Did you know that in Cadiz there is a movie train?

 Diario De Cadiz

By B.F.

September 6, 2022

Do you know the Boar? In the Parque del Tren de Los Barrios is this nineteenth-century locomotive that, at first glance, does not stand out for anything special, but it hides a history of cinema.

And it is that this machine of the late nineteenth century was co-star of some of the most recognized films of the Spaghetti western and shared the screen with actors of the stature of Clint Eastwood or with directors such as Sergio Leone when, during the 1960s, the south of Spain became the great set for stories recreated in the Far West.

In addition to being used in Spaghetti western films “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, “For a Few Dollars More”, La Verraco, a monumental Baldwin steam locomotive, could be seen in historical films such as the Oscar-winning “Doctor Zhivago” (1965), an adaptation of the homonymous novel by Boris Pasternak.

La Verraco was also part of the filming of “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1989) when the team, with Steven Spielberg at the head, moved to Almeria and Granada. Guadix served to recreate the Turkish city of Iskenderun where, once again, the mythical steam locomotive appeared as the background of the journey of Harrison Ford and Sean Connery.

Built in 1884 by the house Sächsische Maschinenfabrik Vormals Richard Hartmann, in Chemnitz, Germany, with the factory number 1360. It arrived in Spain to the Ferrocarril del Marqués de Salamanca, with registration AVT 108 and made the route Almansa-Valencia-Tarragona.

Seven years later, in 1891, it passed to the North Company with the number 2708. In 1941 it became the property of the National Network of Spanish Railways (RENFE), a state company resulting from the nationalization by the State of all Iberian gauge railway lines. In Renfe it would carry the number 040-2169. Three units of the 040 series currently remain. In fact, a "twin sister" also participated in the filming of several films, sometimes finding it difficult to identify which was which.

In mid-1966, La Verraco was in the Madrid-Delicias station, with the spark-arrestor and the classic American cowcatcher. Later it was transferred to the aforementioned station of Guadix, in Granada, being used for cinematographic purposes.

Miraculously saved from scrapping, approximately in 1990 a delegation from the City Council of Los Barrios moved to Guadix and closed the deal with some scrap dealers to bring the locomotive to the Campo de Gibraltar, freeing it in extremis from being destroyed. In the lot entered the machine and a wagon that they had manufactured years before for the movie “The Empire of the Sun”: not in vain, Chinese characters could still be seen adorning it.

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITBnUEoZ1MU