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El Granado

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Information Board outside the mining museum at El Granado (3) (via Google Translation)
(heading) ARRIVING AT THE PIER - the railway line
(top left photo) (above) A locomotive on the riverside bridge of the Viguera, built by the English company The Bede Metal.
(below) Steam locomotive Cabezas.
(top right photo) (above) The La Laja locomotive during the inauguration of the Charco del Lobo bridge, in 1922, built by the French St Gobain.
(below) Ruhrthaler-type diesel locomotive.
(main text) The history of the dock of the Port of La Laja cannot be understood without the railway line that, section by section, ended up linking Herrerias with the mineral loading area, on the banks of the Guadiana. From here, the ships carried the loaded materials to the most important ports and markets of the time. In 1884, as production increased in the Cabezas del Pasto mine, the need arose for a fast means of transporting the mineral to the pier, which had previously been carried out with mules. Thus, in 1887 the construction of the railway line between Cabezas del Pasto and El Sardon began, with a length of 15.7 km to, from there, connect by the aerial cable of 4.3 km with the Port of La Laja. Later, in 1902, in order to be able to export the pyrites washed in the mines, the road was extended to get from Cabezas del Pasto to Herrerias, adding 4.1 kilometers more to the line. In 1911 the project to extend the railway line to the port began. However, the outbreak of the First World War delayed its execution until 1926. The aerial cable was replaced by a 10.7 kilometer train track, thus relieving the bottleneck that occurred at this point and increasing, in this way, the volume of mineral that arrived at the loading area. Finally, the route of the road from Herrerias to the Port of La Laja is established in about 32.5 kilometers. These trains, focused on the transport of ore, were made up of 14 or 16 wagons of about four tons. The only travelers who used them were the workers who went to the Herrerias commissary. The train remained active until the end of mining activity in 1965. During the time that the railway line was in operation, a total of seven steam locomotives circulated (Bede, Herrerias, Cabezas, La Laja, Romanera, Sardon and Guadiana) and, between 1952 and 1956, two diesel traction units were also added, one made by the Ruhrthaler Maschinenfabrik and the other by Ruston & Hornsby. Along the route of the railway line, the bridge over the banks of La Viguera stands out, made of metal and built in the first phase of the route, and that of Charco del Lobo, made of Stone, built after the extension of the line in 1926.