Euskotren, a public company of the Basque Government, has managed the Basque Railway Museum since 1994. The headquarters of this institution are located in the historic Azpeitia station, the former heart of the defunct Urola Railway, a small narrow-gauge line built by the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council and inaugurated on February 22, 1926, by King Alfonso XIII.
The Urola Railway served Zumarraga, an important railway junction in inland Gipuzkoa, where it connected with the broad-gauge line from Madrid to Irun and the narrow-gauge line from Durango and Bilbao, with Zumaia, on the Cantabrian coast, and as a transfer point with the line currently operated by Euskotren from Bilbao to San Sebastián. On its journey through the Urola River valley, it served picturesque towns such as Urretxu, Azkoitia, Azpeitia, and Zestoa, as well as important tourist attractions such as the Sanctuary of Loiola and the spa resort of Cestona.
Closed in 1986, during its sixty years of operation, it was always operated with electric traction. Paradoxically, today, part of its old route is traveled, in the 21st century, by steam locomotives preserved by the Basque Railway Museum. Every weekend, except in winter, the "Aurrera" locomotive, built in Manchester in 1898, drives a train made up of historic cars built a century ago by the Gipuzkoan firm CAF in its Beasain workshops.
On its route, the Euskotren Basque Railway Museum steam train travels five kilometers to the picturesque Lasao station. During the journey, you will skirt the Urola River, crossing it over a bridge designed by one of the most distinguished engineers of the time, José Eugenio Ribera, built 100 years ago using the then-pioneering technology of reinforced concrete. The journey through a 225-meter tunnel completes a journey back in time aboard a century-old train.
