The public company Euskotren, responsible for the Basque Railway Museum, has received historic railway material today at the Lutxana (Barakaldo) station. This material was donated by the Association of Friends of the Bilbao Railway, following an agreement signed in 2025.
The donated material includes a steam locomotive built in 1892, and three wooden carriages manufactured in Manchester in 1887: a salon car, a first-class car, and a third-class car. These belonged to the historic Ferrocarril Vasco-Navarro. Additionally, a 1902 goods wagon built in Bristol has also been received.
The former Lutxana railway station, once part of the La Robla Railway, will now serve a mixed purpose: it will become a site for the Basque Railway Museum in Bizkaia while maintaining daily commuter train services. Following the initial renovation phase by the Basque Government's public entity, Euskal Trenbide Sarea (ETS), the historic rolling stock received today will undergo a cleaning and restoration process before its public exhibition.
Once refurbished, the rolling stock will be placed on regional disused tracks. The Irauregi-Lutxana Barakaldo line was declassified from the State's network of general interest in 2018 and transferred to the Basque Government.
A second phase will involve developing an exhibition space on the upper floor of the former La Robla train station.
The interior renovation of the Lutxana (Barakaldo) building is planned for the future. The ground floor, which once housed high-speed factory facilities and offices for the station master and traffic controller, will be adapted for public use. The upper floor, which contained station workers' residences and ticket sales, is slated to become a new exhibition area for historic railway elements. The station will thus serve as a sub-site of the Basque Railway Museum, located in Azpeitia (Gipuzkoa).
Lutxana will feature an interpretation center for railway heritage in a geographically significant Basque location, known as one of Spain's major railway junctions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Five railways originated in Lutxana, aiming to transport iron extracted from the mines of El Regato (Barakaldo) and La Arboleda (Trapagaran) to the loading docks on the left bank of the Nervión River for export.
