The Decauville railway at Láchar was an long narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of from

Íllora Íllora is a municipality in the province of Granada, located in Andalucia. Spain. It is surrounded by the following villages: Moclín, Pinos Puente, Valderrubio, Moraleda de Zafayona, Villanueva Mesía, Montefrío, and with the municipality of ...

- Láchar railway station via the

Eiffel Bridge Eiffel Bridge can refer to: * Eiffel Bridge, Láchar, a bridge in Spain * Eiffel Bridge, Ungheni, a railway bridge in Ungheni, Moldova * Eiffel Bridge, Tsagveri, a railway bridge in Tsagveri, Georgia * Eiffel Bridge, Zrenjanin, a bridge in Zrenjani ...

to the sugar mill in Láchar.

Route

The long Decauville railway with rails weighing 9,5 kg/m (19 lbs/yard) ran over two metal bridges, of which one was designed

Gustave Eiffel Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (born Bonickhausen dit Eiffel; ; ; 15 December 1832 – 27 December 1923) was a French civil engineer. A graduate of École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, he made his name with various bridges for the French railway ...

and erected by

Fives-Lille Fives-Lille was a French engineering company located at Fives, a suburb of Lille. It is now part of the Fives Group. History The company began as in 1861 and made a joint venture with the Société J. F. Cail & Cie. and were of Belgian orig ...

.Carlos Peña und Pachi Calvo
''El ferrocarril de la azucerera de Láchar.''
10 May 2008. The track on the site of the sugar mill was long. It ended at a turntable at the western end of the site.Pedro Salmeron Escobar
''Lachar. Fábrica del Conde de Benalúa.''
In: ''Estudio del paisaje de la industria azucarera de la Vega de Granada.'' October 2016, p. 109–123.

History

Growing

sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and which is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (''Beta vulgaris''). Together wi ...

s and producing sugar from them caused a major structural change in the

Vega de Granada The Vega de Granada is a ''comarca'' (county, but with no administrative role) in the province of Granada, southeastern Spain. According to the 2007 census (INE), the comarca has a population of 500,121 inhabitants, which is over half the overa ...

at the end of the 19th century.Pedro Salmerón Escobar, Fermín Seño Asencio, Rosa María Pérez de la Torre und Diego Garzón Osuna
Diego Garzón Osuna ''Estudio del paisaje de la industria azucarera en la Vega de Granada: Estrategias para su preservación y uso sostenible.''
Page 347. The landlord and businessman Julio Quesada y Piedrola, Duke of San Pedro de Galatino, Count of Benalúa and Señorío de Láchar planned and contracted the sugar mill and the industrial railway during or shortly after the

Exposition Universelle (1889) The Exposition Universelle of 1889 () was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 5 May to 31 October 1889. It was the fourth of eight expositions held in the city between 1855 and 1937. It attracted more than thirty-two million visitors. The ...

in Paris. It was put into service in 1890. King Alfonso XIII, a personal friend of the Count of Benalúa, visited and used the railway to travel to the sugar factory. It was closed in 1926, due to the crisis in the sugar industry.

Rolling stock

There were two Decauville steam locomotives and 46 waggons of different types.

External links

''Routa del Señorío de Lachar''

References

{{Coordinate, NS=37.199470 , EW=-3.834367 , type=building, region=ES , name=Sugar mill Narrow gauge railways in Spain Railway lines opened in 1890 Railway lines closed in 1926 600 mm gauge railways