Hoyo de Manzanares and Madrid Railway Relics, Spain, 2015

Thomas Kautzor reports on a December 2015 visit.

See also from the same visit:

• CIFVM La Poveda

• Alcazar de San Juan Railway and Steam Relics

• Castilla y Leon

I arranged a visit to the Academia de Ingenieros del Ejército in Hoyo de Manzanares through the Academy’s Museum Director, Col. Pompeyo, who delegated his subordinate, Second Lieutenant López, a railfan, to us. On display inside the academy’s museum room are a model of an OK 0-6-2T, various pictures (including of Decauville 42/Couillet 820/1885, 3t, new to “Académie des Igénieurs, Guadalajara, Spain”) and an HO-scale model layout previously used for training purposes and currently being digitalized by Subteniente López.

The Academy’s officers mess is named “La Maquina” in honor of the Decauville (which has since been scrapped), depicted on a plate at the door. Inside, there are various photos and builder’s plates (from RENFE locos?). The SMF’s broad gauge steam loco, 240-2215 (Devis 5/1933), normally based with the Railway Sappers Regiment at Zaragoza, has been at ARMF in Lleida since 2011 in need of boiler repairs, but there are currently no funds available for that.

Plinthed outside are SMF 0-4-0T 150 (Henschel 16072/1918, built for the Tigris Kriegsbahn) and Madrid Cuatro Vientos Leganés (MCVL) 0-8-0 1 (OK 10327/1922, 180 hp), both 600mm gauge and formerly based at Madrid’s Cuatro Vientos military base and which also saw wartime use in Spanish North Africa. A flock of geese has for many years found a home on the base grounds.

The other photos were all taken around Madrid:

RENFE 141F-2240 (B&W 630/1954) and a mobile steam pump at Las Matas. The plate says “steam boiler used to power a pump that was used to raise water to a reservoir for its further supply to the steam locomotives”;

RENFE steam crane GM 106 (Henry J. Coles, Derby 417/1906) in Villalba;

The metre gauge Linea de Guadarrama between Cercedilla and Los Cotos (18 km) northwest of Madrid was RENFE’s only narrow gauge railway until the incorporation of FEVE. It is operated as commuter line (Cercanias) C-9, and under the current timetable has five daily returns on weekdays and seven on weekends and holidays. There are five Swiss-built class 442 train sets available (Be 4/4 + Bt, MTM/SWS/BBC 1976/82). Rotary snowplow 300-111 was also built in Switzerland (Rolba/Stadler 1967), as was railcar 431-501 (SWS/BBC 1923, ex WM 101, ex CN 1), which was withdrawn in 1982 and is used as the reception for the “Nature Train” (Tren de la Naturaleza) at Cercedilla station.

RENFE 030-0206 “El Selmo” (Schneider 745/1864, ex NORTE 1604) in the garden of a private owner at Aravaca;

Minas de Barruelo 020T 4 (500mm, Couillet 580?/1882) at the National Railway Museum in Madrid-Delicias;

RENFE 41t 4+2W crane outside the Madrid-Delicias Museum;

RENFE 141F-2104 (NBL 26968/1952) at the Carlos III-University in Leganes;

RENFE 030-0224 (Cockerill 1898/1895,ex OESTE 161, ex MCP 61) on Avd. Pio XII outside Madrid-Chamartin station: