On the rails again… #Interrail
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On the rails again… #Interrail
I have a spare Interrail day left on my pass that expired today, mostly thanks to the valiant efforts of the luge athletes of #TeamDE in the Milan Winter Olympics. As it was also an own-country day, I decided to do a random day trip to a station and city I hadn’t been to before: Castelló de la Plana
Today’s Itinerary: https://moof.space/trip/2026-03-25
I’ll be doing this on a couple of Euromeds, though I did flirt with the idea of taking an Intercity out and a Euromed back, the timing was a little weird.
Unusually for Renfe in Barcelona Sants, we were checked into the platform before the train arrived, and as the train arrived from Figueres, people exited the train causing massive chaos on the platform, as people here aren’t used to that.
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On the rails again… #Interrail
I have a spare Interrail day left on my pass that expired today, mostly thanks to the valiant efforts of the luge athletes of #TeamDE in the Milan Winter Olympics. As it was also an own-country day, I decided to do a random day trip to a station and city I hadn’t been to before: Castelló de la Plana
Today’s Itinerary: https://moof.space/trip/2026-03-25
I’ll be doing this on a couple of Euromeds, though I did flirt with the idea of taking an Intercity out and a Euromed back, the timing was a little weird.
Unusually for Renfe in Barcelona Sants, we were checked into the platform before the train arrived, and as the train arrived from Figueres, people exited the train causing massive chaos on the platform, as people here aren’t used to that.
@moof And by Atocha you mean Sants
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@moof And by Atocha you mean Sants
@redjives I do. I obviously need a cup of tea.
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On the rails again… #Interrail
I have a spare Interrail day left on my pass that expired today, mostly thanks to the valiant efforts of the luge athletes of #TeamDE in the Milan Winter Olympics. As it was also an own-country day, I decided to do a random day trip to a station and city I hadn’t been to before: Castelló de la Plana
Today’s Itinerary: https://moof.space/trip/2026-03-25
I’ll be doing this on a couple of Euromeds, though I did flirt with the idea of taking an Intercity out and a Euromed back, the timing was a little weird.
Unusually for Renfe in Barcelona Sants, we were checked into the platform before the train arrived, and as the train arrived from Figueres, people exited the train causing massive chaos on the platform, as people here aren’t used to that.
We have just left Camp de Tarragona, a wheat field (olive grove?) station set up for this high speed line. We are now heading towards Reus airport, where this Euromed train will change gauge.
Renfe has a large number of gauge-changing trains, as the old “conventional speed” speed network is all in 1668mm Iberian Gauge, and the new high speed network is 1435 Standard Gauge, and trains need to go between them
This particular one is a Talgo-made Series 130, but there are also CAF-made gauge changing trains, and many of the gauge changing machines are configurable to use either one of the competing gauge changing technologies.
The actual gauge changing operation has to be done slowly, it takes about 5 minutes between stopping and going through the machine. It’s a relatively quiet process, you hear a little clanking, but other than that, if you don’t know, you won’t realise it’s happening.
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We have just left Camp de Tarragona, a wheat field (olive grove?) station set up for this high speed line. We are now heading towards Reus airport, where this Euromed train will change gauge.
Renfe has a large number of gauge-changing trains, as the old “conventional speed” speed network is all in 1668mm Iberian Gauge, and the new high speed network is 1435 Standard Gauge, and trains need to go between them
This particular one is a Talgo-made Series 130, but there are also CAF-made gauge changing trains, and many of the gauge changing machines are configurable to use either one of the competing gauge changing technologies.
The actual gauge changing operation has to be done slowly, it takes about 5 minutes between stopping and going through the machine. It’s a relatively quiet process, you hear a little clanking, but other than that, if you don’t know, you won’t realise it’s happening.
The gauge-changing technology we use today was originally developed by Talgo. The first trials were made in 1967, with a public demonstration in Irún in 1968, and entering commercial service with a gauge changer at Portbou, on the French border with Cerbère in 1969. The machine is still there, but has been decommissioned.
It was originally used for passenger service in appropriately built Talgo carriages, in what became known as “Catalan Express” TEE trains that would leave Barcelona, change gauge at Portbou, and then continue on to Paris, Milan, Geneva and Brussels. There were also night trains, run through a number of partnerships. I have taken Trenhotel services to Barcelona from Milan when interrailling in 1998 and Paris because of the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption.
Sadly, these services were progressively cancelled with the advent of TGV marking a change in SNCF’s priorities, and them pointedly doing everything they could to discourage the continuation of these services
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The gauge-changing technology we use today was originally developed by Talgo. The first trials were made in 1967, with a public demonstration in Irún in 1968, and entering commercial service with a gauge changer at Portbou, on the French border with Cerbère in 1969. The machine is still there, but has been decommissioned.
It was originally used for passenger service in appropriately built Talgo carriages, in what became known as “Catalan Express” TEE trains that would leave Barcelona, change gauge at Portbou, and then continue on to Paris, Milan, Geneva and Brussels. There were also night trains, run through a number of partnerships. I have taken Trenhotel services to Barcelona from Milan when interrailling in 1998 and Paris because of the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption.
Sadly, these services were progressively cancelled with the advent of TGV marking a change in SNCF’s priorities, and them pointedly doing everything they could to discourage the continuation of these services
This Renfe class 130 train, nicknamed “Mini Pato” (Mini Duck), made by Talgo is capable of speeds of up to 250km/h on standard gauge 25kV AC lines, and up to 220km/h on Iberian gauge 3kV DC lines. The current stretch of track between the gauge changer, and Castelló de la Plana has been newly constructed or reconditioned to allow for 220km/h operation.
There is a variant of this train, class 730, that has diesel generators in carriages behind each power car, supplying traction current for the train on unelectrified tracks. It still has pantographs to run on electrified sections.
There have been successful trials in the North West of the country to see if speeds of 300km/h can be reached safely on Iberian gauge lines, but it would require large amounts of investment into changing signalling, amongst other things.
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