The FEVE 3500 series is an

electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a numbe ...

(EMU) train type operated by Renfe Feve in Spain. The first units entered service in the

Basque Country Basque Country may refer to: * Basque Country (autonomous community), as used in Spain ( es, País Vasco, link=no), also called , an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain (shown in pink on the map) * French Basque Country o ...

in 1977, these trains were later transferred to

Euskotren Euskotren, formally known as Basque Railways ( eu, Eusko Trenbideak, es, Ferrocarriles Vascos), is a public railway company controlled by the Basque Government and officially established in 1982 to operate several narrow gauge railways inside ...

, where they were known as the Euskotren 3500 series. Euskotren retired its last 3500 trains in 2013, but some units are still in service in Asturias.

History

A total of 30 trains were ordered

FEVE Renfe Feve is a division of state-owned Spanish railway company Renfe Operadora. It operates most of Spain's of railway. This division of Renfe was previously a stand-alone company named FEVE (Ferrocarriles de Vía Estrecha,Law 11/1965 of 2 ...

in 1977, half of them intended for use in the

, while the other half would be assigned to Asturias and Cantabria. The first seven trains, originally consisting of two cars, entered service on 8 May 1978 in the Bilbao-San Sebastián line. The other eight trains entered service on 1 March 1980. Already in 1978, fifteen intermediate cars were ordered for the trains in service in the Basque Country. Only the first eight cars were delivered before the narrow-gauge railways were transferred to the Basque Government, while the other seven were built in 1980. Shortly afterwards, another four intermediate cars were ordered by Basque Railways. Units 3501 and 3508 were destroyed during the , and were subsequently replaced by two new units with the same numbers. The remaining seven units were acquired by FEVE in 1984. In 1988, three of the trains in service in the Basque Country (3504, 3506 and 3515) had their interior adapted for the ''Bidexpress'', a combined passenger and mail service operating between

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

and

San Sebastián San Sebastian, officially known as Donostia–San Sebastián (names in both local languages: ''Donostia'' () and ''San Sebastián'' ()) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality located in the Basque Country (autonomous community), B ...

. Two years later, the new 300 series trains entered service in the Topo line, with the 3500 series trains operating in that line being transferred to services in the

Urdaibai The Urdaibai estuary is a natural region and a Biosphere Reserve of Biscay, Basque Country, Spain. It is also referred as Mundaka or Gernika estuary. Urdaibai is located on the Bay of Biscay coast, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Urdaiba ...

and Bilbao-San Sebastián lines. At around the same time, the trains with four cars had one of their cars removed. The Euskotren units had their interiors reformed in the 1990s and were substantially modernized in the early 2000s. Euskotren gradually retired its 3500 units after the introduction of

900 series 900 series or series 900 or ''variation'', may refer to: * 900 series (bowling), three consecutive perfect games by an individual bowler * AMD 900 chipset series, set of chipsets released in 2011 * Euskotren 900 series, a train type * GeForce 900 ...

trains in 2011. The last train in Euskotren service made a farewell trip on 6 July 2013. Between 2007 and 2009, twelve of the 3500 trains operated by FEVE were reengined and reformed, becoming the . As of 2016, eight 3500 units remain in service with FEVE.

Formations

Originally, each trainset was formed by two cars, one of which was motored. The trains in service in the Basque Country had a third non-powered car added shortly after their introduction. In the 1980s, a fourth car was added to four of these. These four cars were numbered 5516 to 5519.

References

External links

* * {{FEVE rolling stock Electric multiple units of Spain 3500 series CAF multiple units Train-related introductions in 1978 1500 V DC multiple units