European Railroad Discussion > RENFE 1991

Couple of shots from a 1991 trip to Spain.

1)  Pennsylvania Railroad fans will love this - a RENFE Class 278 on a westbound freight at Montoro, Andalusia.  These locomotives were designed by Westinghouse as almost a copy of the Baldwin-Westinghouse Pennsylvania RR E3bs, down to the B-B-B trucks.  They were built in Spain by Naval Construction under license in 1954.  Primary differences from the PRR locos were that they were slightly wider, to account for the wider loading gauge of the Spanish 5'6" gauge, and they have buffers, of course.  Westinghouse redesigned the nose slightly to look less sharknose-like than the Pennsy units.   October 3, 1991.

2) RENFE Class 276 on an eastbound freight at Cordoba.  These units are essentially the same as the SNCF Class 7100.  Two tracks in foreground are under-construction high-speed standard gauge tracks, and are not yet in service.  October 12, 1991.

3) RENFE Class 333 on a northbound passenger train at Iznalloz, Andalusia.  I was riding to Granada on the southbound DMU on the left side of the photo, and this train popped out of the tunnel at this station for a meet.  Class 333s were built by Macosa under EMD license with 645 engines, but have since been rebuilt by Alsthom with new engines and carbodies.  October 4, 1991.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/11/20 23:03 by dwatry.

---

---

---

A very different railway world in 1991. I interrailed round Spain and parts of France in 1987 three day trains from Madrid to the South and Granada to Barcelona was 17 hours in a Sleeper, couchette and day car leaving Granada at 15:50 (ie allowing the Spaniards time to finish an early (sic) lunch) arriving in Barcelona just before 9am. 

We joined another train from, I think Almeira at a Junction station and it was my first experience of station limits shunting as we arrived, detrained as needed, then drew forward. Section two arrived, its engine decoupled and headed forward diverting before meeting us and then we reversed onto the coaches of the Almeria section. No doubt a common exercise over history, but strange for someone brought up on multiple units on the Sputhern Region of BR.

I know what you mean.  I spent a lot of time in Spain in 2015 and 2016, and it looks like a different country than this 1991 photo in Iznalloz. 

I had a holiday in Northern Spain in 1991, I've a few RENFE pictures but most of my pictures were of the FEVE metre gauge lines in Asturias and Cantabria.

I'd like to see those FEVE shots!

dwatry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'd like to see those FEVE shots!

Here are two taken at Llanes where the Economic Asturias had an end on connection with the Cantabrian Railway, a pair of 1600 class diesels on a coal train passing empty coal containers and a much older 1000 class on the daily Correo (mail train). The third shot is of a RENFE class 277 3kV electric at Villafranca del Bierzo, we were staying in the nearby Parador. 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/20 14:25 by 86235.

---

---

---

dwatry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Couple of shots from a 1991 trip to Spain.
>
> 1)  Pennsylvania Railroad fans will love this - a
> RENFE Class 278 on a westbound freight at Montoro,
> Andalusia.  These locomotives were designed by
> Westinghouse as almost a copy of the
> Baldwin-Westinghouse Pennsylvania RR E3bs, down to
> the B-B-B trucks.  They were built in Spain by
> Naval Construction under license in 1954. 
> Primary differences from the PRR locos were that
> they were slightly wider, to account for the wider
> loading gauge of the Spanish 5'6" gauge, and they
> have buffers, of course.  Westinghouse redesigned
> the nose slightly to look less sharknose-like than
> the Pennsy units.   October 3, 1991.
>
Well, I personally would not call them a copy, since about the only thing they had in common was the tri-Bo wheel arrangement.  The PRR units operated under 11 KV AC and had Ignitron rectifiers, an early railway application, vs the 3000 vdc that was the [ new ] standard for RENFE.  I would think the earlier Dutch 1200's, though Co-Co and 1500 vdc, would be a closer design model.

SZ

SZ - sounds like you know more about the internal workings than I do so I'll have to defer to you on the technical innards side.  Looks-wise, I'd still nominate them for a very close cousin of the Pennsy E3Bs.