Alejandro Goicoechea Omar (23 March 1895 - 30 January 1984) was a Spanish
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...
.
Biography
Goicoechea was born on 1895. He worked for the remote coal narrow gauge railway of
La Robla (León), the longest narrow gauge line in Western Europe which today is operated by
FEVE, developing a welded steel carriage and various elements of suspension, brakes and traction. In 1936 he suggested a lightweight articulated meter gauge trainset which however was not approved by the management.
Goicoechea authored the
to protect
Bilbao
Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the Provinces of Spain, province of Biscay and in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the List o ...
during the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
. But soon before finishing it he defected to the Nationalist side, and this was decisive in the
Nationalists conquering Bilbao on June 12, 1937.
In 1938, he described a train composed of articulated triangular structures with independent wheels, capable of commercial speeds. In 1941, a test unit composed of triangular chassis and truck wheels with carriage rims welded on was built and tested successfully up to behind a steam locomotive.
In 1942 Goicoechea worked with the company ''Hijos de Juan de Garay'' in
Oñate and other companies to build a first test train consisting of seven low-slung cars of only length, of a roughly semi-circular cross-section, pulled by a power unit based on a powered bogie from
Ganz Works. In the same year he teamed up with José Luis de Oriol y Urigüen, founding the ''Patentes
Talgo'' company and baptizing the test train ''Talgo I'' (Tren Articulado Ligero Goicoechea Oriol). The Talgo I was tested until 1945, then damaged during a test run and scrapped in the early 1950s.
In 1944 Goicoechea started working with the
American Car and Foundry Company
ACF Industries, originally the American Car and Foundry Company (abbreviated as ACF), is an American manufacturer of railroad railroad car, rolling stock. One of its subsidiaries was once (1925–54) a manufacturer of Motor bus, motor coaches ...
to design the ''Talgo II'' but left the company in 1945 before the train was completed.
Later he suggested a connection between Spain and Morocco by rail tunnel in Gibraltar, which
did not become reality.
He died in 1984, aged 89.
"Alejandro Goicoechea, creador del tren articulado Talgo, falleció ayer en Madrid a los 89 años de edad"
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References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
* ''Boletín Oficial de la Propiedad Industrial''
1 de abril de 1936, nº 1190
página 1246, Concesión de patente de invención 141.056 Alejandro de Goicoechea y Omar por "Un nuevo sistema ferroviario de transporte por rodadura elevada" presentada el 1 de febrero de 1936 y concedida el 16 de marzo de 1936.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goicoechea, Alejandro
1895 births
1984 deaths
People from Durangaldea
20th-century Spanish engineers
20th-century Spanish inventors
Spanish people of the Spanish Civil War