The ''Catalan Talgo'' was an international express train that linked Geneva, Switzerland, with Barcelona, Spain from 1969 to 2010."Stop Press" (changes taking effect). '' Cooks Continental Timetable'' (June 1969 edition), p. 6; also pp. 71, 106, 236. London: Thomas Cook & Son, Ltd.España en el Trans Europ Express
(PDF) '' Vía Libre, la revista del ferrocarril'', No. 67 (July 1969), pp. 4–5. Linked fro
this page
on the website of ''Via Libre'' magazine, dated 15 February 2013. Retrieved 2013-03-03. It was named after the Spanish region Catalonia and the Talgo equipment it used. It was an extension and upgrading of a predecessor train, ''Le Catalan'', a first-class-only French (

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffi ...

) ''Rapide'' train that had been in operation since 1955 but running only between Geneva and the stations nearest the Spanish-French border, connecting with a second-class-only "autorail" trainset to and from Barcelona. The national railway network of Spain, ''Red Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Españoles'' ( RENFE), was using Iberian gauge for all of its main lines, while those of France and Switzerland use

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

. As a result of this break-of-gauge, train journeys between Geneva and Barcelona consisted of two separate parts, with travelers having to change from a French to a Spanish train or vice versa at the border—at

Portbou Portbou () is a town in the Alt Empordà Comarques of Catalonia, county, in the Province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. It has a population of people (). Portbou is located near the France, French France–Spain border, border in the Costa Brava r ...

(alternatively written as Port Bou) on southbound trains and at

Cerbère Cerbère (; ca, Cervera de la Marenda) is a commune and railway town in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.''Cooks Continental Timetable'' (July 1968 edition), pp. 236, 238. Thomas Cook & Son, Ltd. In 1968, this was resolved with the introduction of the Talgo III RD trainsets, which featured variable gauge wheelsets. At Portbou station, the wheel spacing of each passenger carriage was adjusted by a gauge changer for the difference in gauge, and passengers no longer had to change trains. After successful test runs, the ''Catalan'' was extended from Port Bou to Barcelona as a through train on 1 June 1969, becoming the ''Catalan Talgo'' and upgraded to a

Trans Europ Express The Trans Europ Express, or Trans-Europe Express (TEE), was an international first-class railway service in western and central Europe that was founded in 1957 and ceased in 1995. At the height of its operations, in 1974, the TEE network compri ...

(TEE). Most other rail journeys through this border crossing continued to require a change of train at

Cerbère station Cerbère station (French: ''Gare de Cerbère'') is the railway station serving the border town Cerbère, Pyrénées-Orientales department, southern France. It is connected to the Portbou railway station in Spain by the Balitres tunnel, which use ...

or at Port Bou, as most trains did not use Talgo III RD trainsets.

Trans Europ Express

Rolling stock

Traction

Initially the ''Catalan Talgo'' was hauled by the RENFE class 3000 locomotives, the later class 353. These locomotives were not equipped with adaptable

bogie A bogie ( ) (in some senses called a truck in North American English) is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transp ...

s, so the locomotive numbers 3003 and 3004, which had Iberian gauge bogies, worked the section between Barcelona and the French-Spanish border, while the other three locomotives of this series, which had standard gauge bogies, served the section between the French-Spanish border and Geneva. Already in September 1971, the standard gauge locomotives were replaced by class BB 67400 of

. The broad gauge locomotives were replaced shortly after by class 276 of RENFE. Das grosse TEE Buch, p. 122. In 1975, the route between Geneva and

Avignon Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region of So ...

was changed. Instead of Grenoble the electrified tracks via Lyon were used, allowing the entire Geneva – Narbonne route section to be worked by an SNCF BB 9300 class locomotive. When in early 1980 the route Narbonne –

was electrified as well, the BB 9300 class was replaced by SNCF BB 7200 class.

Coaches

The coaches are all variants of the type Talgo III RD. These coaches (RT), built in 1968, were deployed until the end of 2010. A

generator car In rail transport, head-end power (HEP), also known as electric train supply (ETS), is the electrical power distribution system on a passenger train. The power source, usually a locomotive (or a generator car) at the front or 'head' of a train, p ...

, supplying power for the train's electrical system, is located at both ends of the carriages. These generator cars also provide the coupling to the locomotive because the Talgo coupling between the carriages is not compatible with other railway stock. One generator car, the RT 212, houses the train chief's office, while the other, the RT 211, is provided with a luggage compartment. The basic composition of the train consisted, in between the two generator cars, of nine carriages RT 201, one bar/kitchen car RT 206 and two dining cars RT 210. The RT 206 was situated approximately in the middle of the train, flanked by an RT 210 on both sides; the RT 211 formed the Spanish side and the RT 212 the Swiss side of the train. In case of heavy traffic, up to seven RT 201 could be added, so a train of 21 carriages, each 11.5 m long, could be formed. After the introduction of the RT 202 second-class carriages in 1982, which were conveyed between the RT 206 and RT 212, the RT 210 on that side of the RT 206 was removed.

Route and timetable

In 1969, the TEE service started with the Swiss designation CG, GC (Catalunya-Genève and v.v.) and the Spanish train numbers TEE 83,84. On 23 May 1971, the train was renumbered to TEE 70/71 – TEE 72/73; in Spain the numbers TEE 73,70 were used, from 26 May 1974 TEE 5073,5070. The double numbering is due to the fact that, in both terminals, outbound trains are given an odd number and incoming an even number. The original route was: Barcelona – Girona – Portbou – Cerbère – Perpignan – Narbonne – Béziers – Sete – Montpellier – Nîmes – Avignon – Valence – Romans Bourg de Péage – Grenoble – Challes les Eaux – Chambéry – Aix les Bains Le Revard – Culoz – Bellegarde – Geneva-Cornavin. On 31 May 1970, the stops at Romans Bourg de Péage and Sète were removed from the timetable. TEE Ligure 1969

The schedule was designed to provide easy passenger connections to and from the '' TEE Ligure'' in

. The ''TEE Catalan Talgo'' services, in both directions, called at Avignon just after the arrival of the ''TEE Ligure'' from Milan and before departure of the ''TEE Ligure'' to Milan. This allowed the travelers to change between the two TEE services at around 3 pm. On 28 September 1975, at the urging of SBB and RENFE, the route between Valence and Bellegarde was modified, so between Narbonne and Geneva a through electric service could be implemented. The only stop between Bellegarde and Valence was Lyon-Brotteaux (today Lyon Part-Dieu). This was a technical stop only, without passengers boarding or leaving the train. Although this route was one kilometer longer, the total travel time was shortened by almost 40 minutes. A costly side-effect of this change was that an extra train between Geneva and Grenoble had to be operated. In 1982, hoping to attract more passengers, RENFE added second-class carriages to the train formation. As a result, the TEE requirement of first-class-only cars was no longer met, and the ''Catalan Talgo'' was downgraded to a normal Intercity service.

EuroCity

252075 Renfe Catalan Talgo - Mollet del Valles - 23-11-2009 - Luis Zamora

In 1987, the ''Catalan Talgo'' became part of the then-new

EuroCity EuroCity, abbreviated as EC, is a cross-border train category within the European inter-city rail network. In contrast to trains allocated to the lower-level "IC" (InterCity) category, EC trains are international services that meet 20 criteri ...

network.''

Thomas Cook Continental Timetable The ''European Rail Timetable'', more commonly known by its former names, the ''Thomas Cook European Timetable'', the ''Thomas Cook Continental Timetable'' or simply ''Cook's Timetable'', is an international timetable of selected passenger rai ...

'' (31 May – 30 June 1987 edition), pp. 66, 472, 474. Thomas Cook Publishing. In the fall of 1994, with the introduction of

TGV The TGV (french: Train à Grande Vitesse, "high-speed train"; previously french: TurboTrain à Grande Vitesse, label=none) is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF. SNCF worked on a high-speed rail network from 1966 to 19 ...

services from Paris and Geneva to

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

, the ''Catalan Talgo'' was shortened to the Montpellier – Barcelona part. La Légende des TEE, p. 278. The TGV high-speed line was extended to Barcelona in December 2013. The ''Catalan Talgo'' was taken out of service in December 2010."Le Catalan Talgo", ''Trains d'Europe''
/ref>

References

Works cited

* * * * * * * {{EuroCity trains EuroCity International named passenger trains Named passenger trains of France Named passenger trains of Spain Named passenger trains of Switzerland Trans Europ Express Railway services introduced in 1969 Rail transport in Catalonia Railway services discontinued in 2010