Page 103 - Vía Libre Special - 25 Years of Spanish High Speed Rail
P. 103
Laying of rails and brake van
sleepers in the vicinity
of one of the tunnels OHL work on the
on the line through construction of the
Brazatortas (March Madrid-Seville high
Birds’ eye view of the works at Brazatortas on the 1991). speed line.
high speed line. In the distance we can see a tunnel
with the track bed emerging from it (1990).
The Madrid-Seville
track was built with
60 kilo rails and
turnouts capable
of allowing trains
to change track at
160 km/h. Technical
installations
were distributed
strategically along
the line to allow for
overtaking. Track
laying (1990).
pensioned off the historic stations of San View of a
Bernardo and Plaza de Armas, with a new through cutting in the
tunnel in Iberian gauge towards Cadiz and an construction
outer bypass to the north to route Iberian gauge of the Madrid
trains to Huelva. The layout was completed with to Seville high
a short branch to the Isla de la Cartuja which speed line
(1990).
provided service to Expo 92 while it was open.
Gauge changers were installed at Atocha,
Majarabique and Cordoba to enable variable
gauge Talgo trains to continue on to Malaga.
The Madrid-Seville line was the first line to run
at a voltage of 25,000 V AC under LZB signalling started in 1987 with the approval of the first
and communication systems. designs in October 1987.
Finally, in record time, the line entered into A.R.
service in April 1992, culminating a project that Photos fRom the collection of ffe-VíA libRe
Vía Libre • Special 25th Anniversary of the AVE Edition 103