The Móra la Nova Railway Museum 2025

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This is a report from James Waite following up that from Jordi Sasplugas Deu and some notes from Thomas Kautzor.

Back in the steam era Móra la Nova was an important railway town. For many years it was the outer limit of electric operation over the mountains from Barcelona and Tarragona on the main line to Zaragoza and Madrid, and in its heyday the steam depot there had an allocation of over 100 locomotives. According to some reports it was the largest depot anywhere in Spain. The railway installations there went into decline after the 1960s, notably when the remainder of the Madrid line was electrified. I well remember looking out there from a night train over the busy steam scene there when I first travelled that way in 1968. By the time I returned in 1977 there was just one derelict 2-8-2 still to be seen. 

The museum can trace its origins back to 2001 when Jordi Sasplugas, then a young railway enthusiast, discovered an abandoned carriage at Móra la Nova station. He soon found that it was a unique survivor which dated back to 1931. The stationmaster, and RENFE's management more generally, did not know what to do with it, and at Jordi's urging an initiative arose among several residents to recover this part of the town's heritage. In 2002, the Association for the Preservation of Railway and Industrial Heritage (APPFI) of Móra la Nova was established with the project of creating a steam-powered tourist train and a railway museum.

On 8 March 2005, the commission was created to create a foundation to carry out the APPFI project. The Foundation's board of trustees included the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Public Works, the Ministry of Culture, the Provincial Council of Tarragona, the Regional Councils of Ribera d'Ebre and Priorat, the Bajo Aragón-Caspe region, the City Council of Móra la Nova, the Network of Science and Technology Museums of Catalonia, the Spanish Railways Foundation and the APPFI. A formal agreement was signed In December 2007 and an employment workshop was launched, aimed at rehabilitating the tracks, and reinstalling a turntable to replace the original which had been scrapped in 1983.

One year later a group of thirteen APPFI members purchased the museum's first locomotive, a 1960 diesel shunter from RENFE, nicknamed the ME-MÉ, for 7,000 euros. The new turntable was completed on 3 March 2010. It had been transported from Granada and the cost of the operation was 30,000 euros.

The first two steam locomotives, 4-8-2 241F-2238 (MTM 635/1951) nicknamed Bonita and 2-8-2 141F-2316 (Macosa 135/1957), arrived in 2014. They had previously been based at the Delicias museum in Madrid. 57 of the 4-8-2s were built between 1944 and 1952, and were RENFE's main heavy passenger locomotives until the arrival of the magnificent 4-8-4s in 1955 and 1956.. They were once the mainstay of the Barcelona-Madrid expresses beyond Móra and many were based there. 241F-2238 is now the only survivor. It is in poor mechanical shape, and is missing some components and its tyres are life-expired. The 422 2-8-2s were built between 1953 and 1960. They were highly successful, equally at home on passenger and freight trains, and could be found all over the country. I well remember watching one looking especially impressive as it set off from Madrid Delicias station in 1968 on the Lusitania Express for Lisbon, one of RENFE's few named trains. 141F 2316 was rebuilt by RENFE in 1975 and fitted with a new boiler only six months or so before it was withdrawn at the end of RENFE steam operation, and so is in very good condition.

The museum has only recently embraced the narrow gauge. There is now a mixed 600mm/1m gauge track, with one steam locomotive from each gauge. The unusual little 600mm gauge 0-10-0 (OK 4213/1910) no 105 of the Azucarera Madrid (Madrid Sugar Factory) was restored twenty years or so ago for use on the Tren del Ciment at Castellar de'n Huch, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, but never worked there in service as they preferred to use some newly-built diesels. It first steamed at Móra la Nova in 2024. Metre gauge 2-6-2T no 22 from the FC Olot-Girona (to use present-day spellings) was acquired by the Olot town council after the line closed in July 1969, In July 1986, an agreement was signed between the council as owner of the locomotive, the Associació d'Amics del Ferrocarril de Barcelona and Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC) whereby the former ceded it to the other two entities for use, operation and maintenance. It was transferred to the Condel workshops in Sta. Perpètua de Mogoda at Barcelona, where restoration began. In mid-September 1987, it was transferred to the FGC workshops in Martorell-Enllaç to complete its restoration. For several years it was the principal locomotive used on the heritage trains running north from Martorell, though when I visited the operation in 2010 it was no longer in use. It moved to Móra la Nova in 2023. The museum is also now home to a very small 4w diesel shunter from the FGC which latterly shunted the works at Martorell-Enllaç.

There are now about 1/2km of broad gauge running line and somewhat shorter lengths of 1m and 600mm gauge tracks, though there are ambitious plans for expansion. Currently nine steam locomotives are in attendance, four of which are in working order. This was their autumn steam gala on 18th October 2025, when three of the locomotives were in steam, one on each gauge, and several broad gauge diesels and electrics were also running.

Finally James adds:

"This was quite a nostalgic visit for me. On my first visit to Spain in 1968 I travelled on the OG line, and received great hospitality from the friendly staff and was treated to a workshop visit. There was no suggestion then then that the line would close only one year later. On the same trip I also got to see both the Garratt classes in use at Valencia. Thomas Kautzor and I went to the La Poveda heritage line about 10 years ago and we also saw two of the other AM locos at the Lopez scrapyard in Zaragoza, which is home to many Spanish narrow gauge locos. The scrapyard used to be run by an enthusiast, which is why they are there. It's now run by his son who isn't so interested in them but they seem to be reasonably safe."

Anyone who has travelled widely for steam will have had occasions when a failure to take account of local customs resulted in a less than totally satisfying visit  In this case, the traditional Spanish siesta started just before James arrived at the museum and finished after he had to return to Barcelona. Sadly that meant he got no action photographs especially some attractive ones of the short scenic sections on both the 600mm and metre gauge lines away from the electric wires on the main line, with the rock face seen in the background of the pictures of no 22 below.

Below are metre gauge pictures, there are separate pages for

Narrow gauge locomotives

Broad gauge locomotives

For reference, this is a list of the metre gauge rolling stock  mentioned in James' report:

	Two views of the metre gauge FC Olot-Girona 2-6-2T no 22 (MTM 281/1926). The three coaches also ran on the heritage trans running north from Martorell. no 22 spent a year or two at the FGC's new(ish) Espai Metrica museum at Martorell before moving to Móra la Nova.
	Three of the four locos have survived, as has one of several Belgian-built 2-6-0Ts which preceded them.
	This 0-6-0WT in pieces is FC Mollerusa-Balaguer no 3 (OK 677/1900). It was one of 6 similar locos supplied to this little metre-gauge line near Lleida.
	It closed in 1952 but three of them survived thanks to leading second lives at a sugar factory midway along the old line. It spent many years at Denia, near Valencia, and now belongs to the Móra la Nova museum and is being restored to working order.
	PRIM started life as a tram engine on the Reus - Salou but was converted to a conventional locomotive at some stage. It is expected to come here soon for restoration.
	Cosmetically restored here earlier and now at Martorell is CGFC 2-6-2T 209.
	These two derelict 4 wheel coaches are now owned by the local municipality and are from the Olot - Gerona line, C-8 and C-11 (Cravens, Sheffield 1901). After the 1969 closure three were bought by an enthusiast in Madrid and later returned to Olot where they were kept in a shed but clearly have suffered over the years. They arrived at Móra la Nova a few weeks ago and are a long-term restoration project. They remind me of no 4 at the Talyllyn which is also a Cravens product. The third one rescued moved on to become the centrepiece of a restaurant in a town north of the city, and is now very well looked after.

For reference, this is a list of the locomotives  mentioned in James' report.