History of Iron Mountains greenway

The Iron Mountains Greenway is an old 28 km train route running nearly parallel to the Barbadun river, connecting Traslaviña and Gallarta.
Now a trail for cycling and walking, the route passes over gentle hills and through wide curves providing a level of comfort and ease throughout.

A bit of history

  • The Iron Mountains Greenway is an easy 28 km route connecting Traslaviña and Gallarta. The Iron Mountains Greenway is an old train line passing over gentle hills and around wide curves providing a level of comfort and ease throughout.

  • Over the course of the greenway, you’ll find natural spaces, cultural enclaves and population centres. The smooth train route allows you to walk along without a great deal of physical effort, meaning it can be a self-guided.

  • It was there around the year 1876 when the English entrepreneurs of Bilbao River Cantabrian Rail inaugurated a 22 km railway connecting their mining operations in Galdames with the docks on the Nervión in Sestao. It was the longest and only mining train in this area that connected the Nervión with the western side of the Triano mountains. Its sinuous route had a peculiar width (1.14 m). In addition to transporting the production of the mines in Galdames, its rails also transported the minerals from all the mines along the railway. Thus, a number of loading docks marked this route. The most unique of them is located in the La Florida neighbourhood. At this point, there was an exceptional inclined plane that was nearly 4 km long running from the Sauco Mine to the railway. It was one of the longest planes in Spain and its carts had six stations along the route.

  • In addition to transporting iron ore to the port and steel mills in Bilbao, its rails handled the regular flow of passenger trains. These passengers were none other than the miners who, making the most of the easy transport offered by this railway, began settling alongside it, creating new mining neighbourhoods in the mountains: La Balastrera, La Aceña, Saúco... After the Spanish Civil War, another company with an English name acquired this train route, Babock & Wilcox, which managed the operation until 1968. Four years later, in 1972, the track was dismantled and its route was cleared for new uses.