15 - Mirador de Guardiola de Berguedà

The train that is sadly missed

Guardiola has a station but no train. The last one ran on 30th of June 1973. There are still people in the district that nostalgically remember the plumes of smoke coming from the chimney of the train, its choo-choo and the strident sound of its whistle. At the end of the 19th century, there were no roads in Alt Berguedà and everything was transported in by animals on mediaeval bridle paths. The coal and textile business people were well aware that the train was indispensable.

The Carrilet train entered Berga-Olvan station for the first time In 1885. The massive mountains of Alt Berguedà put up a lot of resistance to tunnelling and the train did not arrive in Guardiola until 1904. The economic crisis, competition by road transport and the construction of the Baells reservoir finished off this railway line after almost a century of service.

   When tickets were made of card

Although it was born as a line for transporting goods, the train became the most popular means of transport used by the inhabitants of Berguedà until the 1950s. Passenger's carriages were made of wood, third class carriages also had wooden seats and those of second class were padded. The train journey from Manresa to Guardiola took three and a half hours. It was another time, train tickets were made of card and the conductor perforated them. The was less hurry and surely even the clocks ran more slowly. Some say that in the steepest parts of the route, the train was so slow that the youngest could jump off and then jump back on the last carriage.