The purpose of the trip was to see Portuguese steam in action. Travelling by rail through France and Spain, we took the opportunity to have a look at some of the remaining steam operations in the latter, breaking our journey at the town of Miranda de Ebro. There was very little doing on the day we arrived - largely, I think, because it was siesta time. We had glimpsed the depot from our train, so after an excellent, if somewhat entertaining meal at the station restaurant, we wandered off in search of the depot. So far as I can recall / make out from the photos, the residents were entirely 2-8-2s of class 141F, or the truly enormous 4-8-4s (the ones with the German-style smoke deflectors). Oh, and a derelict 0-6-0T. An electric locomotive can be seen in the shed too, next to the green tender, but we weren't taking any notice of modern motive power - except, that is, for the "Warship" lookalike seen below (I should say V200-lookalike, of course....). As often happens with matters ferro-equinological, it was sunny the day we arrived, but nothing was doing. The following day, after some tremendous thunderstorms, was grey, dull and a touch chilly - so that the pictures of the steam-worked freight, hauled by a grubby 141F with a leaky tender, were rather dull and grey too. Here they anyway, for the record. © Geoff’s Rail Diaries 2011