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European Railroad Discussion > Spanish High Speed Views from BarcelonaDate: 11/25/15 11:49 Spanish High Speed Views from Barcelona Author: McKey Spain today has one of the largest high speed networks in Europe. The pace fo construction has slowed a bit, but new lines are still built, often through mountainous landscape with need to add long tunnels and occasional bridges to span valleys.
One of the many AVE (Alta Velocidad Española) high speed train types in traffic, class 103 Velaro-E here makes a safe sliding from the end of a newly built "high speed shelter/concrete tunnel" towards the start of one of the high speed lines radiating from Barcelona. Despite the crude unfinished concrete walls around, reminding of 2008 financial crises, high speed traffic here is in a pretty good shape. Pictures by Ilkka.    Date: 11/25/15 11:50 Re: Spanish High Speed Views from Barcelona Author: McKey One more interesting view to Renfe Velaro-E.
 Date: 11/26/15 01:12 Re: Spanish High Speed Views from Barcelona Author: McKey Also from Barcelona, and two from Santander: Renfe Alvia is also high speed service by definition of speed. Top speed for class 120/121 is "Renfe norm" 250 km/h / 155 mph. These trains run medium distance where this speed class is thought to be tolerable, as not much travel time is added by not using the super high speed class AVEs.
Class 120/121 are also gauge changers, their technology enabling them to change between 1668 mm and 1435 mm gauges at 30 km/h / 19 mph. You simply run through the gauge changing device with water flying around and, voila, the EMU is ready to dash again at its top speed on the next track section! As Spain appears to be changing its main gauge (1668 mm serves poorly a country with international connections), this kind of trains are invaluable so no train or bogie change (both take a lot of time) is needed at intermediate points. As you might be able to tell from the looks, class 120/121 were built by CAF, one of the three largest Spanish train builders. (Others being Talgo and Stadler Rail (ex. Vossloh Espana nee Alstom Spain (I wonder what it was before that...)). Despite the nondescript looks, these units were built as recently as 2006-2010.    Date: 11/26/15 02:43 Re: Spanish High Speed Views from Barcelona Author: McKey Some side views might reveal more interesting info on these Renfe S120 units.
  Date: 11/26/15 03:24 Re: Spanish High Speed Views from Barcelona Author: McKey To surprise many of us: here is the Turkish TDCC HT6500...as you see it looks just like the S120, except for the length. HT6500 was the first Turkish high speed train for their first high speed line 10 years ago spanning some distance between Instanbul and Ankara.
 Date: 11/26/15 10:26 Re: Spanish High Speed Views from Barcelona Author: snoopy51 MMMMM
I am not very surprised to see the same old same.oo. Yes the added tangle off wires and poles to a lovely scene which has turned the area a dull gray and a lack off colour . Yes it really shows just how far man kind has gone just to use and waste the land and waters etc, Any how a nicely taken photos off the latest units. Date: 11/26/15 21:04 Re: Spanish High Speed Views from Barcelona Author: airbrakegeezer McKey Wrote:
Stadler Rail (ex. Vossloh Espana nee > Alstom Spain (I wonder what it was before > that...)). "Before that", John, it was Materiales y Construcciones Sociedad Anonima, generally known by the acronym MACOSA; as a licensee of General Motors' Electro-Motive Division, they built some of RENFE's first GM diesel-electric locomotives, in 1965-66. Roger Lewis (airbrakegeezer) |