Majorca [SFM] Original DMUs

[ed1971]

I have found on Youtube a very interesting video of the metre gauge Majorca [SFM] that previously ran between Palma and Inca.

The video from 1995 shows the original DMUs that ran on this line. Can anyone point me to a link about the technical specification of these units? They sound rather like the BR heritage DMUs with Leyland engines.

 

[Bungle965]

Unfortunately that link is dead at my end.
Sam

 

[Taunton]

I went there in 1983 just as they were making the transition from 3ft gauge to metre gauge. As I recall, the "original" diesel cars dated from the 1950s, when they changed the gauge some were converted, some were withdrawn, and some to the new gauge imported secondhand from the mainland. I understand they were replaced in the 1990s by new diesel cars, and in recent times the line was electrified and the current stock arrived.

The service in 1983 was hourly and seemed to require just two trains (though they had a lot more), which passed halfway where, due to the metre gauge (and doubling) works one train had to reverse into a siding to pass the other. The gauge conversion and doubling went together - the new track was being laid alongside, presumably they changed over and still ran single track for a while whilst the original line was regauged.

Pegaso, the major Spanish bus/truck manufacturer of the times, used Leyland engines built under licence, which may well explain the similarity of sound.

 

[hexagon789]

I have found on Youtube a very interesting video of the metre gauge Majorca [SFM] that previously ran between Palma and Inca.

The video from 1995 shows the original DMUs that ran on this line. Can anyone point me to a link about the technical specification of these units? They sound rather like the BR heritage DMUs with Leyland engines.

Some of the withdrawn classes at the bottom of this page look about right: http://www.railfaneurope.net/list_frameset.html

 

[ed1971]

I went there in 1983 just as they were making the transition from 3ft gauge to metre gauge. As I recall, the "original" diesel cars dated from the 1950s, when they changed the gauge some were converted, some were withdrawn, and some to the new gauge imported secondhand from the mainland. I understand they were replaced in the 1990s by new diesel cars, and in recent times the line was electrified and the current stock arrived.

The service in 1983 was hourly and seemed to require just two trains (though they had a lot more), which passed halfway where, due to the metre gauge (and doubling) works one train had to reverse into a siding to pass the other. The gauge conversion and doubling went together - the new track was being laid alongside, presumably they changed over and still ran single track for a while whilst the original line was regauged.

Pegaso, the major Spanish bus/truck manufacturer of the times, used Leyland engines built under licence, which may well explain the similarity of sound.

Thanks for the background information. The Pegaso connection makes sense. I have read before of a bus model that they once made that sounded like a Leyland Leopard. I have also seen in a Buses annual book a photo of a single deck left hand drive half cab Pegaso bus.