The Renard Train

The Renard Train was a mixed road train (passengers and goods) designed to exploit those routes that did not justify the construction of a railway infrastructure. It consisted of an articulated convoy of three or four six-wheeled cars each pulled by a locomotive equipped with a Daimler gasoline engine. Solid wheels allowed them to travel on conventional roads linking those isolated towns lacking public transportation. The machine did not drag the train but transmitted to the wagons by means of an axis of continuous propulsion the necessary power for each one of the motors of each wagon. The engine, 3.70 meters high, 5.90 meters long and 14 tons in weight, was four-cylinder and developed between 70 and 75 horsepower. It had a towing capacity of up to 40 tons of weight spread on platforms or wagons with a load capacity of between 8 and 10 tons each.

The maximum speed achievable on a flat surface was 30 to 60 km / h and on ramps of up to 8% between 15 and 20 km / h. The passenger cars were first and second class, with a capacity for 22 seated passengers each.
The inventor was the French engineer and colonel Charles Renard (Damblain, Vosges 1847 - Meudon 1905), responsible for the design of aircraft and his famous airship La France at the 1889 Paris World's Fair. This unique means of transport was founded in Paris in 1876 by the Société Française des Trains Renard. Although he initially devised his road train for military purposes, it ended up being used for civilian use.
The Diputació de Barcelona, ​​based on the possibilities offered by the recently approved Secondary Railways Act of March 26, 1908, wanted to take the example of the French model, which is why it sponsored the arrival of a convoy and thus test the viability of this means of transport both in urban areas and in the Pyrenees.

 And that's how a Renard Train came to Barcelona from France by sea. The convoy consisted of a locomotive, two passenger cars and a van. It was exhibited on Passeig de Sant Joan, near the Arc de Triomf, in front of the expectations of many Barcelonans. Other sources of information, however, refer to his first public appearance in front of the Plaza de la Universitat.

The satirical press immediately took the opportunity to ridicule him.
On Thursday, March 19, 1908, the traffic tests officially began, so the accidental mayor Francesc Puig i Alfonso was invited. From 11:00. at 12:00 p.m. it circulated through some streets of the old town of which the layout is unknown. However, its great ability to draw very tight curves allowed passage and turning on certain streets. He then ascended Passeig de Gràcia and from 15:00. carried out an expedition until the Tibidabo although with technical problems during its ascent by the highway of the Arrabassada.

Later, a program of visits was defined: Friday the 20th, departure from Barcelona at 8:00 am, lunch in Terrassa, dinner and rest in Caldes de Montbui; Saturday the 21st, lunch in Vic, dinner and rest in Sant Quirze de Besora; Sunday 22nd, dinner, lunch and rest in Berga; Monday 23rd, dinner, lunch and rest in Manresa; Tuesday the 24th, lunch in Igualada, dinner and rest in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia; and Friday the 25th, lunch in Vilafranca del Penedès and return to Barcelona.

On Monday, March 30, he made a trip up to the top of Tibidabo and down Vallvidrera to the city center. After being exhibited in Barcelona, he began a tour of Catalonia visiting the municipalities of Terrassa (Wednesday 1 April in the morning), Sant Feliu de Codines (Wednesday 1 April in the afternoon), Vic (Thursday 2 April). April at noon), Sant Quirze de Besora (Thursday 2 April in the afternoon), Berga (Friday 3 April), Manresa (Saturday 4 April), Igualada (Sunday 5 April in the morning), Sant Sadurní d'Anoia (Sunday 5 April in the afternoon) and Vilafranca del Penedès (Monday 6 April). He returned to Barcelona on Tuesday night, April 7th. The newspaper "La Vanguardia" of April 12, 1908 said in this regard: "The official tests of the Renard train, which has traveled the most important towns in this province with complete success, have been completely completed. and demonstrating its excellent practical conditions, the advantages of the Renard train, which already obtained the favorable vote of the commission of the Provincial Council which went to France to study it, have been fully demonstrated in its many excursions to the poor roads he has traveled in the test period.In his last excursion he was praised by the technicians without reservation the ease with which they can handle from the engine all the carriages that make up the train no matter how big In order to achieve this, it has been necessary to solve a problem of continuous propulsion that not only establishes the power of the engine with the cars that follow it. n, but marks the curves — by that drawn with the same accuracy and mathematically following the footprint of the first wheels.

So wherever the motor car passes without suffering a setback, the cars that follow it must necessarily pass, no matter how great the risk. It can be assured that the old lawsuit of the secondary railways has been finally resolved, since with the Renard trains all this is reduced to hitching after a high-power engine of the freight wagons if it is a question of organizing a service of goods or trains of a speed chassis if one of passengers is organized. The advantages are enormous, because, in addition to being unnecessary all the stationary material needed for the laying of a railway line, plus the important works that this means, it has the immense advantage of being able to use the material. exclusively in those lines where and when the security of the economic success is had.

The guests on the farewell tour were very pleased with the explanations and gifts they received from the director of the company, M. Dumas, who greeted them with exquisite kindness. "
Other municipalities where the Renard Train was tested were in Sant Adrià de Besòs, Ripoll, Figueres, Olot, Tàrrega, Tremp and Flix, always for the transport of heavy materials used for the construction of large infrastructures such as thermal power plants.