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RENFE 443 "El Platanito" at Castejón de Ebro


Pete 75C

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Whilst Googling (as you do), I found some images of the RENFE 443 tilting train "El Platanito" (which I think translates to "Little Banana") festering away at Castejón de Ebro station in North Eastern Spain. Now I've read up a little on the history and it was beset with problems, not dissimilar to Britain's APT. Question is... does it currently "belong" to anyone? A society or preservation group? I'm not sure if such organisations are as common in Spain as they are in the UK?

I've seen some more recent pictures than the 2008 one below (lifted from the Spanish Wikipedia) and it now has the odd smashed window and obligatory graffiti. It does seem to be just rotting away. It must have generated some interest when it was being tested and when it was running in (limited) revenue-earning service as I believe Electrotren even made a HO scale model of it.

Just curious and wondered if anyone knew anything. The answer will be on the net somewhere but my Spanish just isn't up to it. I have managed to find out that it arrived in Castejón in 1994 and has sat there ever since. That was quite some time ago!

 

post-17811-0-38121500-1473585067.jpg

This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

 

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A little digging (thanks to Google Translate) shows that the unit is owned by Spain's "National Railway Museum". I'm assuming that's the Museo del Ferrocarril in Madrid. The 443 is on loan to the "Castejonera Association of Friends of the Railway" and a cosmetic repaint is planned. Still a little surprised it's been stored outside for all these years.

 

ASOCIACION CASTEJONERA DE AMIGOS DEL FERROCARRIL

 

Edit: The website doesn't seem to have been updated for years and most of the links are broken.

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Hi Pete.

The model was based on the Italian prototype  which had some detail differences such as the headlight but was infact made by Lima and distributed in Spain by Electrotren.

There were only 500 sets made and they are “mas raro que la mierda de un tiovivo” , as you would say in english!!  (Lesson 2 of your free Spanish language class!)

I´ve seen them go for around 600€ for the set but they don´t come up too often.

 

As for the ownership of the train, I´ve seen somewhere that it still belongs to ADIF, the owner of the national network and it was only loaned to the association in Castejón but as you say, they seem to have disappeared.

There was talk in 2013 of it being transferred to an association located in Valdemoro, to the south of Madrid but it would still have been left out in the open whilst restoration work was undertaken but this seems to have fallen through too.

 

There is a story I´ve read that could be one of the reasons it was doomed to failure practically before it had started.

For the official presentation of Platanito a trip to Segovia and back to Madrid was organized for the politicians and railway bigwigs with a big feast of suckling pig and other Castilian delicacies.
The trip out to Segovia they had a problem with the static converter, so the speed was rather pedestrian. As the repair overran and they were considerably behind schedule,   someone thought it was the perfect opportunity to show the illustrious throng the benefits of the tilting prototype.
It was ordered to adjust the tilt to the maximum and Platanito flew through the tortuous descent from Segovia to Madrid.
Unfortunately for those passengers with full stomachs the reverse curves taken at full line speed and maximum tilt proved fatal, especially in the first carriage where the politicians and executives were all heaving.

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There was talk in 2013 of it being transferred to an association located in Valdemoro, to the south of Madrid but it would still have been left out in the open whilst restoration work was undertaken but this seems to have fallen through too.

 

Thanks for the info Andy. The trainful of dignitaries heaving all the way into Madrid made me chuckle. I Googled the Italian train, the ETR401, I think. I see what you mean about the detail differences. Also, the Lima model does look a little crude compared to what we're now used to. Fascinating, nonetheless. Leaving the train parked up outside in Spain for 22 years won't do it much good. Still, looking on the bright side, If it had been parked up on the quayside at, say, Dover for 22 years, I doubt there'd be anything left at all...

 

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Leaving the train parked up outside in Spain for 22 years won't do it much good.

 

 

I know it is not quite the same scenario but the Spanish do like to see a loco on a plinth, stuck outside and rusting away.

Ok, so down in the south it doesn´t rain much but the sun won´t be doing it any favours either.

 

Regarding the model of Platinito, the Spanish still complain about the fact that the detail differences were not corrected.

There have been quite a few cases where foreign stock has been repainted into RENFE colours because the German/French/Italian wagon or coach was very similar to the Spanish version. The Spanish have a name for this. It is a REN-frito (*). Basically refried or rehashed.

 

(*) This was lesson 3. From now on I charge!!! :stinker:

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  • 3 months later...

Just found this thread. I add a translation of the Wikipedia text on this train. The Renfe Series 443 is a prototype train, nick-maned "Little Banana" because of the colours of its decoration. Its condition of optotype, aerodynamic design and the speeds it could attain make it one of the most special trains Renfe has ever had.

This train, except for the track gauge used, is identical to the ETR 401 of Italian railways. It was acquired with the idea of investigating the viability of trains having a tilting body and the possibilities that this system could offer when following curves and how far could speeds be increased on curves, since in Spain the layouts require a large amount of small radius curves because of the orography of the country.
But in 1980, Talgo, which had been investigating other systems for 8 years already, had the tilting Talgo ready for running, with a natural tilting system which was simpler, cheaper and more efficient than the hydraulic tilting system used by the Pendolino. Owing to this, the tests and trials with the tilting system this train were abandoned. Currently Renfe Operator has the Series 490, having the evolutions of these systems, and the Series 598 and 594 with the SIBI system, which is slightly different but has active, not natural, tilting.
Among the novelties of this train was the use of gyroscopes and acceleration meters for thee tilting system, a static converter, preset speed, ASFA (ANNOUNCEMENT OF SIGNALS AND AUTOMATIC BRAKING), electromagnetic shoe brakes, motors suspended in the body…Some consider that all these novelties also e it a train having many failures due to the so modern systems that it had.
In 1977 it attained 200 Kph and in 1979 it was used for some months on a working between Madrid and Albacete. From 1980 to1982 it operated between Madrid and Jaen, from 1984 for two years it was used as a tourist train and in 1987 it made its last trips as a high-speed test train on the Madrid-Alicante line. At 12.28 pm on Wednesday, 6 May 1987, it attained a speed 208 Kph during one of these trials between the stations of Villarobledo and Minaya. For a long while this was the record for Spain.
Nevertheless, its life ended after these trials because of the cost involved in the maintenance of a single unit of a series and furthermore, with it being a prototype, it produced a considerable number of faults, for many it was deemed to be a train too far ahead of its time with a technology which still needed much time to prosper. Currently the "Little Banana" is on a siding at the station of Castejon where it arrived in 1994 after having covered scarcely 216,277 km, a very small mileage for a vehicle of these characteristics.

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