The Espai Metrica Railway Museum at Martorell 2025

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Rhis is a report of the second part of James Waite visit to Catalonia, the first part was to the Móra La Nova Railway Museum.

Before reading on, you may like to look at some November 2010 background - a steam run (and cab ride!) on the FGC and  about the other locos now here.

The Espai Metrica is a modern purpose-built museum and exhibition hall, 106m long, to house the FGC's historic metre gauge locos and stock. It formally opened in March 2023, though the public weren't admitted until the following October. There are only very limited opening days, generally about once every six weeks or so. Marc Rodriguez Seijas, the FGC's current heritage officer, and his assistant Carlos, very kindly opened it up for my visit and showed me around. The Espai has replaced the storage shed at Manresa which I visited in 2010, and most of shed's contents have been restored and put on display at the Espai.

The first three of these photographs show 2-6-2T no. 209 (Energie 511/1949) from the metre gauge Compania General de Ferrocarriles de Catalanes (CGFC) which, at its greatest extent, ran from the Placa de Espanya station in central Barcelona to Guardiola, 132km away in the foothills of the Pyrenees, with a lengthy branch from Martorell to Igualada. It's the locomotive on which I was treated to my footplate ride from Martorell to Monistrol in November 2010. The locomotive had been kept very busy working tourist and school party trains on this route for several years, but although I didn't know it at the time these would come to an end just six months later, in May 2011. The official reason given, according to a FGC account, was that the locomotive had suffered a failure, and that due to changed priorities within the organisation with regard to steam operation as well as the cost of repair it was decided to bring the workings to an end. At the time there were rumours of sabotage on the part of a disgruntled ex-employee after the FGC had been forced to cut back on its payroll due to its dire financial problems, but I don't know if this is true. It's a great shame the trains ended as they were enormously popular, and sometimes ran on more than 100 days each year. Electric Bo-Bo locomotive no. 304 (BLC/GE, 1926), originally rescued for preservation by the Associació d'Amics del Ferrocarril de Barcelona, also became inoperable, and for a few years a very small number of trains were run using the old coaches, mainly for cruise ship passengers, hauled by the elderly Alstom diesel 1003, one of the two locos which played a thunderbird role when no 209 needed rescuing during my 2010 visit. Now it is another exhibit at the Espai. The three 1920s Belgian coaches recently moved to Móra la Nova to run with OG no 22, and the fourth coach, an older Spanish-built one, is another exhibit at the Espai, shown below.

The CGFC system was built by several local companies. The oldest part, between the old Norte main line at Manresa to Guardiola, opened in stages between 1885 and 1904. Next was the Martorell to Igualada line, opened in 1892 and later extended by a separate company towards the outskirts of Barcelona. These two railways merged to form the CGFC in 1919 and a link between Martorell and Manresa was clearly needed to form a unified system. Construction of this difficult stretch through the valley of the River Llobregat began almost at once. It opened as far as Monistrol in 1922 and was completed to Manresa two years later. At the Barcelona end the line was extended underground to the terminus beneath the Placa de Espanya in 1926. There was also a branch to a potash mine north of Manresa which generated a huge amount of traffic for many years but has recently closed, along with the mine.

The oldest part of the system, the central stretch between Manresa and Olvan, was taken over by the state in 1949 after the original concession had expired and was operated independently from the lines to its north and south. The main line north from Manresa closed to passengers in 1973. FEVE, the Spanish state narrow gauge operator, took over the remainder from the CGFC in 1977 and it passed to the FGC, the Catalunya provincial government's railway operator, in 1985. It is now all electrified and offers a busy suburban service out of Barcelona.

The Espai also has a number of freight wagons.

		There were several of these 2-6-2Ts which worked the CGFC's principal trains but they were all scrapped in the 1960s or early 1970s. However no 209 was either loaned or sold new to a colliery at Berga, near Guardiola.
		The financial arrangements between the colliery company and the railway relating to its construction were less than clear and its ownership became a matter of dispute which dragged on for years. This was a good thing as the dispute prevented it being scrapped, and by the time it was finally resolved, the CGFC had embarked upon preserving what was left of its heritage and was glad to take no 209 under its wing.
		On the left is No C-36, the coach from the Monistrol train which didn't go to Móra la Nova On the right is C-5, an older 4-wheeled coach which originated on the FC Central Catalan in 1892.
		This shows Garratt 2-6-0+0-6-2 no 106 (St Leonard 2036/1923), one of a series used mainly for the heavy potash traffic. It went to the Manresa-Olvan section after 1949, hence the MO lettering which wasn't there when I saw it in the Manresa storage shed. After withdrawal it was sold to the Associació d'Amics del Ferrocarril de Barcelona and stored along with no. 209 in the old workshops at Martorell Central which were more or less on the site which the Espai building now occupies. I first saw them there in November 1977. The grey electric locomotive in the background is no. 304, and it also belongs to the railfans club.
		These show CGFC 0-6-0T no 31 (MTM 33/1902). There were many of these locos. The first few were built by Krauss at Munich and they are probably basically a Krauss design. The rest were all built by MTM in Barcelona. No. 31 was also preserved by the Associació d'Amics del Ferrocarril de Barcelona. It was later the first locomotive to work the steam specials from Martorell to Monistrol, followed later by OG22 and lastly no. 209.
		On the left is 'old friend' no. 209's cab, familiar from James's 2010 visit. On the right is no. 106's cab. It has never been restored to working order, mainly because its boiler may well require replacement.
		On the left is 1955 Alstom no. 1003, smartly restored to its original state as MO 1003, On the right is 1990 diesel 254.02, a sister of the one in my 2010 photo of 1003tks.
		On the left is no. 801, a diesel shunter built in 1962 by Metalúrgica de San Martín under licence from Gmeinder. Their factories were in Barcelona and Madrid.  On the right is very small diesel shunter no. 811 another San Martin product which was built in 1967. Its sister no. 812 is at Móra la Nova. They were both shunting at the shops at Martorell Enllaç in 2010.
		Finally this shows electric railcar no 5105, built in 1960 which later went second hand to the GCFC. Several of these railcars ran on a number of Spanish metre gauge lines.
	A trip down memory lane!
		The back of no 106, and the front of no 209, in store in the old workshops at Martorell Central in November 1977. On the same occasion, this shows two of the GCFC 0-6-0Ts in derelict condition. No 39 is one of the MTM machines. I couldn't identify the one in the foreground, but I don't think either of them has survived. To the right is coach C-36 which is now at the Espai.