León – Gijón railway line

Leon – Gijón
Course book range :	130
Route length:	171 km
Gauge :	1668 mm ( Iberian track )
Power system :	3000 V  =
Maximum slope :	23  ‰
Minimum radius :	300 m
Top speed:	León – La Robla: 160 km / h La Robla – Pola de Lena: 105 km / h Pola de Lena – Gijón: 130 km / h
Train control :	ASFA
Dual track :	continuously except for La Robla – Pola de Lena
León – Gijón railway line
Legend 0 122.6 León provisionally from 2011 825  msnm 119.9 León Rbf Maintenance workshop León 119 Bif. Rio Quintana to Venta de Baños - Madrid 117.4 Bif. Río Bernesga 113.6 Bif. Río Torneros, to A Coruña 1.0 Bif. Galicia 1.9 Bif. Asturias 10.8 Santibañez 883  msnm 14.3 Cuadros 895  msnm 19.4 La Seca 895  msnm Pajares tunnel junction (25 km) 25.0 La Robla ( single track from here ) 956  msnm 29.8 Buen Suceso 985  msnm 33.1 Pola de Gordón 1005  msnm 37.9 Santa Lucía 1053  msnm 39.6 Ciñera  1067  msnm Coal mine 42.8 Villasimpliz 1115  msnm 45.5 Villamanin 1129  msnm Bernesga (16 m) 53.2 Bus dongo 1242  msnm Tunnel No. 11 La Perruca (3073 m) Tunnel no. 12 – no. 18th Matarredonda (41 m), until the 1950s No. 19 Canto de los Galanes (408 m) 62.7 Pajares 1157  msnm Tunnel no. 20 – no. 27 Navedo (58 m), stone arch bridge, until the 1950s Tunnel No. 28 La Pisuna (1024 m) Reigosa (36 m) Tunnel no. 29 – no. 36 Tunnel No. 70 Orria (1061 m) Pajares (17 m) Tunnel No. 71 El Batán (305 m) 95.9 Puente de los Fierros 516  msnm Tunnel No. 72 Fresnedo Fierros (100 m) Tunnel No. 68 No. 69 72.2 Navidiello-Parana 969  msnm Tunnel no. 37 – no. 43 Tunnel No. 44 La Sorda (1075 m) Paraná (130 m), until the 1950s Tunnel no. 45 – no. 49 Tunnel no.73 no. 77 Tunnel No. 67 El Capricho (1822 m) Congostinas (49 m), until the 1950s Tunnel No. 50 Congostinas (1168 m) Tunnel No. 51 Linares (91 m) 82.3 Linares-Congostinas 778  msnm Tunnel no. 52 – no. 53 100.0 La Frecha 437  msnm Burón (60 m), stone arch bridge Tunnel no. 63 – no. 66 Casorvida (20 m) Tunnel No. 61 Valdehaces (282 m) Valdetocino (30 m) 88.0 Malvedo 668  msnm Reya (10 m), stone arch bridge Tunnel No. 54 – No. 57 Tunnel no. 59 – no. 61 Tunnel No. 78 – No. 79 Tunnel No. 58 Bustiello (889 m) 102.2 Campomanes 393  msnm 104.7 La Cobertoria 354  msnm Consorios Pajares tunnel junction (25 km) 108.1 Pola de Lena ( up to here single track ) 352  msnm 111.4 Villallana 288  msnm 115.2 Ujo 249  msnm 116.9 Santullano 231  msnm 120.8 Mieres Puente 217  msnm 120.8 Mieres Eisenwerk Mieres 123.2 Ablaña 191  msnm 124.6 La Pereda-Riosa 182  msnm 126.9 Olloniego 187  msnm 128.5 to El Entrego 130.6 Soto de Rey 142  msnm 132.3 Las Segadas 154  msnm 134.3 El Caleyo 184  msnm 138.1 Llamaquique from 2007 139.1 Oviedo 232  msnm 142.6 La Corredoria from 2004 Coal mine 144.8 Lugones 163  msnm 148.3 Lugo de Llanera 163  msnm to Tudela-Veguín 149.3 Maintenance plant Lugo de Llanera 151.9 Villabona de Asturias 156  msnm to San Juan de Nieva 155.4 Villabona-Tabladiello from 1995 104  msnm 159.7 Serin 63  msnm 163.1 Monteana Eisenwerk Arcelor Mittal 34  msnm Aboño coal-fired power station 166.4 Veriña 19  msnm port 168.8 Calzada de Asturias 13  msnm Gijón (Norte) until 1990, now the Railway Museum 170.8 Gijón -Sanz Crespo provisionally from 2011 8  msnm Gijón-Jovellanos until 2011 171.6 Gijón-Cercanías until 2011 Bif = Bifurcación ( junction )

The León – Gijón railway , also known as the Asturias Railway , is an Iberian broad-gauge railway line in the north of Spain that connects Asturias with the interior, the Iberian Meseta .

The core of the route is the single-lane section La Robla - Pola de Lena , which runs over the Pajares Pass in the Cantabrian Mountains , with a crest tunnel under the pass . The north side of this section of the route - called Rampa de Pajares in Spanish - lies in particularly difficult terrain and is designed as a mountain railway . The remaining part of the route is two-lane.

The mountain route will be replaced in the near future by a flat route , the variant de Pajares , with a 24.7 km long base tunnel, the Pajares tunnel .

history

Drawing of the inauguration of the continuous operation of the Asturias Railway

Construction tracks on the Pajares north ramp

Funicular railway for the construction of lots 3 and 4

Construction site in the upper area of ​​the Pajares north ramp

Commercial coal mining began in Asturias in the 1840s , which soon became the largest heavy industrial region in Spain. For the transport of the products, a railway connection was required inland, which could also bring the agricultural products from Castile and León to Asturias. In 1864, José Ruiz de Quevedo received a concession for the León - Gijón line , which was transferred to the Compañía del Noroeste de España (Noroeste). The railway company was also commissioned to build the Astorga - La Coruña line to open up Galicia . The construction of two mountain stretches in difficult terrain, however, overwhelmed the company's finances, so that it had to file for bankruptcy in December 1880 . At that time the southern access León – La Robla – Busdongo and the northern access Gijón – Pola de Lena were only completed, the difficult mountain route on the north side of the Pajares Pass was still missing.

A consortium of French banks founded the Compañía de los Ferrocarriles de Asturias, Galicia y León (AGL) together with the large Spanish railway company Norte , with Norte holding 15% of the shares. While the construction of the railway line to Galicia was immediately resumed along its entire length, the AGL only completed the simpler lower part of the northern ramp Puente de los Fierros –Pola de Lena on the railway to Asturias . The project for the rest of the north ramp should be revised and made more cost-effective. A 23 km shorter route with narrower radii and gradients of up to 35 ‰ was proposed. The idea met with resistance in Asturias and in Oviedo , the capital of Asturias, a demonstration against the project took place in March 1881 . Later it turned out that the AGL had actually planned a route shortened by 37 km, the greatest gradient of which between Puente de los Fierros and Pajares should be overcome with a rack section . In June of the same year, the Spanish government rejected both projects and work on the original project resumed. Continuous operation began on August 15, 1884.

Tabular list of the route openings

Route section	date	Railway company	description
Leon – La Robla	January 17, 1868	Noroeste	South access
La Robla-Pola de Gordón	August 1, 1868	Noroeste	South access
Pola de Gordón – Busdongo	May 23, 1872	Noroeste	South access
Busdongo – Puente de los Fierros	August 15, 1884	AGL	Pajares north ramp
Puente de los Fierros - Pola de Lena	May 15, 1881	AGL	North access
Pola de Lena - Gijón	July 23, 1874	Noroeste	North access

Construction of the north ramp

Up to 10,000 workers from Asturias, Galicia, Hungary and Italy were employed in the construction of the line . As was the case with other major construction sites of the time, the mostly young workers often saw scuffles and gang war-like disputes between workers of different origins.

The mountain route was completed in just three years. Two construction tracks were built for the construction. The railway for construction lots 1 and 2 began at the Valle de las Piedra on the pass road and led more than 16 km along the route to be built in a northward direction to tunnel no.41. It led from tunnel mouth to tunnel mouth and bypassed most of the hills, had to be bored through the tunnels. It had a track width of 70 cm and was operated with locomotives from Cockerill from Belgium .

Construction lots 3 and 4 formed the section from tunnel no. 41 to Puente de los Fierros. The track for this construction lot was designed with a 50 cm gauge. It began at the Puente de los Fierros train station and first led 500 m down the valley, where it crossed the Pajares on a 98 m long suspension bridge. On the north side, the path branched into two branches. The one on the right led to the east entrance of the Capricho tunnel, the one on the left reached the base of a funicular railway after about 50 m, which climbed 350 meters in altitude. From the mountain station, the tracks extended eastward to tunnel no.41 and westward to tunnel no.47.

The construction costs of the Asturias Railway as well as the railway line to Galicia were much higher than estimated, so that the AGL got into financial difficulties and in May 1885 had to be taken over entirely by the Norte .

Initially, three- and four-coupler locomotives operated on the route, which were supplied by Emil Keßler and Hartmann .

electrification

Locomotive no 6006

Locomotive No. 6103 with a passenger train on the Matarredonda Viaduct, which was later replaced by an earth dam.

After the outbreak of the First World War , the demand for coal from Asturias skyrocketed because deliveries from England failed. The single-lane north ramp to the Pajares Pass quickly turned out to be a bottleneck that restricted deliveries inland. A maximum of 14 trains per day could be run, which were pulled by two steam locomotives. They were able to get 4500 tons of coal over the pass. A double-track expansion of the ramp was out of the question because of the difficult terrain, so it was decided to electrify it between the Uxo and Busdongo stations.

General Electric (GE) won the three electrical equipment suppliers. It comprised a direct current system with 3 kV contact line voltage as well as six-axle locomotives with paw-bearing drives . The proposal by Brown, Boveri & Cie. (BBC) to operate the railway with three-phase alternating current with a voltage of 6000 V and a frequency of 25 Hz, was subject to that of GE.

Six locomotives with the numbers 6001 to 6006 were supplied by GE (electrical part) and Alco (mechanical part), six more with the numbers 6101 to 6106 were supplied by Westinghouse (electrical part) and Baldwin together with the Spanish shipyard SECN (mechanical part) built. Both locomotive series had an output of 1620 hp. The GE locomotives had a boxcab structure , those from Westinghouse were designed with stems.

The electrical energy for the operation of the line came from the Electra de Viesgo . The energy was supplied by high-voltage lines as three-phase alternating current with a frequency of 50 Hz. The voltage was transformed in the two substations in Pajares and Cobertoria from 95 kV and 30 kV respectively to 3500 volts. A three-phase motor was operated with this voltage, which drove two 1500 V direct current generators connected in series . The converter group had a nominal output of 1.5 MW at a nominal speed of 600 revolutions per minute.

The first test drives took place in February 1924, and full operation on the Uxo – Busdongo section began in January 1925. The electrical operation on the north ramp remained an island until 1955 the entire route was electrified with 3 kV direct current.

Renfe

The Norte railway company went into the Renfe in 1941 . With the construction of the La Grandota tunnel , Oviedo was relieved of coal trains passing through. Coming from Llangreo you reach Lugo de Llanera directly via Tudela-Veguín , from where you can continue to the ports of Aviles and Gijón. The new, 14.9 km long route was opened in 1957.

In the 1970s, the León – La Robla and Pola de Lena – Gijón lines were expanded to double tracks. Between Soto de Rey and Lugo de Llanera, the first track switching operation was introduced in Spain in 1977 .

Variant of pajares

See also : Pajares tunnel

Route of the high-speed line at La Robla

On February 21, 2003, the Spanish Cabinet approved a budget of 1,085 million euros to build a new 49.7 km high-speed line under the Pajares Pass. The construction of the new line branching off shortly before La Robla and returning to this new line before Pola de Lena began in 2005. The core is the 24.7 km long Pajares tunnel with two tubes. The new route is 33 km shorter than the mountain route and will cut travel time between Madrid and Oviedo to under three hours.

Originally, completion was planned for 2008 after five years of construction. Ingress of water and landslides caused delays and cost overruns. Completion was planned for summer 2020 in 2017.

The route will also be used by freight trains. Both tubes are with normal gauge tracks for high-speed trains , in addition to the right Iberian broad gauge for freight trains equipped. Both tubes are electrified with 25 kV 50 Hz.

Route description

Length profile of the Pajares route

Route development on the Pajares north ramp

Route development on the Pajares north ramp (contemporary illustration)

Parana Viaduct, replaced by an earth dam in the 1950s.

The route climbs continuously from Léon to the highest point of the route at the entrance of the apex tunnel under the Pajares pass, which also forms the border between the province of Léon and Asturias . The tunnel is 3,073 m long and is named Perucca. Its entrance is 1270 m above sea level - a good 100 meters higher than that of the Swiss Gotthard Tunnel . The last train station in the Léon province is Busdongo. The air line between Busdongo and Puente de los Fierros is only 11 km, but the difference in altitude is 767 m. The railway line is 42.6 km long and overcomes the gradient with a double turn with a continuous gradient of 20 ‰. The section is considered to be one of the most difficult and expensive of its time in Europe. There are 69 tunnels between Busdongo and Campomanes, five of which are over a kilometer long. There are also 151 bridges, nine of which are larger viaducts.

The longest bridge was the Parana Viaduct. Like the Matarredona Viaduct, it was designed by the French engineer Gustave Eiffel's office and constructed as a truss bridge with an overhead carriageway. In the long run, however, the filigree bridges could no longer bear the increasing axle loads. In particular, the Parana Viaduct, lying in a curve, reached the limit of its capacity due to the lateral forces of the braking trains traveling downhill. Therefore, in the 1950s, the Parana Viaduct, the Matarredona Viaduct, the Congostinas Viaduct and the Navedo Bridge were replaced by earth dams.

After Ujo, the easier northern approach begins, which leads via Oviedo, the capital of Asturias, to the port city of Gijón. It is now part of the Oviedo-Asturias S-Bahn system.

business

The route is used by both freight trains and passenger trains. In winter operation can be affected by snow; then diesel locomotives of the 319 series are used in double traction , which are equipped with snow plows at the ends .

Tourist traffic

In long-distance traffic, Alvia connections are offered with the trains with the S-130 series . They run from Gijón either to Madrid or on to Alicante and are sometimes run in double traction.

Regional trains from Leon to Gijón from the three-part multiple units of the 440 series or 447 out. Since 2013, the Pajares station and the Ciñera stop have not been served due to poor occupancy.

Freight transport

In freight transport, steel and coal trains with a weight of up to 1000 t are mainly used, but also container trains. Renfe mostly runs these trains with locomotives from Hitachi's six-axle series 251 from the 1980s or the series 253 Traxx locomotives built by Bombardier . The trailer load of the 251 series is 1010 tons on the Pajares ramp, that of the 253 series is 860 tons. In April 2017, the 251 series was replaced by the 253 series double traction in front of the steel trains. The private operator Comsa , which emerged from a railway construction company, uses the Bitrac dual -power locomotives from CAF .

Accidents

The Pajares route was not spared from accidents:

• On February 27, 1888, an avalanche destroyed the Matarredona Bridge. To restore the connection, a temporary track was laid on the route of the former construction railway. The curve radii were extremely narrow and in some cases were only 80 m, so that the trains in this section had to be driven by small shunting locomotives that could move around curves. In April, a temporary wooden bridge to replace the destroyed Matarredona Viaduct was completed, so that the normal route could be used again.
• On April 10, 1950, three cars from the Madrid-Gijón express train derailed in a curve near Villallana and crashed onto the Pajares Pass road. 16 dead and 60 injured were mourned.
• On December 3, 1950, a fire broke out in the rail mail car of the Gijón – Madrid express train. After travelers pulled the emergency brake, the train came to a halt in tunnel 13 between Pajares and Busdongo. The fire spread to two third class cars with wooden car bodies . Four people were burned and 17 injured.
• On September 27, 1978, a tank wagon train loaded with 700,000 liters of diesel and petrol got stuck in tunnel 50 Congostinas above the Linares-Congostinas station due to a catenary fault . When trying to couple the diesel locomotive , which had rushed to the rescue , there was probably a spark that ignited the gasoline gases that had accumulated in the tunnel. A driver of the freight train and the staff of the diesel locomotive - two other drivers and four railway workers employed in overhead line maintenance - were burned. The route was closed for days.

Web links

Commons : León – Gijón railway line  - collection of images

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Compañía de los Ferrocarriles de Asturias, Galicia y León. In: Ferropedia. Retrieved December 18, 2017 (Spanish). 
2. ↑ Asturias á Galicia y León (AGL) Compañía del Ferrocarril del Noroeste de España. (No longer available online.) In: Spanish Railway. Archived from the original on August 29, 2018 ; Retrieved December 18, 2017 (European Spanish). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Pajares era el salvaje Oeste. In: El Comercio. August 17, 2014. Quote: “ entre 5,000 and 10,000 trabajadores, hombres jóvenes, con mucha energía, que pasaban solos la semana en condiciones muy duras, aislados en el puerto, y luego bajaban un día a la semana a los pueblos, con el jornal recién cobrado; aquello era frecuente motivo de tiros y juergas »
4. ↑ ^{a b} Ferrocarril de León a Gijón. In: Portal del Grupo de Trabajos Ferroviarios. Retrieved December 30, 2017 (Spanish). 
5. ^ V. Hilscher: Something about the railroad and traveling in Spain. IX. In: The Locomotive . 1929, p. 223 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
6. ↑ ¿Cual es la fecha de la electrificación de Pajares? In: Objetivo Pajares. Retrieved December 20, 2017 (European Spanish). 
7. ↑ ^{a b} Rafael Méndez: El gran tunnel de Pajares naufraga . In: El País . June 8, 2013 ( politica.elpais.com [accessed December 27, 2017]).
8. ↑ Rafael Méndez: € 1.2 billion over budget and still no opening date in sight . In: El País . May 7, 2014 ( elpais.com [accessed December 27, 2017]).
9. ↑ ^{a b} Lavariant de Pajares, para finales de 2020. In: Noticiascyl. December 26, 2017, Retrieved December 27, 2017 (European Spanish). 
10. ^ V. Hilscher: Something about the railroad and traveling in Spain. VII. In: The locomotive . 1929, p. 183 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
11. ^ Adiós 251, hola 253. In: Objetivo Pajares. April 16, 2017, Retrieved December 30, 2017 (Spanish). 
12. ↑ La catástrofe del Expreso de Madrid. In: La Nueva España. August 11, 2009 (Spanish).
13. ^ Incendio del Expreso en diciembre de 1950. In: Objetivo Pajares. Retrieved December 27, 2017 . 
14. ↑ José Manuel Vaquero: Siete muertos al incendiarse en Asturias un tren con 700,000 litros de combustible . In: El País . September 28, 1978 ( elpais.com [accessed December 27, 2017]).
15. ↑ Un poco de historia: Accidente ferroviario en el tunnel 50 de Pajares. In: Seguridad en Túneles. 1978, accessed December 27, 2017 .