www.iberianrailwayssociety.org Issue No. 19 Winter 2010 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 post vacant 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 2010-MARCH 2011 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 4 The Editor’s Page 5 About Barcelona 6 North Spain 2009, Part 5: Bilbao & Burgos 17 Electrotren Renfe Short Wheelbase Van 28 Mabar N Gauge Renfe Renault Railcar 30 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: Bilbao 30.07.09. CAF Euskotram 405 heading towards Guggenheim at Uribitarte while mowing the lawn. Photo by Michael Guerra 3 HOLÀ ! n behalf of the myself and the Committee I would like to wish you all a very O Happy Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the Winter Meet to be held at Epsom Coaches on a Saturday 26th February 2011, please check www.iberianrailwayssociety.org website for more details. Adios. David Stevenson, Chairman – Iberian Railways Society 3, Aldersey Road, Worcester, WR5 3BG Tel: 01905 358440 Email: [email protected] IRS SALES (for Christmas!) Correo Back Issues. A CD containing all previous issues of Correo up to the preceding year in PDF format. £5.50 including postage. DVDS The Society now sells the Ticket to Ride DVDs Out & About Barcelona. Includes RENFE, the FGC, freight, TALGOs and an overview of this wonderful city. £25.00 including postage Out & About Lisbon. Includes CP, the trams and elevadores, Barreiro and scenic shots of the city. £25.00 including postage TALGO Cabride - Portbou to Girona TALGO Cabride - Girona to Barcelona TALGO Cabride - Barcelona to Reus Algarve Cabride - Lagos to Tunes (with a Class 1800) Algarve Cabride - Tunes. Faro to Vila Real (with a Class 1800) Cab Rides are £20.00 each including postage. More than just cabrides they include station views, scenic shots where appropriate and shots of rail action en route. COASTERS Set of four square coasters showing some modern scenes from the FGV, RENFE and FEVE. £6.50 including postage 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. 4 Happy Seasonal Greeting to you all. I certainly hope that this winter edition finds A you ensconced in a comfortable armchair with a hot steaming mug of something adjacent while reading the latest Correo. This was written after a couple of hours of freezing in a partially insulated loft, trying to complete it before my birthday (December 25th…). We have decided on a non-prototypical model railway of 3 gauges: 16.5mm (HO), 12mm (HOm) and 9mm (Hoe/OO9). The reason was driven by available rolling stock. The range of gauges suggests something Swiss/Austrian, but our stock varies from all the countries we have been to, except for Russia/Belarus/Poland as we have been unable to find any decent models. We also have a mobile N gauge layout which will find its way upstairs. Reading back through our trip to Spain in 2009 and the trips over the Pajares Pass brought to mind the difficulty the engineers had in tunnelling through the limestone Cordillera. An item in Today’s Railways by Dr Bent brought this to light with Asturias now exporting a good deal more fresh water to Oviedo and Leon by virtue of pumping out flood water from the tunnel bores. One wonders how this will effect the local water tables, or even the local environment, as streams that spring from underground cease to run. Heroic engineering needs to be balanced with its effect on the landscape, both below and above the ground. News from Spain and Portugal suggest that the banking-led recession is affecting some of the big infrastructure projects, delaying them due to a restriction in cash-flow. Spain is rethinking the Basque Y, the North Coast high speed line and perhaps some of the major station layouts on the new routes north. Portugal seems to be faring worse and perhaps like Ireland will be severely constrained if they have to be bailed-out. The North-South high-speed lines are already far behind schedule, while it is possible that the proposed Spain-Lisboa high-speed link will be returned to the back-burner again. Behind the headlines one can only imagine the effect La Crisis is having on everyday maintenance and ticket prices. Already Renfe is reconsidering the availability of cheap promotional web fares (Tarifa Web). But back to Correo: I need a steady stream of illustrated articles if Correo is to be worth producing. Some of you have produced un-illustrated articles (that have not yet seen the light of day) and some of you regularly send in pictures. Thank you. Unfortunately, the pictures that I have do not go with the articles that need some (why should they, I can’t expect all of you to be psychic!), hence the problem. I could just print random pictures and articles, but I wouldn’t want to edit or read it, so please, if you take a picture (or buy a postcard) write a story to go with it; and if you have an article please find a picture for it. It can’t be that hard? Michael Guerra 5 About Barcelona By Rarfe Chambers can only claim to tell you a bit about Barcelona, much as I would like to tell you a lot. I Recent correspondence through the IRS group chat site has shown me, as if I didn’t know it already, how thin and incomplete is my knowledge of my Barcelona. Everybody has their own Barcelona. Even if you have never been to the city you will know something about it, or you may have passed through en-route to somewhere else, or paid a flying visit as part of a Costa Brava or Costa Dorada package tour holiday. Or you may have stayed in the city, for longer or shorter periods, and on a greater or lesser number of occasions. This is my Barcelona. I am not an expert on the wonderful buildings, nor the art and history, nor the seaport, railways or trains and trams, but I offer you my comments and some information, which I have to warn you may in some places be quite inaccurate or down-right incorrect. You will be welcome to “pick me up” on this through the IRS chat-room. I visited Barcelona in 1962, 1967, 1975, 1981 and several times in this young century as well. My brother Richard was resident in the city during most of that period, and his knowledge of Barcelona, its railways and trams was little short of encyclopaedic.