The aim of this paper is to put across one of the work lines developed by the research group of Graphic Engineering and Design. Emblematic places where a robust sugar industry developed at the end of the 19th Century, based on steam engines, presented different configurations, and grinding sugar cane and beets. In this paper, there will be a technical and historical review, with figures, of the five mill trains that remain in Spain, curiously in the provinces of Granada and Malaga. Steam engines, manufactured in foundry and representing the last period of the sugar industry, are the only reference of this type in Europe as a set of parts representing an assembly.

At the same time, the chimney and the rest of the enclosure that is conserved are protected because they are part of its context. The machinery has the declaration of Asset of Cultural Interest. The mill train is the heart and the essential part of the symbolic sugar factory in Motril, which should be transformed into an industrial sugar museum. Up to 11 steam engines are preserved for different uses, from the movement for grinding to the elevators and cane drivers. In terms of dimensions, it is only comparable to a steam steel rolling mill. It is currently the most extensive mill train preserved, not only in Spain but also in Europe. The Pilar factory is an example of the survival of steam engines in the 20th Century.

Volante de inercia