16 - "Santa Fe" locomotive

Locomotive 151, which was named “Santa Fe” 5001, was manufactured in the Barcelona workshops of La Maquinista Terrestre y Marítima in 1942, commissioned by the North Railway Company. In the 1940s, one of the main problems in the northwest Iberian Peninsula consisted in overcoming the steep Brañuelas ramp on the route from León to Ponferrada, which was the train’s only entryway into Galicia.

In order to solve the problem, Renfe purchased this enormous and powerful five-coupled-axle engine, which could pull the heavy trains used to transport coal. This locomotive was very different from all the ones previously built in Spain, and almost unique in Europe, due to its giant size. Its force of almost 4,000 horsepower was only exceeded by the “Confederación” locomotives, which were built later. The “Santa Fe” exceeded the latter, however, in driving force, i.e. it was the locomotive that could pull the greatest loads of all those that existed, as well as being the heaviest.

Starting in the early 1950s, Renfe applied to all its new locomotives the last technological advance of the steam era: fuelization. It consisted in replacing coal with another fuel, fuel oil, which greatly facilitated the work of the stoker and the supply of fuel, as well as increasing the locomotives’ performance. This improvement was also incorporated into many existing locomotives that were sufficiently modern, such as the “Santa Fe”.

Of the 22 locomotives that were built, only this one in the Museum remains. From inside its impressive cabin, we can see the amount and variety of instruments that were required to drive such a large locomotive, and the difficulty involved.