Paul Steane's Photography Pages

Saturday 28th January 2023 Back to doing "my own thing". Aims for today were to cover the two routes to Salamanca and the various connections onto the Salamanca line at Medina del Campo. All of today would be "new track" for me except the route out of Madrid as far as Ávila, and part of the high speed line to Segovia. Segovia has a superb, completely intact, Roman Aqueduct, which I made sure I had time to look over (photos here), and also is the end of a broad gauge Madrid outer suburban line with a poor service (which I would cover next day). Salamanca-La Alamedilla is an interesting station that only sees trains terminating from beyond Salamanca, and has no departures back towards Salamanca, the trains all returning "empty"; it's only a 10 to 15 minute walk though. Between Salamanca and Medina del Campo, most trains bypass Cantalapiedra station on a significantly separate alignment, only a few call there, so I had to carefully arrange the schedule to cover one of those.
Route: Madrid Chamartin 07:32 (Madrid Metro line 10) - Madrid Principe Pio 07:46; 08:28 (MD18921 RENFE DMU 599 005) - via Ávila, Crespos, Salamanca (11:23/11:25, 17 late) - Salamanca-La Alamedilla 11:27; walk back to Salamanca main station; Salamanca 14:00 (MD18306 RENFE DMU 594013) - via Cantalapiedra - Medina del Campo 15:03; walk across town; Medina del Campo AV 16:47 (Alvia 4969 RENFE EMU 121019) - via Medina del Campo gauge changer, Cantalapiedra bypass line - Salamanca 17:31; 18:20 (Alvia 4988 RENFE EMU 121019) - via Cantalapiedra bypass line, Medina del Campo gauge changer - Segovia Guiomar 19:31; 19:55 (Bus 11) - Acueducto 20:05. Overnight: Hotel ELE Acueducto, Segovia.