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Hey everyone! I’m happy to share with you a little something I’ve been working on. It’s one of the commuter (cercanías) trains we have here in Spain. I’m the most familiar with the units in Madrid, so that’s what I’ve tried to recreate. They’re nicknamed “El Buque” (The Ship). I can’t seem to get a reason why they’re called this, my theory is that they wobble like a boat does, and the single round window on the coaches reminds me of a ship as well. The 450s are some of the oldest trains in this service still around, and unfortunately, they will probably be retired relatively soon. There aren’t that many left running around Madrid, so they’re the least common ones you’ll find pulling into the station. As you can see they're double decker trains, and if I’m not mistaken, they were the only units with two floors in the country until the arrival of Ouigo’s Euroduplex. And to be honest, employing double decker trains for commuter services wasn’t that good of an idea, since each car only has a couple of doors on each side but twice as many seats, getting off and boarding at rush hour at a crowded station is a pain, so it’s probably for the better that they retire these units. Funnily enough, despite being old and a bit clunky, these trains are the fastest in the cercanías services, reaching 140km/h. Although they have a terrible acceleration, so they take a long time until they get there. And since they’re stopping and leaving constantly their average speed might be the lowest in the cercanías fleet. To be fair, in my opinion, these trains are perfectly good and reliable, the thing is that they just aren’t suited for the services they got designated to. In the outskirts of Madrid, where the distances between stops are much longer and there aren’t as many passengers to clog up the doorways, they really get their chance to shine. These trains used to be pulled by a regular locomotive, and on the tail end coach they had another cabin from which to control remotely the locomotive at the other end when traveling in the opposite direction. That way, there was no need to uncouple the locomotive and shunt it to the other side or employ two engines on either end. Later, in an effort to modernize the fleet, they got rid of the locomotive altogether and fitted the coaches on either end with all the necessary components to make the train run by itself as a single unit. The transformation wasn’t all the way though, and in a way, the unit still behaves like a conventional train being pulled and pushed at the same time by two locomotives that happen to be able to carry passengers too. You can tell at simple glance by the fact that both motor-cars carry their pantographs up when running, since there isn’t a high voltage line connecting them like modern units have. All in all, I find this train with all its quirks very interesting and loveable in a way, even if it’s begging to be put out of its misery… Which is why I tried to recreate it in lego! :)
