From Orusco, our route forks southwards, coincides with what was popularly known as the 40 Days (or also the 100 Days) Railway. This was the name given to an ephemeral railway line that only functioned during the brief, but intense, period of the Spanish Civil War. Its name evokes the urgency to lay down this railway, which as built at full speed when the Battle of Jarama blocked the Madrid-Alicante railway on its way out of Madrid. The siege of Franco's troops around the capital made it urgent for the Republican Government to design an alternative railway connection between Madrid and Valencia.

This railway line originated in Torrejón de Ardoz. From there the new line would be built on a section of the narrow-gauge railway. This was a metric-gauge branch line that served the sugar refinery complex of La Poveda. Only the first section of that branch (which widened to the gauge of the Iberian network) of 14 km, as far as Mejorada del Campo, was used. From there, a completely new, long line was levelled as far as Tarancón Station, a distance of around 91 km; halfway along the route, at Orusco de Tajuña, it crossed the Tajuña Railway.

From Tarancón, to connect with the tracks to Levante and Andalusia, a section of the Aranjuez-Cuenca railway was used, as far as Santa Cruz de la Zarza, and from this station in Toledo another branch was built to reach Villacañas, the final link with the Madrid-Alicante line. This entire railway, which was also called the Vía Negrín, in memory of the Republican politician who promoted the project, did not last much longer than that sad civil war.

In 1940, once the conflict was over, the Mejorada del Campo-Tarancón section was dismantled since it was no longer necessary, with its material being used to restore other railway lines that had been badly damaged by the war. It should be noted that, in any case, in order to lay those tracks, tracks were hastily removed from all over –from stations, sidings, branches– since the iron and steel industry could not provide the required rails.

All that remained was the section between Villacañas and Santa Cruz de la Zarza, which was reopened in 1954 to be reused for passenger transport and for hauling cereal, wine and oil between the towns in the region. However, like other secondary railway routes, it was unable to fulfil its function and so the line stopped operating in November 1965, being dismantled years later.