Cala a San Juan de Aznalfarache 0-6-4 Locomotives in Spain

Class 1 (Locobase 20151)

Data from "Crónicas de la vfa estrecha (XIV): De Cala a San Juan de Aznalfarache", Trenes y Tiempo blog, 29 January 2017, last accessed 20 February 2017 at [] . See also Chris Chaplow, "Huelva Province - Minas de Cala" (in English) in [], last accessed 20 February 2017.

One of the many mining railways in Spain's southwestern province of Huelva, this line connected the iron mines at Cala on the border of Huelva and Sevilla provinces with San Juan de Aznalfarache just outside of Sevilla. Originally mined for copper by Don Antonio Domenech off and on from 1853, the mine was first continuously exploited by the Portuguese Sociedad Portuguesa das Minas de Cala beginning in1888. But the PSPMC soon found the bottom of the shallow copper vein and soon went bankrupt in1893.

A Manchester, England syndicate Cala Mines Ltd began work in 1897, but soon sold their holdings to a Bilbao-based Minas de Cala SA on 31 August 1900. It was the latter company, say Chaplow, that built the railway that would prove "crucial to the mine.

Trenes y Tiempo reports that construction began in 1903 and the 97-km (60.2 mile) line opened in 1905. Two key branch lines added to railway business. One left the main at Zufre and ran 13 km (8 miles) to the mines at Teuler The other joined the Castillo de las Guardas mines with the main line at El Ronquillo 14 km distant (8.7 miles), extending another 18 km (11.2 miles) in 1914 to serve the Pena de Hierro mines.

trenesytiempo calls the seven radial tanks "magnificent" and their profiles showed large cabs, long tanks, centered dome, and capped stack over the low-drivered running gear and outside constant-lead radial valve gear. Each was named for a town along the line, which provided passenger service right to the end of the railway era. That service proved "a great accelerator of the life and the economy of the region" facilitating "to a great degree accessibility of its people to Sevilla."

But the good days didn't last. In 1933, the Minas de Cala gave as its reason for abandoning the mines heavy recent losses in mineral income. Passenger service probably ended very shortly afterward, but fitful freight traffic continued through the 1940s and up to April 1955.

The first three Borsig tanks found a new home in 1942 on the Madrid-Aragon.