OK, so how do the Spanish do it?

Back in 1999 my wife and I spent 4 weeks travelling around Europe on a railpass.

One of the trains we rode was a Talgo from Madrid to Malaga on the Mediterranean coast. We left Madrid as a standard gauge train, and proceeded to tilt and twist through the Spanish countryside. At a city on-route (I forget where) we stopped briefly. The train inched forward with all sorts of thumping and grinding noises coming from underneath. Shortly thereafter, we were again on our way.

When we arrived at Malaga we found ourselves behind a different locomotive... on broad gauge tracks!

Anyone know the details of how they changed gauge?

Jason