Yet more random foreign photos.....

[jjb1970]

When I worked for BAS the ships had a mid-season R&R week in Montevideo. I (and most others) would have liked to take the ferry over the river to visit BA but because we were in Uruguay under immigration permission for UK government ships with Stanley FI on the stern it was prohibited. Sad as all the Argentinian people I have known have been impeccably well mannered, charming and all around good company.

[Johann Marsbar]

Looking at Google satelite images of the works yesterday, the place seens to have closed in 2017 and is now in "limbo" though all the buildings seem to still exist. I also found a press report about a proposal to operate a steam hauled service - dated 2022 - from Rosario Norte out to Perez, calling at places of rail interest along the way. That would tend to indicate there are enthusiasts still active in the area and hopefully mean that the following selection of preserved items that were present at the works in 2007 are still being looked after.

 

A metre gauge 4-6-2 and tender loaded on flatcars - believed to be a Maffei built loco of 1910, formerly owned by the FCCN......

 

 

FNGSM 1906 Kerr-Stuart built 0-6-0ST.......

 

 

Beyer-Peacock FNGBM Class M1 2-6-0 of 1888......

 

 

North British built FCCA Class PS10 4-6-2 of 1914 (Shown in steam in the 2022 newspaper article mentioned above)....

 

 

Unidentified British built breakdown crane......

 

 

 

At some point in the past they seem to have gone through a phase of removing identification plates from equipment made elsewhere in the world to disguise the fact it wasn't made in Argentina - a bit like North Korea does today. Thankfully, most of the things do retain their builders plates, but this crane was one that didn't. As there doesn't seem to be much of a railwayana market there to any extent, that wouldn't explain their removal!

 

There were some other items of rolling stock preserved there, plus a diesel that will appear in the next installment.

 

Wandering further into the works, there were a number of fairly well stripped Cockerill built shunters......

 

 

 

...along with this RSD35.....

 

 

The next posting won't be until Sunday but that's when we will have a look inside the main works building....

[EddieB]

I think the crane is a Cravens product - see Perez on this page: https://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/cranes/steamcranes01.htm#Argentina

 

[Johann Marsbar]

The main works building was very large but there wasn't exactly a lot inside there.  Some work seemed to be being undertaken on a handful of locos by a rather small workforce but it was obviously a shadow of its former self.....

 

 

This 0-6-0 diesel shunter appeared to be being used as the works pilot....

 

 

It looks rather like a Drewry product but didn't have any obvious identification marks on it.

 

One of the TBA (Trenes Buenos Aires) ex RENFE Alco RSD-39's was being worked on.....

 

 

...along with this NCA loco.....

 

 

 

As you can see from the above photos, a lot of the building was empty and in a poor state of repair.

 

These FPD-7's were stored in the main hall.....

 

 

 

The white painted numbers seemed to be "Lot Numbers" used to identify stock when the railways were privatised in the 1990's and most of the derelict locos, including steam hulks, carried these.

 

Outside in the preserved stock row was this GE "Shovelnose".....

 

 

...and even the derelict stock seemed to have a fill compliment of worksplates, such as this one on a GAIA loco......

 

 

A couple of views of some of the works buildings, starting with the Admin block.....

 

 

..and one of the smaller workshops.......

 

[Johann Marsbar]

Following our visit to Perez we continued on to Buenos Aires by road, the coach used being seen whilst we were undertaking the look round the works....

 

 

There was an option for those who wanted to make some of the journey by rail to get off at Zarate and catch the outer suburban rail service back into the City.

This, no doubt British built, water tank and signal were present at the south end of the station at Zarate......

 

 

There wasn't any sign of a builders plate on the tank but I had much better luck later on in the trip in discovering a Ransomes & Rapier built one at one station.

From Zarate, diesel hauled trains run as far as Villa Ballester where a connection is made into the EMU service to Retiro terminal. I'd decided against catching the train due to the length of the trip as opposed to the coach trip, but the coach waited until the train departed so those taking the road journey could photograph it. I think there was also an element of the local tour guides from Ferroclub Argentino checking out the "normal" trains we used to check that they were deemed safe/suitable for our use, so the coach hung around just in case this one wasn't classed as suitable. A couple of the "guides" had obviously been selected accordingly as one was an ex professional wrestler and the other was later found to be a Judo black belt!

 

The train actually appeared behind a rather scruffy GAIA loco, hired from NCA, rather than the expected Alco and it's seen running round the train.....

 

 

The British built footbridge was also devoid of makers plates, not to mention any steps or flooring!

A couple of water tanks had been fitted to it for loco/stock replenishment, presumably as the proper water tank is no longer useable.....

 

 

The local bus services in Zarate were also being operated by "top of the range" vehicles as can be seen by this shed on wheels.....

 

 

Those remaining on the coach got back into Bs As at least a good hour before the train passengers so dinner could be taken at a slightly more sensible hour!

 

The next morning we started off with a visit to Tapiales station & depot on the Belgrano Sur narrow gauge system, where a GE U12C is seen in the carriage shed.......

 

 

....with the depot pilot being this rather battered U12C which was believed to retain the original 1950's Cooper-Bessemer engine.....

 

 

The "carriage" it was shunting seemed to have recently been converted as part of a new 2-car diesel railcar....

 

 

Presumably this was a prototype for a new fleet, but in a short space of time the Argentines had fallen under the Chinese spell and new stock eventually came from that source.

 

Other recent aquisitions were these ex FEVE (Spain) Henschels - 3 being purchased for the LBS line out of Bs As - and which were still being prepared for service....

 

[Johann Marsbar]

Concluding the visit to the LBS Depot/Works at Tapiales.....

 

There was another steam breakdown crane of likely UK origin present at the depot - again devoid of any identification plates.......

 

 

 

That one doesn't feature in the list of surviving breakdown cranes mentioned in an earlier post, so is a mystery one.  It didn't look as though it had seen use for several years though, so may have been retained as a "preserved" item - or it was too much like hard work to scrap it!  Given there was also a steam loco hulk present that was withdrawn in 1960 the latter may be the case.

The only cast plates on it were related to the operation of the crane.

 

One of their Cockerill-AFNE 0-4-0 diesel shunters.......

 

 

...and a GE U-10B......

 

 

This 2-6-4T, believed to be a Hunslet product of 1914 was out in the long grass behind the depot and was likely to be a Buenos Aires Midland Railway G class tank engine......

 

 

They moved one of the ex-FEVE Henschels out onto the turntable for us......

 

 

In the background can be seen the 2 car railcar mentioned in the previous post. The livery of this unit had been changed by the addition of orange to the former "privatised" colour scheme and stickers were being applied proclaming the new identity of Linea Belgrano Sur for the resumed Publicly owned operation of the line. That new livery didn't last long, as by early 2009 everything was being painted in a new livery of blue/white/grey as seen in this shot from February 2009......

 

 

One of the GM G-22CU-2 locos passes the depot on a Buenos Aires bound train......

 

 

Tapiales station signal box....

 

 

...and the station building.......

 

 

One of the local Colectivo buses parked outside the station.....

 

 

Destination blinds are unknown there as the route and the end points + some intermediates are painted directly onto the destination glass, other intermediate points being on a slip-board in the front window. Routes are allocated to operators based on provision of minimum service levels and each route seems to generally have its own colour scheme.

 

 

.

Edited August 13 by Johann Marsbar

[Johann Marsbar]

After the mornings narrow gauge visit, the remaining rail activities for the day were focused on the broad gauge Linea San Martin operation out of Retiro as far as Pilar, four trips of varying lengths being taken over various sections of that route.

 

Alco RSD-16 B001/MF001 (depending on which number you look at...), thought to be a then recent refurbishment of a late 50's build loco - hence the odd number series - is seen at Retiro Terminal after bringing in our train from Pilar....

 

 

Other locos present at Retiro were this hired in NCA GM GR-12W......

 

 

...and this GT-22CW-2.......

 

 

The big attraction was the LSM ex CP English Electric/Sorefame 1400 class locos of which they had 3 in their fleet.  These were generally used on the semi-fast services out to Hurlingham so we had a round trip out to that point with a break at Hurlingham.

 

1417 is seen at Retiro before departure......

 

 

Retiro station 'box......

 

 

In the left background can just be made out some of the dwellings in the notorious "Zone 31" shanty town - somewhere you wouldn't particularly want to wander through. On the visit 16 months later, the shanty area extended to behind the signal box!

The shanty areas are a significant feature of the Argentinian landscape given the volatile economic history of the Country but the contrasts between those areas can be very striking. They range from simple structures to provide shelter, erected by the trackside in some cases, through to the sort seen on the 2009 from the Heaedo-Termperley train service which actually had car parking spaces/garages and swimming pools.....

 

Outside Retiro at Km 1 is the LSM loco depot and 1418 is seen from the train.......

 

 

Cast iron notices are still prevalent in Argentina and this one at the end of one of the platforms at Hurlingham was adapted by removing the BAP (Buenos Aires al Pacifico) lettering after Nationalisation in 1948, though you can still make those letters out.......

No Gricers railwayana market for such things out there!

 

 

The Gripper hit squad makes a bee-line for the next arriving semi-fast at Hurlingham, hauled by 1440.....

 

 

The LSM line passes by El Palomar airbase, so photos could be taken from the train without being hassled......

 

 

1440 is seen back at Retiro after running round its train......

 

 

That was it as far as trains were concerned for the day, as the Cultural aspect of the tour came into play that evening with a visit to a Tango show!

[Johann Marsbar]

The next day started off fairly early (06.00 breakfast....) before heading off to the Sarmiento line depot at Haedo, this being the former Buenos Aires Western Railway and the start point for our charter train that day.

 

We were at the depot for 06.50 and former CP #1223 was sitting outside the shed in the morning sunshine......

 

 

The depot at Haedo is also home to some of the stock in the collection of Ferroclub Argentino, though this is really a storage location rather than a restoration/display area, even if it is open to the Public at weekends.

 

This Fiat railcar motor car looked somewhat the worse for wear.....

 

 

....though these Metro-Cammell (?) EMU cars looked rather better......

 

 

There were 3 examples of the Werkspoor built DEB 600 diesel locos present there, one of which appeared in operational condition (even if it was missing a buffer).....

 

 

 

 

A few steam locos were also about, including this 0-4-0T - possibly a class 3C built by Stephenson in 1905/6 ......

 

 

......an 0-4-0CT (#71-V) built by North British in 1907/8........

 

 

......and an MS6A 4-8-4T built by Armstrong Whitworth in 1927......

 

[Johann Marsbar]

Over in the main running shed, this single unit railcar had apparently recently arrived for preservation - presumably some form of track inspection unit?

 

 

Given the shortage of servicable items of motive power at the time we were there, not many locos were standing around idle as they were all out at work!   

A couple of the recent secondhand purchases fom RENFE & CP were on shed though......

 

 

 

One of several hired-in NCA locos being operated by TBA at the time was also on shed....

 

 

Our special train left from the Depot at 07.46 and then headed out to cover the two TBA diesel worked branches beyond the electrified part of the Sarmiento line - Moreno to Mercedes and Moreno to Lobos - the train being worked by one of their ex RENFE Alco RSD-39's hauling a pair of passenger cars, one of which was an ex CP "Budd" coach.

 

An inbound EMU is seen shortly after leaving the Depot, well loaded, as were most of the trains, including the sliding doors wedged open with people hanging out....

 

 

We covered the line to Mercedes first and stopped off for a photo-stop at Lujan where this former Class 126 4-6-0 is on display outside the station.....

 

 

The loco was rebuilt at Liniers works in 1937/38 from a Class 12 loco, originally built by Beyer Peacock in 1906.

 

The station building at Lujan was fairly impressive with a French or GWR feel to it.......

 

 

Our charter is seen in the platform there.....

 

 

M&GN style concrete station nameboards were popular in Argentina and many survive to this day, this example, at Gowland, being seen from our train as we passed through.....

 

 

 

 

Edited August 18 by Johann Marsbar
spelling

[Johann Marsbar]

Our special is seen just after arrival at Mercedes station......

 

 

At the time, this was the only station in use for passenger traffic in Mercedes, though there had been a total of 4 stations there in the past, the Sarmiento line one seen here, Mercedes P and Mercedes C on the San Martin line, plus a narrow gauge station on the Belgrano line. In the last few years, it appears that a regional service out as far as Junin using the San Martin line has been reinstated which has seen the reactivation of Mercedes P - literally about 250 yards opposite the Sarmiento line station seen here. The Belgrano line station now appears to be a museum, though Open Rail Maps shows a short section of active track and I did find a photo online of one of the fairly new Trenes Argentinos railcars sitting in the platform there, which must have run through at some point from the current passenger terminus on that line at Gonzales Catan!

 

As well as being the terminus of the TBA outer suburban trains, a daily Ferrobaires longer distance train from Bragado also called there, and this appeared whilst we were at the station, being headed by this GT-22CW named Camarero Hector Vega....

 

 

 

After that train had departed we returned back as far as Merlo where our loco ran round again and we headed off down the line to Lobos and then spent some time in a loop at M. Acostia station waiting for a couple of service trains - one in each direction - to pass us.

You can tell they are Alcos.....

 

 

There was time to wander away from the station and descend on a local shop for food/drink purchases and there were also some elderly lorries running about.....

 

 

 

Once the train headed by 652 has arrived we were able to continue as far as Marcos Paz for a photostop....

 

 

The very elderly water tower and crane were of interest.....

 

 

...and it actually retained the builders plate, which was just about readable......

 

 

Looking at Google Streetview yesterday there seems to be an identical style one to this, but larger, still in situ at Lobos, though it's a lot further away from the station and we didn't spend enough time there on this trip to wander far, due to having to fit in between service trains.

 

Outside the station at Marcos Paz was this rather nice 4-6-0......

 

 

The plate on the cabside (which looked in a bit too good condition to be true) claimed it to be a Ferrocaril Oeste loco, #1086, but general consensus at the time was that it was actually a BA&P Class 1001 loco built by Dubs in 1906 !

[Johann Marsbar]

We sat at Marcos Paz until a Merlo bound local service arrived, composed entirely of ex CP stock......

 

 

..after which we departed for Lobos.

Our train ran into the yard there as there was already a local train occupying the platform awaiting departure....

 

 

 

Note that modellers of the Argentine rail scene don't have to worry about things like ballast as most of the secondary lines and sidings have an extensive coverage of grass instead!

 

Apart from a "Great Central" style signalbox at Lobos, this extensive (made in Liverpool, from memory) ground frame on the station platform was also available.....

 

 

A view of downtown Lobos.......

 

 

More "any old iron"....

 

 

After the loco had run round, we didn't actually spend too long at Lobos as we  headed back to Empalme Lobos (Lobos Junction) for a photostop and visit to what remained of the loco depot there.

 

The station itself was quite an interesting place, so much so it was considered worthy of a re-visit on our 2009 trip.   Our special is seen just after arrival......

 

 

The reason for the "shed" visit was the presence of 4 steam loco hulks which were being used for spares for ones in the Ferroclub collection.........

 

 

The shed itself is derelict and roofless, but all of the ancilliary buildings are being lived in by local people and one of their "fleet" of canine friends is visible in the shot above.  There were an inordinate number of stray dogs in Argentina, but, thankfully, they were "Mostly harmless" to quote the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy!

All of the yard tracks appeared to be in situ - even if they were totally overgrown - and there was also still a turntable there as well, abandoned along with the rest of the site.

[Johann Marsbar]

By the time we went there again in early 2009 the steam locos had been removed from the shed area and into the open and nearer to the station so better pictures of them will appear when we eventually get to that report.

This rather good condition Bedford was parked up in the shed area on this trip though, presumably owned by someone living there.......

 

 

The station itself was interesting and very British in styling, with almost a GER feel to it, particularly the platform canopies......

 

 

 

 

 

By the time we were there again in 2009 it looked as though some work had started to be done and certainly the signalbox was undergoing refurbishment. 

I was rather disappointed to discover a recent video last weekend on YT featuring the station and noted that the place has been totally refurbished, but half of the canopies and building roofs have been completely removed in a recent "refurbishment", but all of the supporting cast iron columns and roof/canopy structures have been left in place giving a rather strange appearance. The main building/stationmasters house however has had a rather nice job done on it!

 

In 2007 (and 2009) four routes converged at Empalme Lobos and all still saw some traffic. but it appears that two of those routes are now either disused or see very little traffic and nothing seems to run beyond Lobos town station on one of the other two lines .

 

We had another photo stop just past the junction of the Merlo line........

 

 

There was a rather nice Southern Railway cast iron sign where we stopped as well....

 

 

....before we continued to the rather well kept station at Zapiola where there was a loop and we had time to wait before the normal service to Lobos cleared the single line section.....

 

 

 

[Johann Marsbar]

Our train waiting at Zapiola.......

 

 

The service we were waiting for eventually appeared over the Pampas, with ex CP 1221 hauling a pair of ex CP Budd carriages..........

 

 

There is track under that grass!

 

Further down the line we had another wait at Las Heras - a place that will feature more in the 2009 trip report - for a Lobos service......

 

 

On the way back to Haedo I was able to get photos of some of the local bus operators vehicles from the train.........

 

 

 

 

Note the logo used by the Ecotrans operation on their white painted buses.    The "Kermit green" variant of the livery appeared to use a frog (rather appropriately...) rather than the BR double arrow.

You can also  see another Argentine peculiarity on the last photo in that the Fiat 500 parked on the grass verge has a plastic bottle perched on its roof. This, would you believe, indicates that the vehicle is for sale!

 

One of the more recent EMUs used on the Sarmiento line was also photographed.....

 

[Johann Marsbar]

The next day was spent visiting various rail locations in the Buenos Aires area, with the day starting off with a look round the former Bs As Western Railway works at Liniers.

As well as the current rail rolling stock under repair there were a number of elderly items there which had presumably been put aside for preservation, possibly with a view to some future National rail museum.

A rather large corrugated iron stock shed had a few of these items of rolling stock stored inside it, starting with this rather interesting rail mounted fire appliance which was fairly complete........

 

 

...along with a few examples of the original British built EMU stock from the 1920's.......

 

 

 

A view of the stock shed itself.....

 

 

This rather ancient wooden boxcar was stored outside.......

 

 

Some of the works buildings, a number of which were no longer being used......

 

 

 

After quite a long walk through the large complex we finally reached the loco maintenance area..........

 

 

Whilst it was a lot smarter than the works visited earlier in the trip at Perez, it was obviously rather underutilised compared with its heyday and there were several sections of the building that had been abandoned, but which still had all their original machine tools and equipment just left in situ.

 

Both of the TBA ex CP 1400's were in there being worked on, which is why we didn't have any on our special train the previous day......

 

 

Seconhand equipment was still arriving in the Country from Spain & Portugal at the time we were there, but we got the impression they were being used until something went wrong with them and then they would just be put to one side with no hurry to repair them and put them back into service!

[Johann Marsbar]

As for the works at Perez, the one at Liniers was hardly heaving with workers engaged on maintenance/overhaul work and it resembled a ghost town at times. There were, however, a lot more locomotives being worked on than at Perez and a variety of diffrent types were present in the building - GE, Alco, GAIA and English Electric/Sorefame.....

 

 

 

This recent arrival from Spain was in the process of being repainted...

 

 

...and there were severel derelict hulks scattered around the place that were being used as spares banks.....

 

 

Once you were out of the main section of the building where the loco work was taking place was when it started to get interesting from an industrial archeology point of view.....

 

 

Given the apparent lack of any scrap metal industry in Argentina, they just seem to leave everything in situ when parts of factories etc are deemed no longer to be of use.

These photos were taken in one of adjoining parts of the workshops where things like steam loco wheel lathes have just been left, some of the equipment still linked to the belt drive mechanisms.....

 

 

 

Elderly machine tools - particularly ones sourced in the UK, US and Germany abound - all just left there.....

 

 

..with disused overhead cranes of some vintage (but devoid of makers plates) standing idle.....

 

 

Presumably things like the wheel lathes won't have been used since the late 1970's when steam traction was phased out there.

[Johann Marsbar]

Out in the works yard were more locos in various states of completeness, inclusing a couple of GAIA built examples.....

 

 

The body of this one was mounted on a flat car and appeared to have been extensively stripped - though it still retained a full set of builders plates!

 

 

Also dumped outside was this Rodley (Leeds) built mobile steam crane.......

 

 

In another shed - which we had to wait for someone to unlock for us - were an odd selection of rolling stock items, but which included this 1938 built Drewry shunter......

 

 

Access to/from the Works to the main line was controlled by this rather ancient set of signals.......

 

 

The nearby Liniers station was still controlled by a variety of semaphores, as can be seen by this telephoto shot of Liniers East 'box taken through the Works access gate.......

 

 

Jumping ahead to the 2009 trip, this was the array of signals on a gantry at the station for heading towards central Bs As.....

 

 

The end of the Works complex is visible in the middle background with the rail access gate just visible to the right of one of the buildings where a white van is parked.

 

Returning to get on the coach, we diverted into the works car park to photograph their "Gate Guardian"......

 

 

 

This loco is actually a standard gauge example so was totally out of place at Liniers which is broad gauge!

The loco was built by Neilson in 1889 for the North East Argentine Railway and ater ended up working on the standard gauge Urquiza Line operation.

[Johann Marsbar]

After the visit to Liniers we moved on to the Escalada depot of Ferroclub Argentino which is their main base for broad gauge preservation activities. We spent a good three hours there with one of the locos giving short cab rides, plus there was a passenger carrying minature railway in operation as well.

 

The first item of rolling stock to greet us as we entered the site was this armoured railway "Pay Van".  This dated from 1941 and was built by an Argentine firm with the rather English sounding name of Buxton Ltd, being powered by an Austin engine......

 

 

It has its own turntable underneath it and it was used to carry staff pay-packets around what became in 1948 the General Roca system. A couple of what look like gun ports can be seen in the upper bodyside as well!

 

Behind it was their superbly restored Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton built diesel dating from 1953........

 

 

...and this was the loco providing short cab rides within their site.

 

Nearby was this pre-war Drewry railcar.....

 

 

...with a much smaller Drewry track inspection draisine in one of the restoration sheds.......

 

 

...along with a Grafton steam crane..........

 

 

 

After B-L-H had ceased loco production, FA turned to Cockerill Ougree for diesels in 1958/59, this being basically a direct descendent of the B-L-H design of 1953 illustrated earlier......

 

 

Next to that loco was this Cowans steam crane of 1925.........

 

 

The site occupied by Ferroclub was previously part of the Remedios de Escalada works complex (still in use, but we didn't visit the place), so there are some substantial brick built buildings on site which contain a lot of the fully resrored items, such as this Beyer Peacock 2-8-0 of 1913......

 

 

...and a Yellow (and red) submarine (Alsthom 1958 and like the SNCF versions).............

 

[Johann Marsbar]

Rounding off our visit to the Ferroclub site at Escalada, another view of the 1913 Beyer-Peacock built Class 11B 2-8-0......

 

 

A Vulcan Foundry built Class 8E 2-6-4T of 1925.......

 

 

Vulcan Foundry built Class 15B 4-8-0 of 1948.......

 

 

GRC&W EMU trailer car of 1928........

 

 

Vulcan Foundry built Class 12L 4-6-2 of 1949.............

 

 

Beyer-Peacock built Class 12A 4-6-0 of 1906.........

 

 

Dubs crane tank of 1891.......

 

 

.....and Vulcan Foundry built Class 12H 4-6-0 of 1938........

 

 

There was another steam loco present which I didn't photograph, an O&K 0-6-0T, plus there was a set of frames from another VF built 12E, which can be seen through the windows of this cab interior shot of the B-L-H diesel......

 

 

A view of the pay van and the B-L-H...........

 

 

There were several items of rolling stock on display as well, with this timber bodied restaurant car being used as the site refreshment rooms........

 

 

The cakes were delicious, as was the "Africana" dark beer, served in 990ml bottles!    We never did work out what system of measures they used for drinks, as everything seemed to be in multiples of 330ml - an odd figure to pick. The equivalent of a Pint in pubs seemed to be 660ml, though we did get 20oz servings in some places.   No sign of a 500ml serving anywhere.....

 

Before we left the site, it was possible to get a photo through the foliage of this railcar sitting in the next door railway works.......

 

 

Some sort of homemade single car unit, nothing further is known about it.

[burgundy]

An interesting reminder of the extent to which the railways in Argentina were influenced (and financed) by the UK. 

I have a couple of bound volumes of the Railway Magazine from the 1930s, which are frequently used as weights while something is being glued. Equally frequently, they provide a distraction and I am struck by the extent to which they provide information for British investors in overseas railways - including Argentina. 

Best wishes 

Eric  

[Johann Marsbar]

1 hour ago, burgundy said:

An interesting reminder of the extent to which the railways in Argentina were influenced (and financed) by the UK. 

I have a couple of bound volumes of the Railway Magazine from the 1930s, which are frequently used as weights while something is being glued. Equally frequently, they provide a distraction and I am struck by the extent to which they provide information for British investors in overseas railways - including Argentina. 

Best wishes 

Eric  

 

The export market for UK manufacturers went far beyond the "big things" on the rolling stock front, it was all the infrastructure - from turntables through water cranes and footbridges, right down to platform lamp holders - and in 2009 we found gems like this........

 

 

They didn't even bother putting the cleaning instructions in any other languages!

[Johann Marsbar]

Last call of the day was Frederico Lacroze station, a place we ran out of time to visit on our "Stations tour" day earlier in the trip. This is the terminus of the standard gauge Urquiza system, the Bs As end of which is electrified and worked nowadays by these 1970-s built EMUs which are kept in very good condition.....

 

 

 

Prior to the purchase of these units, the railway used tramway style overhead electrification and was better known for using ex Key System and Pacific Electric stock obtained from the US in the 1950's.

 

More TEA  Vicar.......?

 

At the time of our visit, another operator was using the line - Trenes Especiales Argentinos - who ran the twice weekly long distance service (El Gran Capitan) to Posadas, a journey of 26 hours (if not even more than that due to regular late running), and having seen the general state of the train/passengers, not a trip for the faint hearted.  An extra r was generally added to the last part of the name by our Tour participants!

The train was due to operate the following day and shunting movements to make up the consist were taking place so we ended up having a tour round their yard to see what was going on.

Said train would cause us problems/delays the following day on our special trip along the line as we were to find out.

 

This rather distinctive short passenger car was in works service.......

 

 

The stock for the El Gran Capitan was being made up by this shunter......

 

 

There are still a number of reminders of the former overhead current collection system......

 

 

 

The overhead seems to have been retained post 1974 in yards, for obvious reasons, the secondhand PE locos staying in use longer than the equivalent passenger stock.

 

The biggest surprise was finding this Fiat railcar which had recently been refurbished for a regional service in the north of the Country and which was the only operational vehicle of this type we saw on the whole trip.....

 

 

 

They even gave us a short ride in it around the yard!

 

 

 

.

Edited August 30 by Johann Marsbar

[Johann Marsbar]

The following day dawned grey and miserable with rain and this set the tone for the whole day which should have consisted of a leisurely morning visit to the Ferroclub standard gauge museum site at Lynch on the Urquiza line, followed by a charter train on the main line up to Zarate.

 

A coach duly picked us up at just after 09.00 and took us to the Museum, where this 1914 Kerr Stuart built 4-4-0 greeted us on arrival.......

 

 

We then found out that our special train had to depart ahead of the El Gran C(r)apitan service train that was running northbound that day, which meant we more or less had to depart from the museum in our special train straight away!

There was only a short period of time available to grab a few photos whilst our train was made up - the charter consisting of a hired-in America Latina Logistica (ALL) GE U12C, still in full FA livery, hauling a couple of preserved passenger cars..........

 

 

To facilitate the shunt move out of the site, another ALL loco - a GM G-22CW - was attached to the other end of the train and this was the reson we had to depart before the scheduled passenger train out of Lacroze station, as this was the loco hired in to haul the El Gran Capitan that day!

 

 

 

Given the uncertainty regarding time at the museum, a few hurried photos of items in the extensive yard area were taken before we left, such as this ex Pacific Electric loco.....

 

 

A couple of narrow gauge locos........

 

 

 

...plus this Dubs built 2-6-0 of 1888........

 

 

After we departed on our special, we were told that the museum visit would now take place when we got back to Lynch again that evening -  which, as it turned out, it didn't.....

[Johann Marsbar]

After our departure from the museum, the charter trundled along rather slowly on the electrified section as the preserved stock seems to be limited to 20/25 km/h on this part, but once that  line branched off to its terminus at General Lemas our speed did increase considerably. The biggest problem was getting held at the flat crossing of the San Martin line for scheduled passenger trains - something that happened in both directions , 60 mins being lost there on the return trip!

 

A couple of views from the train whilst we were still in the Bs As suburbs.......

 

 

 

The suspension on the red Renault 12 in the second photo looks rather suspect! (I don't think it's the road surface.......though they left a lot to be desired in places).

I can't work out the make/model of the car to the left behind the white Renault 12 in the first photo either - Can anyone recognise it?

 

We eventually arrived at the "Zarate" station on the standard gauge line, this being situated some distance out of the town and actually in a secure freight terminal area operated by ALL.

The station itself appeared to have been known by another name in the past - Ing. Juan A Briano..........

 

 

It soon became rather obvious that we weren't actually welcome there with our special train as they didn't want a load of Gricers wandering around - not that there was much to see there anyway unless you happened to be a lorry enthusiast!  In fact, to start with, we were told we couldn't even get off our train, though they did relent on that after a while. We'd actually arrived at the time that the El Grand Capitan should have, so were actually running in its booked path. We couldn't go anywhere on the single track line until that turned up, which was 80 minutes later, our train departing as that pulled in, so we couldn't even photograph it arriving!

 

One ALL loco - a GE U-13C - was shunting in the yard.........

 

 

.......with our train loco being the only other motive power present...........

 

 

 

The only other item of interest present was this freshly painted bogie brake van.............

 

 

...which at least did provide some modelling inspiration after I got home........

 

 

After leaving Zarate the rain became quite heavy, which rather put the dampeners (literally) on our stop on the return journey at Capilla del Senor where we had a barbeque at a local farm - everybody huddling under the available cover tather than basking in the sunshine!

 

A couple of views of the station at Capilla.....

 

 

 

By the time we left Capilla, we were seriously late, and the light was going, so the visit to Lynch Ferroclub was postponed until the following day - the last day of the (official) Tour.

Some passengers actually abandoned our train on the way back and caught a service on the nearby San Martin line back into the City!

[Johann Marsbar]

The last day of the main tour carried on the mildly shambolic local organisation that other parts of the trip had experienced.  Originally the only scheduled item was a visit to the AAT tramway preservation group based out at the Subte (Underground) depot at Polvorin where its circular arrangement of access tracks in the local streets are used by the heritage tramway operation.

This was supposed to take place in the morning, the Tour officially ending thereafter, but with the farce involving the Urquiza line charter the previous day, an early afternoon visit was rearranged to the Ferroclub Lynch museum with the tramway visit taking place after that.

 

Most of this was acheieved by public transport and taxis rather than a hired coach, which did cause problems for the transfer between the two museum operations.....

 

We caught the 12.00 EMU from Lacroze station out to Lynch..........

 

 

...and then had a couple of hours to look round what turned out to be a very interesting collection of standard gauge exhibits.

 

A Neilson built loco of 1889, originally built as an 0-6-0 but rebuilt as a 2-6-0 in 1910.........

 

 

Another Neilson built loco of 1889 which remains an 0-6-0...............

 

 

Former Pacific Electric boxcab electric loco #953..........

 

 

...and another ex PE loco..............

 

 

...whilst two more were parked outside.............

 

 

One of these PE locos has been restored fairly recently back into PE condition and livery by Fereoclub though it seems at least one of them has been scrapped as well. It's not clear what exacly has gone on, but part of the museum site has been taken over by a local college and, looking at Google maps, they have built on part of where the storage sidings used to be - basically everything beyond the crane in this photo........

 

 

Quite what stock has ended up being scrapped isn't clear, though there was a lot of derelict equipment in that area back in 2007.  The electric loco numbered 907 with the "homemade" body on it is of interest as it seems to be one of the 8 Dick Kerr built locos of 1913 which were originally delivered to the Central Buenos Aires Railway - though they were originally steeplecab locos and one is preserved in this condition, as we will see.

 

Across the tracks from the museum and in a shanty settlement area, so not easily explored, was this other derelict electric loco..........

 

 

That may well be the remains of another of the Dick Kerr locos as it was known 3 survived until at least 1966. They seem to have been rebuilt over the years as well as this was what they originally looked like.....

 

 

The operational/preserved one does still look fairly like that though.

 

There were also some Subte cars at the museum, with a couple seen here..........

 

 

These date from the 1930's and the pair above seem to have been constructed in Argentina but with the design following the 32 original cars built by Metropolitan Cammell in Nottingham for the opening of Line B in 1930.

[jjb1970]

Wonderful pictures! It's sad to see the state of the Argentinian railway system given what it once was, though it's good that it continues to survive. I find visiting railways which are not what they once were melancholic yet oddly interesting.