Madrid Delicias train station
| Madrid Delicias | |
|---|---|
 facade
|
|
| Data | |
| Location in the network | Terminus |
| Platform tracks | (2) 4 |
| opening | March 30, 1880 |
| Conveyance | 1st July 1969 |
| location | |
| province | Madrid Province |
| Autonomous community | Madrid |
| Country | Spain |
| Coordinates | 40 ° 23 '57 " N , 3 ° 41' 31" E |
| List of train stations in Spain | |
The Delicias train station (Spanish Estación de Delicias ) is a former train station in the south of Madrid not far from the Atocha train station . Opened in 1880, it was the city's first major train station. It became the starting point for express trains to Portugal and the west of the country; after the civil war it became the property of RENFE . Although it was one of the four main train stations in Madrid for some time (along with Atocha, Chamartín and the Estación del Norte) it was closed in 1969. Today there are no more rail transport, and its former facilities house the Railway Museum Madrid the Fundación de los Ferrocarriles Españoles . It is located in the Delicias district of Madrid's Arganzuela district.
history
origin
Even before this station was built, there was a rail link from Madrid to Lisbon via Ciudad Real and Badajoz , albeit the line between Madrid and Ciudad Real via Alcázar de San Juan and Manzanares from the Compañía de los Ferrocarriles de Madrid a Zaragoza y Alicante (MZA ), while the rest of the route was owned by the Compañía de los Caminos de Hierro de Ciudad Real a Badajoz (CRB). The latter therefore decided to build a more direct route from Madrid to Ciudad Real via Parla , Algodor , Mora de Toledo and Malagón in order to become independent of the MZA. On February 3, 1879, King Alfonso XII opened the this direct connection between the two cities and only a little later the Madrid terminus Delicias. Nevertheless, the CRB was almost immediately taken over by the MZA, which already operated the Atocha station. By a treaty signed in Paris on February 13, 1883, the Compañía de los Ferrocarriles de Madrid a Cáceres y Portugal (MCP) acquired the station and subsequently made it an international station covering the capitals of Spain and Portugal Association. The trains to Ciudad Real continued to depart from Delicias until the work on the reconstruction of Atocha station was completed in December 1892. Delicias became the headquarters of the MCP, the administration was located here and the railway operations were managed from here.
Because of the sparse population of the area through which it passed, the route in regional traffic was mainly used to transport goods such as cattle, cork and grain. Among the passenger trains, the Rápido (later referred to as the Lusitania ), the Correo Exprés , the Ligero , the Ómnibus and the Correo stood out. The then Prince Juan Carlos came to Spain with the Lusitania in 1948 , even if he did not get off at this station, but in Fuenlabrada . In view of the critical economic situation of the railway company MCP, it was taken over by the state and incorporated into the Compañía Nacional de los Ferrocarriles del Oeste . Since then, Madrid Delicias has developed into the seat and operating center of this railway company. In 1934 the project to electrify the line was revised; Work began the following year, but was discontinued a little later because of the start of the civil war.
Part of the RENFE
In 1941 the Ferrocarriles del Oeste were incorporated into RENFE, which means that work on electrification was resumed according to the plans of the former railway company and ended in 1944. The official opening took place on February 9, 1946. A system with direct current and 1500 volts was set up .
An ambitious renovation project was planned for the station in the 1940s, but in the end only changes were made to the entrance hall. After the opening of the Chamartín station on July 1, 1969, passenger traffic in Delicias station ended; In 1971 goods traffic was also stopped here. In 1980, after twelve years in which its existence was threatened by real estate speculation, RENFE initiated a monument protection procedure for the train station. A contract was signed between the society and the Ministry of Culture, according to which the station should house the Museo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología and the Railway Museum. According to this agreement, RENFE allowed the division of the station for the two institutions, in return the Ministry should participate in the restoration of the building, which cost a total of 370 million pesetas (€ 2,223,745). The new premises of the Museo del Ferrocarril opened on December 19, 1984, where the museum is still located today.
The building
Construction of the station began in 1879 according to plans by the French engineer Émile Cacheliévre , although it was mistakenly attributed to Gustave Eiffel for many years . The Spanish architects Calleja, Espinal and Uliarte were also involved in this project. Cacheliévre used a novel system introduced by Henri de Dion at the Paris World's Fair in 1878 . The original construction of de Dion has been lost, so that the station has additional value as the oldest surviving structure of the de Dion system . The metal structure of the main hall was made by the Fives-Lille company, just as it was for the former Gare d'Orsay in Paris, and then brought to Madrid for final assembly. The building was opened on March 30, 1880 at 4:30 p.m., just 11 months after the start of the work, by King Alfonso XII, accompanied by the government of Cánovas del Castillo .
Even if it was a terminal station, the floor plan was more like a through station, with free ends and two parallel structures on the sides. One served the entrance of the travelers, the other, somewhat smaller, the exit. The central hall, which spanned five tracks, was one large room. The design followed the typology of the other stations that were built in Europe at the time, but with the special feature mentioned that the arrival platform was on one side and the departure platform on the opposite side.
.JPG)
For the construction of the main building, characterized by great objectivity and with a minimum of decorations, iron and glass were used. 18 metal lattice girders , on which the roof rests, extend from the 12 m high side walls at a distance of 10 meters . The hall is 170 m long, 35 m wide and 22.5 m high and could accommodate five trains with 20 cars at the same time. The side wings are more ornate. Bricks of different colors were used for their construction; they are reminiscent of the Mudejar style , which was often used in this city at the time. The price for the building was two million pesetas. In order to get by with the cost estimate, galvanized corrugated iron was used instead of slate as the roof covering of the main hall , even if this was then used for the side wings. The opening of the station was a big event for the city, as Atocha and Norte did not have the final station buildings at that time. Even if it has not undergone any major changes since its construction, because it had the necessary facilities from the start, it was converted in 1906. Since then, the departure hall has also been used by arriving passengers, and so space was gained for a tram. The central track was later replaced by a platform and the slate covering on the side wings with corrugated fiber cement panels .
In film and television
In this station, recordings were made for various films such as Doctor Schiwago and Who Loves, Lives Dangerously, as well as for television series, including Cuéntame cómo pasó and Los Serrano .
literature
- José López Yepes: Delicias . In: Madrid . tape II . Espasa-Calpe, Madrid 1979, ISBN 84-239-5372-6 (Spanish).
- Francisco Wais: Historia de los Ferrocarriles Españoles . Editorial Española, Madrid 1974 (Spanish).
Individual evidence
- ^ Revista Semana: Especial 25 años de reinado. (PDF 2.6 MB) 2000, p. 6 , archived from the original on June 20, 2012 ; Retrieved April 23, 2018 (Spanish).
Web links
- Official website of the Railway Museum , also with information about the building (Spanish and English)