Thread by @jonworth

Welcome to #CrossBorderRail Day 17 twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…

#CrossBorderRail Train 60
C1 08:40 Zaragoza Delicias - Casetas 08:52
Ave speed: unknown (I didn’t calculate!)
Operator: Renfe

Train type: CAF Civia 463
⚡️
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (step free)
📶: ⛔️
🍽: ⛔️

Today’s route map

Brilliant fun visiting @azaft_org at Casetas. I have LOADS of photos that I’ll post later. Lots learned about the Canfranc cross border route too!

Renfe: adding all the aspects of flying that are nasty to railways 🤮

And there we go. A little hut passed through at 10km/h just after Zaragoza Delicias station. The Talgo train’s wheels change from 1435mm (from Barcelona) to 1668mm (onwards towards Pamplona). Voltage changes too, from 25kV ac to 3kV dc.

#CrossBorderRail Train 61
Alvia 622 11:36 Zaragoza Delicias - Vigo Guixar 23:12
Ave speed: 87 km/h
Operator: Renfe

Train type: Talgo class 130 (tilting coaches)
⚡️
🚲: ⛔️
🦽: ✅ (level boarding, metal kind of ramp on board to bridge gap)
📶: ⛔️ (for 11 hours!)
🍽: ✅

This is going to make me unpopular in some quarters… but I don’t like Talgo trains. They always feel like you’re travelling in a tin can. Everything bumps and rattles. I hope @DB_bahn that’s ordered some doesn’t get a shock!

A few pics from @azaft_org earlier. This is the Franco era government carriage. Here we’re totally seriously plotting the future of Europe’s railways

They proposed this alternative to the Birdy bike

Sound on for this one!

I got some new postcards for @AdinaValean in the post carriage

The rest of the pics are on the SLR camera and I’ll work on those later… I have a 10 hour train ride ahead of me!

Woo hoo. My @interrail app has lost my pass. Good job I know how to restore it. But given it takes a while to do… and ticket controllers often are under pressure… this isn’t handy.

I’m now getting pics as I’m passing 😀

Those are @db_bahn’s future 230km/h Talgo carriages parked up at a facility at Miranda de Ebro. New Talgo carriages for Renfe (as middle cars of EMUs) and Egyptian railways also there.

Meanwhile I don’t know what’s going on with my train. We’re 15 mins late leaving Miranda de Ebro. Nothing announced, even in Spanish. There was one small speed restriction for works… But it seems the dwell times at each stop are a lot longer than timetabled!

This Alvia service is rather frustrating. Rather than take the high speed lines Burgos - Palencia and Palencia - Léon it stays on the slower broad gauge tracks. Adds at least 30 mins, probably more, to the trip time…

ADIF high speed measuring train at Léon

It’s been a lot of fun on this train across Spain with @NonstopOscar @Yvysanna - I’ve been on it since Zaragoza, and they’ve been on board since Vitoria Gasteiz. Here they’re trying to work out how to rotate the seats!

We’re now marvelling at the retro graphics here. Those are actually screws on there. And no, you can’t tap the buttons!

I have now had the time to ago through the photos taken at @azaft_org earlier - huge thanks for showing me around!

A gauge changing freight wagon that dates from the 1940s! This could do 1668mm and 1000mm gauge. Little did I know that gauge changing dates back so far in Spain

This wonderful - and still in working order! - electric locomotive was built for freight by English Electric in 1952 - Renfe class 277 fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renfe_s%C…

The different influences on motive power across the generations in Spain. Here a CAF built, but Midi-derived electric locomotive from the late 1920s, a German Krauss Maffei diesel, and an Alsthom electric similar to a SNCF CC7100

There were a couple of postal carriages. Complete with… errr, moped transport!

The governmental carriage - as used by Franco and then senior executives from Renfe is quite extraordinary. There’s a meeting room at the end, and deluxe sleeping berths

A 1950s sleeping car - complete with intercom system!

And a late 1920s baggage car, built in the UK, and with a kind of observation roof for the guard