Paul Steane's Photography Pages

Ryanair flight FR9816 from Manchester to Santander airport; ALSA S4 bus to Santander; FEVE ( "Ferrocarriles de Vía Estrecha"; Spanish for "Narrow Gauge Railways") trains on the branch to Liérganes and back to Astillero; on a FEVE train to Bilbao, though this was replaced by a bus between Gibaja and Zalla for no clear reason; then a FEVE train to Bilbao La Concordia station. After checking into my hotel, the ibis, I caught Metro Line 1 from Indautxu to Lutxana to cover the hourly Mondays-to-Fridays Euskotren service to Sondika; then on Metro Line 3 to Lezama, and back to Zazpikaleak; then back on Metro Line 1 to Indautxu.

Saturday 13/11/2021 Heading for Oviedo to be in position for the only useful daytime train from there to Santander, which is next morning..... so high speed to Oviedo it is. Photos here are from the descent from the Pajares pass this morning - through the train window so there's some reflections, sorry. This is on the León to Gijón line and descends 927 m with an almost constant slope of 1 in 50 over a distance of 49 km. It opened in 1884 and will close when the new Pajares base tunnels (a pair of tunnels 25 km long) are opened, though that has already taken 16 years and is very late due to the tunnels leaking.
To spend the afternoon usefully, I covered the broad gauge RENFE Cercanías branch from Oviedo to El Entrego then the nearby metre gauge FEVE Cercanías branch to Laviana. El Berrón on the FEVE Asturias metre gauge network is a very rare Grand Junction on a mainline railway, though the south to east curve passes through the depot. Other than the north-south and east-west lines, which are double track, the only other curve with a passenger service presently is the north to west curve, linking Gijón with Oviedo.
Dropping my large bag at the hotel Ibis in Oviedo, I then covered the broad gauge RENFE Cercanías service to Pola de Lena and back, which duly covered different routes avoiding the tunnels used by the fast trains. Finally, to fill the time before dinner I did the metre gauge FEVE run to Gijón and back.
Route: 07:08 Madrid Charmartín via Valladolid, Vilecha gauge changer, León, both tunnels to Oviedo, RENFE Alvia 130-001; 12:25 Oviedo to El Entrego, RENFE EMU 463-011; walk to El Entrego FEVE station; 13:27 El Entrego to Laviana, FEVE EMU 3308/7; 13:45 Laviana to Noreña, FEVE EMU 3307/8; 15:02 Noreña via El Berron N-W curve to Oviedo, FEVE EMU 3637/8; 16:03 Oviedo not via tunnels to Pola de Lena, RENFE EMU 463-008; 17:13 Pola de Lena via first tunnel only to Oviedo, RENFE EMU 463-001; 18:05 Oviedo via El Berron W-N curve to Gijón, FEVE EMU 3638/7; 18:45 Gijón via El Berron N-W curve to Oviedo, FEVE EMU 3637/8.