A difficult and complete day

At the southbound exit of Barcelona - Sants station, in what is nicknamed nowadays "the Sants box", the tracks were covered over as they pass between the neighbourhoods of Sants and La Bordeta. To carry out the overhead line replacement, traffic was suspended for a few days.

I decided to head out on a day that threatened a storm—a great idea. I made my way to L'Arboç, where I managed to photograph several diverted trains. Shortly afterwards, the storm began to brew in the background, which gave me the chance to take some brilliant photographs with the sun hitting at a fantastic angle against an overcast sky.

Not long after, word reached me that there had been an overhead wire entanglement at the south exit of Sant Sadurní d'Anoia; consequently, all services would operate via single-line working between Sant Sadurní and La Granada. To minimise the delays, some highly unusual loops and overtakes were carried out.

In this first snapshot, we see Talgo No. 01171 from Barcelona Sants to Murcia del Carmen passing through L'Arboç.

In the second snapshot, we see Regional Express service No. 18091 from L'Hospitalet de Llobregat to Tortosa.

n the third snapshot, after a long wait due to the overhead entanglement, Euromed service No. 01152 from València - Joaquín Sorolla to Barcelona Sants pulls out of the passing loop at L'Arboç towards Barcelona, while Regional Express No. 18054 from Tortosa to L'Hospitalet de Llobregat waits for its path to clear.

For the fourth snapshot, I moved to Lavern-Subirats halt, where the storm was at its peak.

I really felt for the poor driver of this train, who had to crawl along at a ridiculously slow speed because the train had lost its wiper blade. The icing on the cake for a day that was already complicated enough. The service is Regional Express No. 15014 from Zaragoza Delicias to L'Hospitalet de Llobregat.

Once the storm had passed, I headed to La Granada, where I had the pleasure of seeing a single Class 269 Japonesa working a regular service for the very last time. This particular unit is 269-211, the first of its class built by MACOSA.

From that date onwards, every single one I spotted was part of a tandem. The casing of the original headlamp, with its twin-lens setup, is particularly eye-catching. The service is the Barcelona-Morrot to Bilbao Mercancías intermodal train No. 80863.