[1] At 20:30 the previous evening the Galicia mail express, consisting of 12 carriages hauled by two 4-8-0 ‘Mastodon’ steam locomotives, left Madrid bound for A Coruña.
The Albares station master immediately telephoned Torre del Bierzo to say that the train had lost its brakes on the steep descent.
Strict censorship under the regime of General Franco in the wake of the Spanish Civil War meant that the accident received little publicity at the time, and the official RENFE file on the disaster was lost.
In 2019, the Spanish TV station RTVE produced a documentary called "El tren de los desaparecidos", with witnesses and relatives of the victims.
The Guinness Book of Rail Facts and Feats, published in 1971 by John Marshall, claims it is the third worst railway disaster with 500-800 killed.