Steam Trains and Engines

The Mediterranean coast of Spain, including the provinces of Alicante, Valencia and the Costa Blanca, was originally served by the Central of Aragon and the Madrid, Zaragoza and Alicante Railways; the Northern Railway linked Valencia with Barcelona and it is on the southern part of this line that the immense Beyer-Garratt locomotives shown here can be found hauling the heaviest passenger trains.

The steeply graded main line of the Central of Aragon between Valencia and Teruel climbs for 9 miles at a gradient of 1 in 46, and to work the increasingly heavy traffic over this line six Pacific Garratts were built in 1930 by the Spanish firm of Euskalduna. These 4-6-2+2-6-4 machines were fitted for oil burning and equipped with le Chatelier counter pressure brakes for safety on the steep descents. They had coupled wheels no less than 5 ft. 9 in. in diameter, a figure exceeded only by the 5 ft. 11 in. Pacific Garrats built in 1936 for the Constantine-oran main line in Algeria.

Numbered 462.0401 to 0406, His six engines in the class were transferred in 1959 to the old Northern line out of Valencia, in order to improve time keeping of the heavy Seville Barcelona through trains. These load in the summer to thirteen or fourteen coaches, and are steam-hauled as far as Tarragona, where electric traction takes over for the final 58 miles in Barcelona. They are the only passenger trains in Europe to be regularly hauled by Garratt locomotives, and the sight and sound of one of these huge 5 ft. 6 in. gauge machines, running at 60 m.p.h. with a 600-ton train is not easily forgotten.