In 1986, trade agreements between Spain and Cuba transferred 150 RENFE railcars to the Caribbean country, which became responsible for paying for their overhaul and adaptation to the 1,435 mm track gauge, the Alliance automatic couplers, and the modification of some vehicles to form a group of air-conditioned sleeper cars with a completely new interior, intended for the express train running between Havana and Santiago de Cuba. The cars used for these modifications would be eight AAR-5000s, thirty BB-5000s, twelve BB4-5000s, and one hundred BB4-6000s.
The interventions were centralized in the RENFE workshops in Vilanova i la Geltrú, which would be in charge of the general rehabilitation of the car bodies and their painting. CAF and ATEINSA carried out the repair of the bogies with new axles for 1,435 mm track gauge and 914 mm wheels according to AAR standards. MACOSA built the Alliance automatic couplers and their adaptation to the car frames.
The color scheme for the general class was green with two wide parallel yellow bands below the windows. First-class cars sported a brown color with a white band, and the couchette cars were reminiscent of those on RENFE's Estrella trains. For the transfer between the workshops and the port, the BB4-6029 and BB4-6043 were used, having been fitted with an Alliance coupling at one of their ends.
The first four BB4-5000s were shipped from the port of Tarragona in the second half of 1987, and the forecast was that the entire shipment would be completed in 1990 at a rate of four vehicles per month. Other shipments followed in the following months, but the collapse and disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1989 and the end of the Cold War conditioned and drastically reduced Cuba's economy. Faced with the non-payment for the refurbishments, RENFE chose not to continue with these interventions, leaving several refurbished units un shipped, among them the five couchette cars, numbers 5121, 5122, 5123, 5124, and 5125.
Given the impossibility of their use, and since material was being gathered in Canfranc for a future museum in Aragon, they left for that border enclave, where they were preserved in one of the station's warehouses, remaining there until the Spanish Railways Foundation transferred them to the Móra la Nova Railway Museum. This material went for thirty years without much surveillance, and despite being visited by graffiti artists, on the other hand, its interior remained unscathed, remaining in an impeccable state. It still retained the plastic protections from its renovation.
Moved in October 2020 to Móra la Nova, and after a thorough cleaning, they have received their original color scheme from origin to become part of the future tourist train.
Technical data sheet
| Any construction | 1951 |
| Constructor | Saint-Denis (Paris) |
| Series | 5000/6000 |
| Company | RENFE |
| Track width (mm) | 1.668 |
| Axis layout | 4 Axes |
| Length (mm) | 21.300 |
| Height (mm) | 4.300 |
| Width (mm) | 3.100 |
| Weight (kg) | 39.700 |
Client: FPPFI
Restoration Types: Functional
Any: 2022
