete box, was formally inaugurated as recently as 20 January 1990, having been in use since 1988, the site was previously occupied by the sprawling termini and trackyards shared on the north side by the 1,440 mm gauge Ferrocarril de Langreo, inaugurated on 25 August 1852, taken over by FEVE on 12 June 1972 and converted to metre gauge in 1983/4, and on the south side by the electrified metre gauge Ferrocarril de Carreño, absorbed in FEVE in 1968. RENFE started sharing El Humedal in 1990, while the old Norte terminus was soon afterwards transformed into the Museo del Ferrocarril de Asturias. A separate station, Jovellanos, was provided just west of the museum complex 20 Heading south from León on 2 February 2014. A Class 120 EMU is descending the chord from the Variante Sur on the Bifurcación Río Quintana. This would appear to be forming the 08.12 from A Coruña to Barcelona-Sants (21.05),

Map showing past and present track layouts at León. 21 for RENFE long distance services, the FEVE platforms here being known as La Braña. Jovellanos soon became a costly white elephant, home for many years for an abandoned Class 7700 electric (now safely in the adjacent museum), and all RENFE trains proceeded to and from El Humedal. Gijón al Norte’s shareholders were FEVE (25%), RENFE Operadora (12.5%), ADIF (12.5%), the Principado de Asturias (25%) and Gijón Ayuntamiento (25%). It was thus a public company, with the Ministry of Public Works being represented by the two rail operators and the infrastructure manager. It proposed that the FEVE and RENFE tracks were to be put underground, and a new joint subterranean station created below El Humedal, together with a new bus station (a facility which Gijón is still crying out for). It was estimated that around 200,000 m2 of land would be released for building, and between 1,400 and 1,600 flats could be built there, generating around 267 million euros, based on a price per dwelling of between 178,000 and 300,000 euros. The railway part of the project was carried still further, and superficially, looking at it from the 2002 viewpoint of a booming economy, seemed logical enough. Gijón, the largest city in Asturias, with a population of 280,000, has expanded rapidly since the 1960s, and the railway only serves the western suburbs. Why not, asked the promoters of Gijón al Norte, extend it under the city centre to the eastern suburbs, thus serving El Molinón sports stadium, university campus and Cabueñes? A good excuse for freeing up construction land was thus available, the gneral public were placated, and boring of the 3,858 m long tunnel started under el Humedal on 10 June 2003, and finished under the suburb of Viesques in December 2006. An intermediate station was built at El Bibio, not far from the bull ring and El Molinón, and a 220 m long crossing point was provided at Castiello de Bernueces, 34 m below street level, near the end of the tunnel. No construction was realised further east, the prolongation to Cabueñes, which would have brought the length of the tunnel up to 7 km, with five new stations, estimated to cost 360 million euros, bringing the cost of the entire project up to 772 million euros. In 2009 the promoters decided to address the question of rail access to the new tunnel. Or perhaps they only wanted to show the general public that they were committed to the completion of what was generally referred to as Metrotrén. Construction started of a new, ‘temporary’ terminus, Gijón Sanz Crespo, adjacent to Jovellanos/La Braña station and the new law courts. It was stated that 21 million euros were invested in providing the new facilities and abandoning the old terminus. By then patronage on the FEVE Cercanías network in Asturias had been in sharp decline since 2006, and was about to follow suit on the RENFE Cercanías network. There is no single reason for this decline, which started two years before the onset of the recession. Car ownership levels increasing, rural depopulation, the introduction of ticket vending machines and ticket barriers at most stations, coupled with partial de-staffing, the reduction in the number of travelling ticket inspectors – all could have been contributory factors. Almost certainly another from early spring 2011 was Gijón Sanz Crespo. 159 years of railway history came to an end in Gijón at 22.39 on the night of 30 January 2011 when the last FEVE train, a Class 3300 EMU, departed from El Humedal terminus, bound for the local depot at Candás. At lunchtime on 31 January the first FEVE train terminated at the new station, Sanz Crespo, the 12.24 arrival from Trubia, a Class 2700 DMU. FEVE services use just three metre gauge tracks (there were six at El Humedal), and RENFE services are similarly constrained. Soon after the new terminus 22 was opened, the bulldozers moved in on Jovellanos/La Braña, and tracklifting started. Three years later little has changed. Pedestrians are now able to cross the abandoned, weed-grown trackbeds on fenced footpaths immediately outside Sanz Crespo and in front of the railway museum. But Sanz Crespo is situated about 800 m west of the abandoned empty shell of El Humedal, a pleasant enough walk on a fine day, but not so agreeable in the teeth of an Atlantic gale or a biting north-easterly. A reduction of 800 m in track length means that any journey time savings by train (and operating costs) are laughable! Initially a connecting bus service was provided – that has disappeared. Meanwhile the tunnel without entrance portals beneath the city is costing as much as 250,000 euros per annum in maintenance alone. and is a silent, illuminated paradise for urban rats. Nobody has come up with any ideas of how the abandoned infrastructure could be put to the best of use, although there were suggestions before the recession of laying dual gauge track and using catenary that could be energised at 1.5 kV and 3 kV DC as required. There is no apparent location where the lines could come to the surface, though this would have to be somewhere near Tremañes (FEVE, two portals, one on the Avilés line and one on the Langreo line) and Calzada de Asturias (RENFE, probably near the EMU storage sidings). In retrospect the ideal would not have been a mini-metro. Gijón has a fabulous seaside promenade running the length of the playa de San Lorenzo. Extending the FEVE tracks as a tramway, at least as far as the trade fair complex near El Molinón at the east end of the beach would have been the ideal (and cheaper) solution – perhaps even using heritage in summer!

Is the Variante Really Worth the effort? I love railways. There is nothing I would like to see more than a frequent, regular train service between Gijón, Oviedo and León, instead of the five Class 130 Alvia train pairs currently offered daily (plus one cheaper Media Distancia train pair, at inconvenient times). And with an attractive pricing policy that makes spur of the moment decisions to travel affordable. However, I also love the 1884 line over Pajares, which offers scenery far superior to that of an HSL, 75% of whose length is subterranean. In 1984, when the González administration rejected RENFE’s base tunnel project, I think I would have said ‘yes’ to the Variante. Three decades ago Asturias was still a significant coal producer, and much of that coal still left the Principality by rail, over Pajares. were slower, and less powerful, resulting in less available line capacity. Freight traffic on the RENFE network is in 2014 at an all-time low, though the private operators are steadily increasing their market share, and are soon likely to capture 25% - a modest amount in terms of the tonnage moved. Coal still ascends Pajares, but it comes in containerised form, from the other side of the globe. The number of passenger services between Gijón, Oviedo and the interior is slowly increasing, and looks set to do so even more. The commercial airport in Asturias, at Ranón, west of Avilés, is rapidly losing both flights and passengers, the service to and from Madrid clearly suffering at the hands of RENFE, which is reluctant to increase its offer while it can still fill seats on the existing trains. The operator’s Promo yield management fares policy appears to be working, and is fine so long as one can make travel decisions months in advance – the cheapest seats, at a 70% discount, are always quickly sold out. One longs for a return of attractive walk-on fares. Promo has been useful in indicating roughly what the latent 23 demand for high speed rail travel is, provided the fares are cheap enough. But I fear the patronage increases generated by Promo since the introduction of the latter in early 2013 may also be used by both operator and Public Works as a tool to justify more EU- subsidised investment in HSLs, such as León to La Robla and north of Pola de Lena, serving Oviedo, Avilés(!) and Gijón. The catchment area resident population for these new lines is not huge – around 860,000 in the central Asturian conurbation, 1.05 million in the whole of the Principality, which covers a huge area of 10,604 km2. Even with cheap Promo fares on AVE services there are few folk who have the time, money or inclination to travel by high speed train for the fun of it. One could truthfully say that in the case of Oviedo to León use of the Variante would squeeze all the last remaining drops of scenic fun from the journey. One also has to ask – will patronage fall when Public Works and RENFE decide to do away with Promo fares? Or will private operators step in offering budget –priced services? In February 2014 I travelled on a Class 130 for the first time, from Mieres to Madrid, the first return trip on a Sunday, the second on a Saturday (when we used the two ‘rare chords’ in León). The Sunday trains were reasonably well-filled, both ways. The Saturday morning one was less than half full as far as León, only becoming crowded by Valladolid. Will completion of the high speed network to Pola de Lena generate a spectacular increase in demand for rail travel from Asturias? And also, if this increase does happen, what will be its nature? Will it merely turn the central Asturian conurbation (Oviedo, Gijón, Mieres and Avilés) into a weekend dormitory satellite of Madrid? Will it accelerate out-migration of the working age population, a phenomenon which has already been given a nasty boost by the recent recession? What will be the impact on depopulation in the Cuencas (former mining basins in the valleys to the south and east of Oviedo) and in rural areas? Sadly, we had no crystal ball in 2003 with which to foresee the coming recession, and the consequences of the latter. In 2004 I would still have supported the continuing of the HSL to Oviedo and Gijón, built to accommodate fast suburban services, and routed via Mieres, Langreo, Siero, Llanera (for Oviedo), Porceyu (on the trading/industrial estate south of Gijón) and Cabueñes, at the eastern end of the aborted Metrotrén line. This logical route, serving the main concentrations of population and economic activity, was not proposed by Public Works when in 2009 José Blanco announced initial project preparation and environmental assessment. In fact it would be the easiest option as regards civil engineering work. Instead, Public Works published a crude map, showing a line striking northwest from Mieres to Oviedo, with lengthy tunnels under limestone ranges with coal measures and serving no other intermediate centres of population. The Pola de Lana to Gijón journey time would have been shortened by a mere ten minutes! It was the easiest way of getting a costly, difficult project rejected, but in March 2014 Belén Fernández González, the Public Works councillor for Asturias, urged that this ludicrous scheme should be revived . . . to ensure that it gets EU co-financing! I was also enthusiastic over the AVE del Cantábrico, which, following the relatively densely populated coast, would have complemented the metre gauge FEVE network. and linked the main ports and industrial centres of the north with the 1,435 mm gauge network in the rest of Europe. But a decade after this line was proposed (apparently as part of the ‘compensation’ owed to Galicia for the ‘Prestige’ disaster),

24 recession or no recession, it is now painfully clear that patronage of high speed services in Spain leaves much to be desired, even in comparison with France and Italy – let alone Japan and South Korea. High speed rail, with low patronage levels, is an economic luxury a country deep in debt could well do without. Indeed, one wonders what the future patronage levels on the Spanish high speed network would have been had the initial policy been to develop first the two lines serving the greatest densities of population and industry – along the Cantabrican and Mediterranean coasts, rather than ensuring that the political capital, Madrid, was politically well-connected (one should note that Felipe González, during whose administration the high speed era was born, hails from Sevilla, the destination of the first new line . . .) Sadly, with 3.5 billion euros having been poured down the drain on the Variante de Pajares, it is probably too late to call a halt to the project, and add it to the all too long list of Spain’s unfinished railways. And if the project were halted, the public uproar would be considerable. After all, the Government has pumped the media full of its ‘promises’ to build a 350 km/h railway, to offer a journey time of less than three hours between Asturias and Madrid, and to use ‘real’ high speed trains (in other words, the Class 102 Talgos and 103 Velaros, both of which are fixed 1,435 mm gauge, and capable of 300 km/h or more) rather than the variable-gauge 250 km/h Class 130s used at present. But a Class 130 is remarkably nimble. It can ascend or descend Pajares at a steady 85 km/h, 300 m radius curves and 2% gradient notwithstanding. The track is not, perhaps, in the best of condition in spring 2014. But with a thorough track upgrade, could it be possible for a Class 130 to manage 100 km/h on some stretches, without causing too much discomfort to passengers? One has to ask again – is the Variante really necessary? The uproar created should the project be cancelled at this late stage is predictable. The media, whether pro-or anti-Government, would condemn the decision, and would thus whip up public support, since people tend to believe what they read. It is of course very questionable how much of that public support would be a genuine measure of either real or latent demand for high speed services! One thing that I have been told more that once, since 2008, is that ‘We must learn not to let politicians make decisions for us’. Perhaps this is the one gem of knowledge gleaned by the Spanish population over the past six years. We are in control of our destinies – Moncloa is not! No doubt, in spite of its mudslides and warm underground showers, the Variante de Pajares will one day be completed. It would be prudent to have an alternative route available, for the day when a tunnel lining ring fails or roof falls are prompted by seismic activity (which is not that uncommon in northwest Spain, and is likely to increase if ever large-scale fracking gets under way). That means keeping the spectacular 1884 line via La Perruca summit tunnel open, whether ADIF likes the idea or not – for it is not a cheap line to maintain (and nor will be the Variante. And surely it is not yet too late for the people of Asturias should follow the example of the Swiss and unite to promote, across Europe, if not worldwide, the Principality’s one great and still virtually unknown tourist attraction: the train journey from Gijón and Oviedo to León, over Pajares.

25 Formentera’s Salt Pan Railway Part 2 By Myles Munsey

was fortunate to revisit Formentera in August/September 2013, nearly 20 years on from my previous 1994 trip. I was curious to know whether anything remained of I the salt pan railway, but unsurprisingly 19 years later the rusting hulks close by Eastany Pudent had gone and all I could find were a couple of lengths of narrow gauge rail by the side of the road. I made reference in my previous article (Correo 23) to the presence of a preserved steam loco at the ethnographic museum in Sant Francesc and my inability to find pictures of it. That remains the case (internet-wise) so decided to set forth on the bike and see whether I could discover it for myself. Success! In the courtyard of the afore-mentioned museum was the 1897 Deacauville Loco no.3 (originally no. 242 when employed in Ibiza). The curator with whom there was regrettably a language barrier, stated that the loco was French and of 1897 build so yes this was the little machine. In the upstairs part of the museum was a wall of photos depicting the salt pan industry and four contained railway interest.

26 Colchoneros vs Merengues By Gabriel Lopes

For the second time in the history of the European football competitions, and in the Champions League, two Spanish teams (Real and Atletico Madrid) managed reach the final. So how did some of them travel to Lisboa? By train of course!

he final was played on 24th May, in Iberian territory but curiously in the neighboring capital; Lisboa. For a day and half, Lisboa was invaded by T thousands of Spaniards. They occupied restaurants, pubs, gardens, monuments, buses, trams, always speaking very loudly, a typical Latin characteristic! In each corner, a Spaniard always showed up. Lisboa seemed more like Madrid. It`s evident that the geographical proximity of the two Iberian countries helped in mobilizing many fans of both teams. To move this massive group of people, transportation had a crucial role. Airlines, buses and car rental, used this important sport event to their own advantage. Railways were no exception, and the Spanish operator RENFE, also organized five special trains between Madrid and Lisboa, all Talgo rolling stock, plus the night service Lusitania. Portuguese railways had never seen such an intense cross border operation. Another novelty launched by RENFE, was the promotion of a new railway cruise product based on night services called “Train & Breakfast” These trains, run to a number of important tourist spots in Spain. Essentially, costumers use the train as a hotel parked in a main station by night and during the day, they visit tourist places where the train stops. In this case, Lisboa and Porto were the first two cities outside Spain to receive this hotel on wheels. Porto received a Talgo composition for the first time in its history. On the return service after the final, all returned to Madrid, with one including an overnight trip Porto on the way. This sporting event allowed the vast railway enthusiast community of both countries to take pictures or video of this rare event. Many photos were captured and posted on blogs. Being Portuguese, the author of this article will focus on what happened on the Portuguese side, because some very interesting things occurred. To allow the running of a range of Talgo compositions, including Talgo 7, an approval process was required to be passed. So far only Talgo S4s were allowed to circulate on the Portuguese network, and they are regularly used to haul the daily night services Lusitania and Sudexpres to Madrid and Hendaye. On 13th May 13 of 2014, an empty Talgo S7 entered in Portugal by the Beira Alta line. The destination was Lisboa on a round trip just for an approval test to obtain homologation by REFER. However, it never actually received the desired homologation, the train instead ran with a special authorization on that days (derogation – ed). An approval process encompasses various technical procedures that cannot be completed on a single trip. In the author’s opinion, there seems no doubt that there was a good deal of ministerial political diplomacy between Spain and Portugal, giving specific instructions to the national railways companies ADIF, RENFE, REFER and CP: “ Please, do not make complications, these trains must run! ” (Actually it is probable that pressure was put on IMTT – the Portuguese Safety Authority – ed) Damage to the (brittle Jarrah) wooden sleepers caused by the derailment of a single wagon of private rail company Takargo freight train. Jornal da Mealhad

CP 5614, hauling the second charter train from Madrid Atocha to Lisboa Oriente, running very slowly over the Várzeas bridge. 28 Two days after, on the 15th May, a big problem for REFER awaited a quick resolution. In the early afternoon of that day, a freight train operated by Takargo from Constantí (Barcelona) to Alverca (Lisboa) derailed. The 12th wagon of 19, fell off the rails near Trezói, a small stop located at Km. 63 of the Beira Alta line. The train crew didn`t notice the problem, running almost 6 km with the derailed wagon to the entrance of the next station, Luso-Buçaco. The damage to this section was substantial, especially on the metal bridges of Trezói, Meligioso and Várzeas. All the wooden sleepers had been destroyed! The flanges of derailed wagon wheels had acted like the sharp blades of a guillotine. Not a single sleeper took survived! The most serious case was on the Várzeas viaduct at high level. Pieces of wood “rained” over the small farms, forcing the closure of the N335, that connects Anadia to Penacova. REFER closed the line to traffic and CP was forced to rent buses. Nine days before the big match, REFER was in a race against time to repair 6km of tracks, with special attention to the steel bridges. The interim solution used by REFER was to place an additional wooden sleeper in between, every three sleepers to stop the rails from spreading albeit at limited maximum speed of 10km/h. Outside the bridges, the speed was restrict to 30 Km/h. On match day, the Talgos arrived and crossed the three bridges slowly and quietly. To fulfil the potential demand of the fans travelling to Lisboa to see the Champions League final between Real Madrid and Atletico de Madrid, RENFE operated six special trains plus the usual Trenhotel between Madrid and Lisboa. The 6 Talgo compositions that went to Portugal are listed in the table The arrival of these trains forced REFER to draw up a management plan for Lisboa Santa Apolonia, to receive and park all the additional rolling stock for several hours. The first three trains arriving at the Portuguese border station of Vilar Formoso, made their trips to Lisboa by night, while the other three made their journeys during the day, and these were greeted by many rail enthusiasts with their cameras. Never had an event in Portugal involved so many trains. Curiously the first special train, the “Train & Breakfast” service, suffered a long delay. After the train had left Salamanca, a passenger felt bad and the train had to wait for an ambulance to collect him. Finally, all the trains arrived at Lisboa, and it was time to wait for the game. The referee’s whistle started the match and after a tough 120 minutes, there was the happiness and euphoria of the Real Madrid fans. Final score was 4-1 to the merengues. I will finish this article with a single reference to the next day, in particular the Talgo S7 composition, which headed to the north Portuguese region with the new tourist rail service "Train & Breakfast" to Porto. This historic city is located on the Douro river and has the famous Port wine cellars, and is UNESCO World Heritage site. It is hoped that the RENFE passengers enjoyed their stay in this charming city. As was mentioned above, this was the first time a Talgo visited Porto and why many went to Porto-Campanhã to see and photograph this hotel on wheels. Due to family commitments the author couldn`t travel to Campanhã, but it didn`t stop him from waking up early on a Sunday morning to take a picture under low light conditions nearby the beach in Espinho, one of the most beautiful spots for pictures on the Portuguese mainline, the North line, between Porto and Lisboa.

29 DCP 5612 with the third charter composition from Madrid Chamartín to Lisboa Santa Apolónia, running slowly through Luso station, waiting to cross the Várzeas bridge.

CP 5619 with the first visit of a "Train & Breakfast" touristic train to Portugal past the Espinho beaches, running overnight from Lisbon to Porto 30

Notes Train&Breakfast Lusitania (add. service) Elipsos Elipsos Mare Nostrum + Altaria Torre del Oro Notes Notes Mare Nostrum + Altaria Elipsos Elipsos Torre del Oro Lusitania (add. service) Train&Breakfast

0 7 7 4 5 40 20 40 10 15 33 168

Delay (min) Delay (min) Delay (min)

Via Via Via Direct Medina Medina Medina Medina Medina Medina Peñaranda Peñaranda Peñaranda Peñaranda Peñaranda Peñaranda Peñaranda Peñaranda

Arr. Arr. Arr.

06:47 07:30 07:32 08:15 15:24 15:46 16:46 07:22 11:10 12:10 12:09 13:09 13:02 08:10 06:43

Porto Atocha Atocha Oriente Oriente Chamartin Chamartin Chamartin Chamartin Chamartin Arr. Station Arr. Station Arr. Station

Sta. Apolonia Sta. Apolonia Sta. Apolonia Sta. Apolonia Sta. Apolonia

Dep. Dep. Dep. 21:35 21:50 22:52 23:30 07:00 07:35 08:40 02:43 01:00 01:30 02:00 02:30 03:00 21:18 21:46

Porto Atocha Atocha Oriente Oriente Chamartin Chamartin Chamartin Chamartin Chamartin

Dep. Station Dep. Station Dep. Station Sta. Apolonia Sta. Apolonia Sta. Apolonia Sta. Apolonia Sta. Apolonia

Azul Azul T&B T&B T&B Logo Logo Logo Verde Verde Violeta Violeta Naranja Naranja Amarillo Amarillo

RENFE=C RENFE+C

87 87 174 330 278 620 328 470 174 620 330 470 278 328 174 Places Places Places

7 7 20 13 20 13 20 Cars Cars Cars 9+10

10+14 11+13 12+11 10+14 12+11 10+14 11+13

7C5 7C5 7C5 4C11 6B11 6B11 4C11 Rakes Rakes Rakes 6C7+5C5 6C5+6C6 6B1+6B1 4B1+4B4 6B1+6B1 5C5+6C7 4B1+4B4 6C5+6C6

No No No No 252 5620 5618 5607 5606 5614 5612 5615 5619 252.032 252.036 252.033 RENFE CP 5600 CP 5600

No No No No No Diesel 252.029 252.032 252.036 333.407 333.401 334.023 333.403 334.008 334.007 RENFE

RENFE 252 RENFE 252 319.319+332

No 5606 5612 5607 5611 5614 5619 56XX Diesel Diesel 334.017 333.401 333.403 333.407 334.008 334.023 RENFE RENFE CP 5600 319.319+332

No. No. 335 11118 20535 10218 10270 10290 10214 111122 111120 111124 111126 111128 312/332 10216/7 10268/9 REFER REFER ADIF No.

No 332 No. 11119 11334 11332 10334 10336 10332 10217 10269 10219 10271 10291 310/335 10214/5 REFER ADIF No. ADIF No.

Dep. Date Dep. Date RETURN Dep. Date 31 23/05/2014 23/05/2014 23/05/2014 23/05/2014 24/05/2014 24/05/2014 24/05/2014 25/05/2014 25/05/2014 25/05/2014 25/05/2014 25/05/2014 25/05/2014 26/05/2014 26/05/2014 OUTBOUND INTERMEDIATE Geoff Eley recently (27/08/14) took the 30min FEVE (now RENFE) service to Cartagena from Los Nietos, past some of the old min ing works. The older 2-car Class 2600 sets were replaced with newer single-car Class 2900 units (built 2010 – numbers 2906/7/9/10/11/12) from the northern system. The return fare is 2.7 0 Euros. The only ticket machine is at Cartagena otherwise you pay the guard. He will give you 2 tickets and a receipt. The tickets are for the barrier at Cartagena but you must keep t he receipt for return journey as proof.