The Spanish Army Railway Company: serving Spain on the railways

One of the most peculiar units of the Spanish Army is the one whose mission is to provide rail transport to other military units.

The Railway Company and its current means

This unit is the Railway Company, and depends on the 12th Pontoon Regiment and Engineer Specialties (RPEI 12), which is based in the Sangenis Barracks in Monzalbarba (Zaragoza). The Company has its origins in the 13th Railway Regiment, which was dissolved in 2008.

Currently, the Railway Company has Henschel DH500 locomotives (above these lines), a model manufactured in Germany until 1971 (that is, they are already at least 50 years old), as shunting machines within the base itself to move its PMM platform wagons for heavy vehicles, capable of carrying everything from TOA M-113 to Leopard 2E tanks. For journeys outside the base, the Army uses Renfe locomotives.

In addition, the Company maintains nine sleeper cars and four preferred cars in service, all from Renfe. Both the locomotives and the cars are painted in the olive green colour characteristic of the Army's vehicles. Here you can see a video published today by the Army about the Railway Company:

The history of the Spanish Army Railway Regiments

The beginning of the railway specialty of the Army dates back to 1884, when the Railway Battalion was formed, made up of two Track and Works companies and two Operations companies. This first Battalion gave way in 1912 to the first Railway Regiment, made up of 8 Depot Companies and 8 Active Companies. In 1918, a second Railway Regiment was formed, with the two existing ones being organized into three Battalions each: one of Operations (in charge of operating the trains), one of Railway Sappers (in charge of opening and clearing tracks) and one of Depot (in charge of storing the trains).

During the Second Republic, both Railway Regiments were merged into one between 1931 and 1934. In 1963, these two units were renamed the 13th Railway Sapper Regiment and the 14th Railway Mobilisation and Training Regiment. In 1991, the two regiments were merged again to form the aforementioned 13th Railway Regiment, based in Cuatro Vientos (Madrid), which moved to San Gregorio (Zaragoza) in 2001.

If you want to review the history of the Army railways in more live detail, at the Museo del Ferrocarril de Galicia (MUGERGA), in Monforte de Lemos (Lugo), there is a small exhibition on the 13th Railway Regiment, with old uniforms (which were then dark blue, like in the armoured units, to hide the stains), a nice car (below these lines) and other means of the old 13th Railway Regiment. I took these last three photos there in 2016.