Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles

Historia

Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles is a Spanish private company which manufactures railway vehicles and equipment. It is based in Beasain in the Basque Country. Equipment manufactured by Grupo CAF includes light rail vehicles, rapid transit trains, railroad cars and locomotives, as well as variable gauge axles that can be fitted on any existing truck or bogie.Over the 20 years from the early 1990s, CAF benefitted from the rail investment boom in its home market in Spain to become a world player with a broad technical capability, able to manufacture almost any type of rail vehicle. CAF has supplied railway rolling stock to a number of major urban transit operators around Europe, the USA, South America, East Asia, India and North Africa.HistoryCAF was an acronym for the earlier name of Compañía Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, as well as for Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles.Fábrica de Hierros San MartínIn 1860 Domingo Goitia, Martín Usabiaga and José Francisco Arana established this company, whose main activity was puddling furnaces and cylinder rolling.La Maquinista GuipuzcoanaIn 1892 Francisco de Goitia joined the Marquis of Urquijo to set up La Maquinista Guipuzcoana, whose main activity was the operation of machinery and the forging and construction of railway rolling stock.In 1898 it set up its plant in Beasain, Gipuzkoa. In 1905 it changed its name to Fábrica de Vagones de Beasain .