Newsletter - Spring 2002

In case you hadn't heard, there was a quite spectacular accident at Sa Pobla at about 8 o'clock in the morning of Tuesday the 12th February, when a train hit the buffers at speed, causing great injury to the driver and to the train. The 12 ton concrete buffer-block was uprooted by the collision and the leading coach of the train was almost snapped in two. I have no pictures of my own to show you but if you take a look at the relevant webpage of the Associació d'Amics del Ferrocarril De Balears (this link is still live - Barry, 11th April, 2009) you will see just how bad the accident was. Apparently there was quite a lot of fog and the rails were probably wet but this is not a complicated route to learn and I'm surprised that such an accident could happen, even in poor conditions !! As I said in the last newsletter, in the absence of news from our regular visitors to Majorca I have to rely on the AAFB website, snippets from Toni and Sixco and the occasional report from the Majorca Daily Bulletin to learn what is happening. We also have e new website to tell you about which also has some more pictures of the train after the accident, including shots of the interior. The webmaster is Miguel Angel, the site is called "Camins de Ferro" (roads of iron) or "Ferrostal" and you can find the accident page on the Trensdemallorca site at http://www.trensdemallorca.com//accident.htm (if you find this link to be dead, follow the Material mòbil link, then Events, then Accident etc. - Barry, 11th April, 2009).

If you go to the home page at http://www.trensdemallorca.com and follow the site through you'll find a lot of stuff you've never seen before, including pictures of the commencement of work on the link to Manacor. Unfortunately for us the site is all in Catalan but I think you'll be able to battle your way through and I also think you'll find the effort worthwhile.

This is another relatively brief newsletter but I will add to it as matters of interest arise. If anything momentous should occur I will let all our regular readers know by e-mail. If anyone out there who is not already on the "mailing list" and would like to be included, please let me know. Thanks again to my contributors and supporters, any comments on the contents will be appreciated.