Spain - Mallorca

Spain - Mallorca

RailPhot

¡E viva España !

Mallorca

Summary

Mallorca is the biggest island of the Baleares. It is well-known as a beach- and party island (see particularely El Arenal, if you want to "enjoy" the genuine german "Oktoberfest"-ambience...), but there are also 2 railways: the one is relatively interesting, the other one is worth the trip to Mallorca!

Mallorca
Ferrocarril de Sòller	Tranvia de Sòller	SFM

Ferrocarril de Sòller

The Ferrocarril de Sòller FdS links Palma de Mallorca (station at the Plaça d'Espanya, or Plaza España) and the city of Sòller over a 27.3km long line, with passing the Sierra Tramuntana through a 3Km long tunnel, the "Tunel Major". It runs since 1912, first with steam, and since 1929 electric. The gauge is particular: 914mm. All the railways in Mallorca had former this gauge, but the lines from Palma to Inca, Sa Pobla and Manacor (SFM) have been converted to metric gauge.

The first part of the journey from Palma is through the streets, but after only few kilometers the line goes through the olive and almond trees. After Buñola (the only big town along the line), the line gets mountainous until the entrance of the "Tunel Major". On the other side, the train stops first at the panorama point "Mirador Pujol d'en Banya", with a wonderful view on the entire Val de Sòller, before it goed down to Sòller. This part of the line almost remembers... the northern side of the Gotthard railway!

The railway station of Sòller has a particularity: It is the oldest station building of the world, as it has been built in the 17th century! When the FdS was built, the already 300 years old building has simply been adapted for its new use as railway station.

Also the rolling stock is interesting: all old wooden cars pulled by the original Siemens cars AAB 1-4, dating 1929, all in immaculate state.

21.10.2005
Palma-Ciutat
AAB 4	AAB 4
Mirador Pujol d'en Banya
AAB 2	AAB 2	"Say cheese!"	AAB 2 Viaduct "Cinq-cents"
Sòller
AAB 2	AAB 2	AAB 4	AAB 4
AAB 4	AAB 4	AAB 1	AAB 1
AAB 1	AAB 2
23.10.2005
Palma-Ciutat
AAB 3	AAB 3
Sòller
AAB 3	AAB 3	AAB 3	AAB 3
AAB 3	"Renault"	AAB 1

Near of Caubet, the body of the "Cocodrillo" 4.010 of the bask railways FV (Ferrocarriles Vascongados, now EuskoTren) is laying in a field. It was foreseen as an addition to the motive power (still only consisting of the 4 Siemens railcars), but it is doubtful if it will be taken in service on the FdS, because of the heavy technical problems: re-gauging, width, etc...

23.10.2005

FV 4.010
Caubet

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Tranvia de Sòller

Curiousely, the Sòller tramway has been built because of an administrative problem...

While the Ferrocarril de Sòller was in work, the government passed a law statuing that only railways with a network lenght of at least 30 would be able to get subventions from the state. For the FdS (with a planned lenght of 27.3km), only little more than 2km were "missing"... Then, it was decided to extend the line with a 4.9km long tramway between the railway station and the harbour (Puerto de Sòller). It came in service in 1913, 1 year after the FdS.

The rolling stock consists of 2-axle motor cars, either the original tramways of 1913 (Nos 1-3 "Sollerics"), or second-hand cars from the Carris company of Lisboa (Nos 21-25 "Portugueses", plus the both cars 704 and 734, stored out of service in Palma).

21.10.2005
No. 21, trailer N-3 Tramway depot Sòller	No. 24, trailer N-1 Sòller	No. 3 Estacion de Sòller	No. 3 Estacion de Sòller
No. 3 Puerto de Sòller	No. 3 Puerto de Sòller	No. 24 Puerto de Sòller	No. 2 Puerto de Sòller
No. 24 Puerto de Sòller	No. 3 Puerto de Sòller	No. 3 Puerto de Sòller	No. 2 Estacion de Sòller
23.10.2005
Palma-Ciutat, shed
Carris No. 704	Carris No. 734
Sòller / Puerto de Sòller
No 20 Tramway depot Sòller	No 2 Plaça Constitution	No 24 Mercat	No 2 Mercat
No 3 Puerto de Sòller	No 3 Puerto de Sòller	No 3 + No 24 Puerto de Sòller	No 24 Sòller

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SFM Serveis Ferroviaris de Mallorca

The SFM owns the lines from Palma (Plaça Espanya, just near of the station of the Ferrocarril de Sòller) to Inca, and further to Sa Pobla or Manacor. The stock is new: 2- or 3- pert DMUs built by CAF. Only the tracks are not always in the same good state like the vehicles...

22.10.2005
61-34 Palma-Ciutat	61-34 Palma-Ciutat	61-32 Manacor	61-27 Palma-Ciutat

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Tous les contenus et photos de ce site / Alle Inhalte und Bilder dieser Website / All contents and pictures of this website:
(C) Pierre-Noël Rietsch, Hinwil (CH) 1980-2005

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