Choo-choosing to stay under cover

Had intended to go to the Gijón's botanical gardens this morning but the weather persuaded me otherwise. So I walked to the railway museum, which I hadn't visited for quite a few years. Silly really because it's quite nearby and entrance is free to local residents.

This particular train was built in Germany in 1881 and was purchased by the Asturias-Galicia-León railway. In 1885 its sister engines, the "Jovellanos" and "Don Pelayo", inaugurated the Pajares Ramp.

This is an incredibly circuitous stretch of tunnel in the high mountains between Asturias and León. It allows trains to slowly overcome the altitude difference between coastal Asturias and Spain's higher central meseta.

The Pajares Ramp is still in use today. Work on a new tunnel through the mountains comenced in 2005 and was due to have been completed in 2012 but is still not open due to technical difficulties such as flooding and difficulty in stabilising rock faces in the approaches to the tunnel. This just goes to show what an amazing a piece of engineering the original 'rampa' was.