Visiting Madrid

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

Spending the week before Christmas in Madrid, on a general sight seeing trip with the hope of getting a few hours of railway related stuff in. Have a couple of questions:

1. Metro tickets

Staying at Arguelles, arriving and departing from the Airport. What is the best ticket to use that will allow us to get to and from the airport and spend the week using the Metro to visit the main tourist and shopping areas?

2. Railway locations

Plan to visit the Railway Museum, judging by the website it seems worth at least a brief visit?
Which stations / locations are worth visiting to photograph a selection of Spanish locos and units? Is there anywhere close by which is good for freight?

Thanks in advance

 

[VillaverdeAlto]

Spending the week before Christmas in Madrid, on a general sight seeing trip with the hope of getting a few hours of railway related stuff in. Have a couple of questions:

1. Metro tickets

Staying at Arguelles, arriving and departing from the Airport. What is the best ticket to use that will allow us to get to and from the airport and spend the week using the Metro to visit the main tourist and shopping areas?

2. Railway locations

Plan to visit the Railway Museum, judging by the website it seems worth at least a brief visit?
Which stations / locations are worth visiting to photograph a selection of Spanish locos and units? Is there anywhere close by which is good for freight?

Thanks in advance

1. The 7 day Zone A tourist card is €35.40 and includes the €3 airport supplement. It can also be used on the buses and local train services. The Zone T covering all of Madrid is double the price and, frankly, there isn't much to see in the outer suburbs.

The palaces at El Escorial and Aranjuez, if that's your thing, fall within zone T but it would probably work out cheaper to buy separate tickets for those trips.

The annoying thing is that if you go for a full week that amounts to eight days so you'll end up paying separately for your trip back to the airport.

2. The museum is pretty small but has some interesting exhibits notably an early TALGO.

You'll find a vast cross-section of Spanish rolling stock in the vast sidings north of the main Chamartin station. Fuencarral station is the most northerly station in Zone A and in taking a journey there(line C4) you'll pass all the sidings. I'm not sure of any good vantage points on that stretch as there are high walls on both sides of the tracks but there'll probably be gates you can peer through somewhere.