Spain questions

[MarcVD]

I’m just back from a city trip to Madrid (not meant to be train-oriented) where we have used the train (cercanias) for a daily excursion to El Escorial. Noticed two "strange" things :

From Madrid to nearly Pinar de Las Rosas we ran right-hand then just before the station the two tracks ran above each other and the rest of the trip was left-handed. Are there other lines with such an arrangement or is this line a special case ? Inheritance from the past perhaps, like in France ?

After Pinar de Las Rosas there seems to be a very large maintenance complex where lots of Talgo rakes are stabled, some of them in a quite derelict state. I noticed a sparkling new one in a white + red stripe livery, that looked very much like standard DB to me. Could it be one of their recently ordered trains ? If yes then what is it doing there ? I don't think those new trains are capable to run on Iberian gauge...

Also used the metro, and noticed that they use a central rail above the train, with pantograph pickup, for their power supply. I have never seen that used on any other metro system. Yet I find it quite elegant, and probably much simpler and way more secure than third rail at ground level. The additional vertical clearance needed seems quite marginal, the rail being only some 30 cm above the the train roofs. Any reason why this system is not more widely used ?

Cheers,
Marc.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

The Norte company (Main line Madrid Principe Pio to Irun) was a British built and owned company until nationalisation - hence the left-hand running. A lot of the stations are very British in character with canopies etc. Chamartin took over from Principe Pio in 1972 so right-hand running for the connecting line.

The Talgo 'depot' is in fact their main works and HQ.

 

[dutchflyer]

From what I recall Pr.Pio was a terminal station and only in the big expansion of the Mad cerc. system connected also southward extended.
Thus change L->R is perhaps unique or certainly very rare as such.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 3 May 2023 ==

Ans as for metro-but this is just a thought of me: there are quite a few metro-systems in this world that do not use 3d rail but conventional overhead. I have always learnt that the British southern 3s railsystem was also a result of being too early built-as such it is also quite rare on world-scale.
In ESpana they have for a very long time tried to be self-sufficient and this may have lead to inventing own systems. I guess a massive overhead current-rail is much more costly as wires? Cost is nearly always the reason for such differences-and after a certain stage it is too costly to rebuild it to major standard.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

The new standard gauge LAV lines are right hand running, so there are some odd arrangements where they meet the Norte system - eg at Valladolid and Burgos.
I think it's still left hand for cercanias trains into Principo Pio (it used to be the Norte terminus), while the newer line that branches off at Pinar towards Chamartin is right hand.
The Norte line beyond El Escorial to Avila through the Guadarrama mountains is quite spectacular - rather more so than the 28.4 km LAV tunnel!
The Norte had an impressive name: La Compañía de los Caminos de Hierro del Norte de España - CCHNE
The Norte also reached places like Barcelona and Valencia.
Spain's other main private railway was the MZA - Madrid-Zaragoza-Alicante, focussed on Atocha station in Madrid, which had right-hand running.
You can still see the MZA name and logo on the outside of the northern aspect of the old Atocha trainshed (the botanic garden part of the modern station).

 

[MarcVD]

All of that makes me wish to go back to Spain and explore their rail system in more detail. On the way back from El Escorial I indeed saw a Media Distancia dmu going to Avila that made me ask myself why I was not in there... Anyway thank you for all the answers.