Euskotren, manager of the Basque Railway Museum, takes receipt in Lutxana (Barakaldo) of the classic railway equipment donated by the Bilbao Friends of the Railway Association

- The engine and the carriages will be refurbished on the disused railway tracks before being exhibited to the public at the future premises of the Basque Railway Museum in Bizkaia

Euskotren, manager of the Basque Railway Museum, has taken receipt in Lutxana (Barakaldo) of the classic railway equipment donated by the Bilbao Friends of the Railway Association, as per an agreement signed in 2025.

The rolling stock consists of an engine built in 1892, a saloon carriage, a first-class carriage and a third-class one, manufactured in Manchester in 1887, which belonged to the former Basque-Navarre Railway company. A brake van built in Bristol in 1902 has also been donated. 

The former Lutxana railway station, which was part of La Robla Railway between León and Lutxana, is now intended for a mixed use: to become a site of the Basque Railway Museum in Bizkaia, and to remain as a commuter line train station. After an initial renovation phase carried out by the Basque Government’s Euskal Trenbide Sarea (ETS), the classic rolling stock that has arrived in Lutxana will be cleaned and refurbished before being put on display for the public. 

Once the rolling stock has been refurbished, it will be positioned on the disused tracks owned by the regional authority, as the Irauregi-Lutxana Barakaldo line was deemed to be no longer of interest to the Spanish State in 2018 and was transferred to the Basque Government. 

The second phase will involve turning the upper floor of the former La Robla train station into an exhibition area. 

The inside of the Lutxana building (Barakaldo) will be refurbished in the future. Work will be carried out to the ground floor so it can used by the general public. It was previously home to the fast speed train workshop and the offices of the stationmaster and the signaller of the Bilbao to Portugalete railway, along with waiting rooms for passengers taking La Robla train. The plan is for the upper storey – which was home to the station workers’ residence and the ticket office – to be used as a new exhibition area for classic railway items. The station will thus become a satellite venue of the Basque Railway Museum in Azpeitia (Gipuzkoa). 

Lutxana will thus have a railway heritage interpretation centre, at a highly symbolic point of the Basque Country in that regard, as it was one of the Spain’s largest railways junctions at the end of the 19th century and early 20th. Five railways started in Lutxana and were used to transport the iron ore from the mines of El Regato (Barakaldo) and La Arboleda (Trapagaran) to the loading docks on the left bank of the River Nervión to be shipped to other countries.