The Orange Express

One of the attractions of a holiday in Mallorca to me was the chance to ride the Ferrocarril de Sóller (FCdS), the three foot gauge electric railway that runs from the island’s capital Palma, to the northern town of Sóller, with the connecting tram service for the final few kilometres to the harbourside at Port de Sóller. 

A few days into our holiday, we drove into Palma, parked up in the underground car park at the Plaça d’Espanya and found ourselves in the queue at the ticket office. Tickets bought, we emerged from the attractive brick and stone station building onto the platform where our century old train was waiting for us, the varnished wood finish gleaming in the sunshine. The station site is rather cramped, squeezed in between the road and surrounding buildings, with plane trees for shade and would make a great model. 

Whilst primarily a steam fan, I have a liking for narrow gauge electric railways resulting from trips to the Isle of Man. Though my first exposure to the electric narrow gauge railway was as a youngster on a family holiday in Switzerland riding the Bernese Oberland Bahn. The FCdS runs similar trains of electric locomotives hauling carriages, but the vintage varnished wood finish makes them altogether more stylish in my eyes. 

The journey to Sóller, which takes an hour, is one of contrasts, from the back streets of Palma to stunning mountain views over Sóller. After snaking out of Palma station, across a crossing the railway runs on a central reservation along the middle of a street with tall city buildings either side. With many road crossings, the whistle is in constant use. Soon the city centre gives way to the suburbs and the industrial sites which tend to sprout up alongside railways the world over. Leaving Palma behind, speed picks up and we’re soon scampering along through olive and almond groves passing a number of halts and small settlements before Bunyola, the half way point is reached.

Having crossed a Palma bound service, we leave Bunyola behind, the countryside now closes in and the railway is now running on a ledge as it tackles the steep climb to the summit. Many of the hillsides are terraced and covered with more olive groves. 

Passing through a lengthy tunnel brings us to the summit of the line and shortly after we stop at Mirador for us to admire the panoramic view with Sóller in the distance. Photos taken, taken ere back on board for the run into Sóller, down hill through orange and lemon groves through sweeping horseshoe curves and numerous tunnels before we finally slow to a stop amongst the plane trees of Sóller station, a journey that’s taken us an hour. 

Sóller is the engineering headquarters of the line, plus the interchange with the trams to take people onwards to Port de Sóller. The interchange station reminded me a bit of Laxey on the Isle of Man, but warmer and the sense of having both lines the same gauge. 

Along with most of the rest of the train, we transferred across for the tram to take us on the final leg of our journey. Taking about twenty minutes, the trams weave their way through the streets and main square of Sóller, between houses and over the river before finding open countryside until reaching the seashore and running alongside the beach to the Port. 

Our journey has taken us all morning, so we adjourned to a restaurant between the trams and the harbour for lunch, a delicious paella for me before exploring the harbour and the waterfront. The water was so clear that we could see fish in the Barbour and the yachts were dwarfed by one billionaire owned super yacht. Oh how the other half live!

When we had finished exploring, we caught a tram back up to Sóller to look round the town there and enjoy a cooling ice cream whilst watching the trams snaking through the town’s streets. 

The Tramway was running their trams down in rafts of three at a time to cater for the crowds. One set had two trams topping and tailing a pair of bogie trailer cars. With the other two being a tramcar hauling a pair of four wheeled trailer cars. We passed a similar raft of three at the half way point heading the other way. At the Sóller end, the trams moved up to the sheds to reform for each trip. Whilst down at the Port, the two sets of trams hauling trailer cars would follow each other into one side of the loop, the first tram running round after the arrival of the second and couple to the other set of trailers, whilst the tram off the second arrival would detach from the cars it had brought in and attach to the other set as being easier than a second run round. Whilst this was happening, the top and tailed set would arrive and depart from the other side of the loop. 

Soon enough departure time for our return arrived and once a service from Palma arrived, we were on our way, making our way on the glorious early evening sunshine back to Palma and the end of our journey on the Orange Express. 

Zooming in, Sóller station can be seen in the Centre of the photo. 

A super day out, I would recommend the journey to anyone visiting Mallorca because it’s a great way to see the Sóller valley. However, considering that the time of our visit in early May was outside the peak season, the railway and trams were very very busy. The first two trains from Palma in the morning were full and so were the last two back from Sóller, plus an additional service that wasn’t even mentioned on our outwood journey that must’ve been added during the day. Thankfully, the railway has a maximum number of tickets they sell for each train and your return time journey is booked when buying your tickets. Whilst this removes flexibility, it does guarantee that you get home! Also, catching the tram back up to Sóller in the late afternoon was nothing more than a scrum such were the numbers wanting to travel. 

That said, the trams were quiet in the middle of the day and the trains traveling in the opposite direction to the day trippers to Sóller weren’t overly busy. Should we visit again, I’d be tempted to use the train to visit Palma from the Sóller end to make the ride more enjoyable. Possibly even basing ourselves in the Sóller or Port de Sóller area so that we could make use of the trams to get around outside of the peak periods and also maybe enjoy a glass of something suitably chilled and some tapas from one of the tram side bistros or restaurants whilst watching the comings and goings.