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The narrow-gauge railway of Mallorca

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  • Member since
    December 2008
  • From: Toronto, Canada
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The narrow-gauge railway of Mallorca
Posted by 54light15 on Saturday, August 17, 2019 10:25 AM

Have a look at this- I rode this railway in the 1970s- the coaches have open platforms and they're varnished like an old Chris-Craft. The baggage car had sacks of mail and it was powered by trolley poles back then. There's some amazing scenery there with vineyards going up the sides of mountains. When it gets to Soller, it connects to another NG line with open-sided coaches. 

In the main station, adjacent to the electric railway were two roundhouses, a water tower and all the infrastructure of steam but the service was provided by fairly modern diesel railcars which I did not ride. The first time I was there in maybe 1974, there were a bunch of wooden coaches in the yard but those weren't being used anymore.

There was a pile of leather belts laying nearby- these were Sam Browne belts used by the train staff and they had oval shaped badges with Ferrocarriles on the upper part, Mallorca in the middle and Guarda on the lower part. As you might have guessed, I took all the badges and gave them to friends on my ship and kept one for rmyself which I still have. The Soller line was a seperate system; the diesel lines covered the entire island. I've never been back but I'd sure love to.

 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/17/soller-mallorca-heritage-train-investors-hostile-bid

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