Yet more random foreign photos.....

[Johann Marsbar]

Whilst the Urquiza line bought a lot of secondhand passenger stock from both the Pacific Electric and the Key System in the 1950's, the sole surviving car in Argentina is this former "Hollywood" car from PE which ended up in MoW use..........

 

 

One of the Nottingham built (the former Royal Ordnance Factory in The Meadows) Metro-Cammell Subte cars is seen in the main shed at Lynch.......

 

 

After the visit to Lynch, the theory was that everyone would be transferred by taxi to the heritage tramway. The practice was that none of the taxi firms wanted to go anywhere near the area of Lynch (!), so we had to catch the train back to Ferdinand Lacroze and get taxis from there - a feat achieved in what appeared to be classed as a road race between the respective taxi drivers!

 

We were supposed to have a special charter car on the heritage line, plus, it was assumed, a visit to view the rest of their preserved items inside Polvorin depot, but we ended up with neither....

 

It later transpired that the "main man" at the AAT organisation was ill, so no arrangements had been made in his absence, os everybody hung around for about an hour until the scheduled Public service was due to start.  Some photos of Subte stock were able to be taken through the gates, without annoying the security staff too much..........

 

 

 

The car on the left above was one of the brand new units built by Alstom and used on line D, 20 & 35 are Fiat built cars off Line D and UR 29 is an O&K/Siemens built car.

Polvorin is nominally the Line A depot/works and was opened in 1913 by the Anglo-Argentine Tramway Company, along with the Line A underground line - the first in South America.

The first 4 cars for the line were built by Dick Kerr in Preston, with the remainder being sourced from Belgium. When originally built the line featured about 4 miles worth of street running beyond the underground station at Primera Junta - the end of the line in 2007 - access being made by a "Kingsway Subway" style entrance between the underground and street running sections and this remained in use in 2007 (and 2009) to  access Polvorin depot, with a loop of street trackage linking it to the portal.

 

Two, if not 3, of the Dick Kerr built cars survive and #3 was working the AAT heritage line that day............

 

 

 

Note the steps for street boarding at one end.  In 2007/9, most of the original 1913-1920 built wooden bodied cars were still in daily use on Line A, though they had been rebuilt/lengthened over the years.....

 

 

Car #75 is one of the 1913 built cars.

 

Of the other Museum cars, this 1955 bodied tram did venture outside on a shunting move.....

 

 

... and this ex-Porto car has been backdated to resemble one of the original Anglo-Argentine era cars........

 

 

The main Tour therefore finished on something of a low note with no visit to view the preserved trams in the depot, but,  as a few of us were staying on for a few extra days, that situation actually resolved itself the following day..........

[Johann Marsbar]

The next day was a Sunday and it was a day that the heritage tramway was due to operate again from the late morning. We had found out that the rebodied 1955 4-wheeler was due to be in service that day, so decided to pay them a visit again to take a ride on that car. In addition, prior to our trip to Argentina, a website devoted to travelling the world for beer (and written by a transport enthusiast) had hinted that it was worth going to Polvorin depot early on a Sunday morning as that was when they tended to swap the Subte cars on line A between the underground line and the works for maintenance purposes.

 

We duly took a ride from the City Centre out to Primera Junta on line A that morning and discovered that sets of stock appeared to be being made up for transfer to the works at Primera Junta.

 

An interior shot of one of the "1913" cars........

 

 

The drivers cab with an AEG hand controller.......

 

 

 

We left the station and walked to Polvorin depot, discovering that the "preserved" Dick Kerr 1913 built electric loco, #908, was shunting stock in the street.  Needless to say, by the time we got near, it had retreated back inside the depot confines to park in a partially obscured location ......

 

 

This seems to be nominally owned by the AAT preservation group but is used by Metrovias as the Polvorin works shunter.

 

Not long after we got there, a long train of the A line stock appeared on the street trackage, having used the  "Kingsway Subway" exit from Primera Junta station.......

 

 

 

 

 

Some other stock was being shunted around and that included a set of the 1913 cars which had been rebodied in the 1980's.......

 

 

Apparently this rebodying didn't go down well with the Porteno commuters, so not many units received this treatment!

 

A pleasant hour was spent watching the various movements, until we were approached by an elderly chap who turned out to be from the tramway preservation group (and was actually the days tram driver)  and who spoke very good English.  He then invited the three of us into the depot "as their guests" to view their collection!

[Johann Marsbar]

Having a play with Google Maps, the link below should show the current view of the "Kingsway Subway" style subway entrance ramp....

https://maps.app.goo.gl/5E2UbNWgqTrnBsRu9

 

Obviously it used to be double track in the days it acted as part of the Subte line street running extension after the route opened in 1913.

[Johann Marsbar]

It wasn't particularly well lit inside Polvorin depot, plus most of the preserved items were parked nose to tail on one of the roads, but we were given a tour of each of them.

 

2000 was a works car, believed to be of German manufacture and dating from around 1910.......

 

 

258 was the first tram owned by the group, originally being a member of the Porto fleet with the same running number........

 

 

Some alterations have been made to it to make it resemble a genuine Buenos Aires car, but not as much as those made to the other ex Porto car that they own and which was featured a couple of posts back.

The Interior of car 258....

 

 

Rather more modern is this Brussels car......

 

 

The strangest looking vehicle is this home made "Pre-metro" car which was constructed on the chassis of one of the 1913 A line Subte cars and was used on the suburban line running from Julio Cesar Saguier Subte station in the late 1980's until purpose built tramcars were obtained for the line......

 

 

Plastic seats......

 

 

...but with the original AEG electrical gear......

 

 

The 1955 car was moved out of the depot for the heritage service............

 

 

 

...and we had a round trip, plus indulged in some photography......

 

 

...before heading off to another, more modern tramway in the afternoon...........(but not the Pre-Metro...)

 

Full details of the AAT collection is here.......  http://tranvia.org.ar/flota-coleccion/ 

Google Translate does come up with some amusing words if you translate it to English though!

 

[Johann Marsbar]

 In the afternoon we headed out to Tigre, a resort town on the Paraná Delta and a popular destination at the weekends.  The town was originally served by two branches of what became the Mitre railway after Nationalisation, though only one of these remains as a conventional rail line nowadays - the former Buenos Aires Northern Railway line.

 

We travelled out to Tigre on the surviving trough service from Retiro station, with various pleasure boats being seen opposite the station when we arrived, most of which were of a traditional appearance......

 

 

 

As we walked towards the Parque de la Costa Theme Park and the other branch terminal, the place started to go downhill a bit in keeping with the "seaside resort" ambience, though at the Buenos Aires Rowing Club we did come across their narrow-gauge boat transport system....

 

 

The other branch line to Tigre, built by the Buenos Aires and Rosario Railway, had closed in 1961 due to declining passenger numbers, the terminus being cut back to Bartolomé Mitre station, almost 10 miles nearer to Buenos Aires.

 

Reopening the end section of the line as a light rail operation was first suggested by the Theme Park owners in 1990 and it reopened as such in 1995, basically as part of a linear tourist attraction that charged premium fares compared with the normal level of fares charged in Argentina. The standard Retiro-Tigre single train fare at that time was P$0.70 and the Bartolomé Mitre-Retiro fare was P$0.55. The Tren de la Costa fare was P$8.00  !!!!!

Services are operated by CAF built cars........

 

 

Various attractions are now located at each of the stations, so we got off at a few points along the line to see what was on offer.........

 

 

At one of the stations there was a large flea market which actually had some railway relics (token equipment & cast iron signs) for sale at extremely inflated prices - and certainly not at price levels that Argentines would want to pay!

The same went for this rather battered Ransomes enamel adverising sign.......

 

 

A new terminus has been built as part of a shopping centre opposite Bartolomé Mitre station - called Maipu - where we did discover an artesanal beer stall in the concourse which was rather handy!

 

Across the road, an EMU for Retiro is seen at Bartolomé Mitre station......

 

 

If you look to the end of the left hand platform, there is a nicely painted water crane which didn't actually register with me until we passed it on the departing train. That would be investigated on the 2009 trip!

 

A unit is seen at Retiro......

 

 

...and outside the station, this engineering department conversion of a bonneted bus is seen parked at the roadside.....

 

 

By 2009, the Tren de la Costa was looking very down at heel with very few passengers and it now (since 2013) seems to be under Trenes Argentinos ownership, so the fares may be down to "normal" levels.

[Johann Marsbar]

The last full day in Argentina started off down at Puerto Madero to cover an unusual diesel railcar operated service that ran during Mon-Fri peak hours from a platform down on the dock trackage.

 

The standard gauge "demonstration tramway" is seen again........

 

 

...whilst this Government helicopter was parked up on the Casa Rosada helipad/car park, with the building itself visible in the background.......

 

 

The diesel railcar service was operated by TBA and ran during the peaks - at a premium fare - between Castelar and Puerto Madero, the service using the nominally freight only tunnel under the city that runs from near Once station down to the docks sidings. This line was actually electrified in the past and one of the two Baldwin-Westinghouse locos used on this line is supposedly preserved "somewhere" in Argentina.  Many years back I did find a photo of it online, obviously in storage undercover, but can't remember the source of the image or where the loco was supposed to be.....

 

 

The railcars on the service were built by Materfer in 1987 and we soon found that they did a very good impression of a run-down BR Cravens DMU as they travelled along, with much rattling and vibrating as we passed through the tunnel......

 

 

We got off the train at Ramas Mejo station, which has a quite impressive station building......

 

 

We then made our way out to the Subte line terminus at Virreyes and walked upstairs to the terminus of the Pre-Metro tramway at Julio Cesar Saguier.

This operation opened in 1987 and runs mainly through rather depressed "shanty town" areas or communist style housing blocks to a terminus at General Savio. Apart from the respective termini, it was mainly the sort of areas you wouldn't want to get off for any reason, let alone take photos, so we stayed on to the end of the line......

 

 

...and caught the next tram back to the Subte terminus, where the surrounding area was at least a bit more "normal".......

 

 

 

We saw 6 different cars in operation, but on passing what passed for the "depot" there were at least 6 others stored under tarpaulins there, presumably awaiting funds for repair. The whole operation seemed rather run down which went in tune with the areas it ran through.

 

The rest of the day was spent taking rides out of two of the Retiro termini. with this ex-FEVE GE11B seen on the metre gauge Ferrovias line......

 

 

That concludes the selection of photos from this particular trip to Argentina, though by the end of the last day thoughts were already being given to returning back there at some point due to the fact we found it such an interesting place and things were changing rapidly on the rail front.

 

February 2009 would see two of us return there again, but it's back to Europe for the rest of 2007 and all of 2008......

[Bernard Lamb]

Casa Rosada.

We went that way one morning, but got no closer than this. There was a large demonstration taking place and just round the corner, a very sinister looking security force was getting ready for action. We decided to retreat.

 

.

 

It's strange how subjects crop up.

On August 1st you posted on the Central Argentine Railway and the main station of 1915. From time to time I attend a re-union of people who were born in the same house that I was born in. The former lady of the house, from the time I was there, was related by marriage to Sir Joseph White Todd and he was a Director of that railway. He was also involved with The Callander and Oban in Scotland. I knew of the Scottish railway connection, but not the Argentine one, until it was mentioned the other day.

Bernard

[Johann Marsbar]

48 minutes ago, Bernard Lamb said:

Casa Rosada.

We went that way one morning, but got no closer than this. There was a large demonstration taking place and just round the corner, a very sinister looking security force was getting ready for action. We decided to retreat.

 

.

 

It's strange how subjects crop up.

On August 1st you posted on the Central Argentine Railway and the main station of 1915. From time to time I attend a re-union of people who were born in the same house that I was born in. The former lady of the house, from the time I was there, was related by marriage to Sir Joseph White Todd and he was a Director of that railway. He was also involved with The Callander and Oban in Scotland. I knew of the Scottish railway connection, but not the Argentine one, until it was mentioned the other day.

Bernard

 

It was a bit quieter when I was there in 2007.........

 

 

 

[Orion]

 

 

 

 

 

Even more interesting is what used to be on the river side of the building, before the docks were built on reclaimed land. The semi circular building was the amazing Aduana Taylor, complete with pier. The railway station was a kit built affair originally intended for somewhere in India.

[EddieB]

I must say how impressive is your collection of photos from that trip.  I appreciate that some things didn't go to plan with the tour, but you certainly were able to see a great variety of locomotives and rolling stock.  For my (as yet only) visit to Argentina in 1992, information was fairly scant and I know I missed quite a lot of interesting stuff as a result - aside from not having access to works and depots.

 

I look forward to the photos from your next trip!

[Johann Marsbar]

2 hours ago, EddieB said:

I must say how impressive is your collection of photos from that trip.  I appreciate that some things didn't go to plan with the tour, but you certainly were able to see a great variety of locomotives and rolling stock.  For my (as yet only) visit to Argentina in 1992, information was fairly scant and I know I missed quite a lot of interesting stuff as a result - aside from not having access to works and depots.

 

I look forward to the photos from your next trip!

 

At least with the Internet nowadays it is possible to do some research beforehand to try and gather some information about a place before you leave home.  I actually missed quite a bit on my 1980's trips to the US & Canada, things that I could have certainly included in some of them.  Assuming "foreign" things were even mentioned in UK published magazines, there was usually quite a long dwell time between the original news/information being sent to them and it being published.

The PTG trip to Argentina was very useful for at least providing the "groundwork" for an independent trip at a later date, plus one of the Ferroclub "escorts" met up with us on a few days of our 2009 trip and travelled with us to some good locations where we actually were able to photograph some freight traffic rather than the wall to wall passenger stuff.

[Johann Marsbar]

Next posting in the series will be in about a fortnights time, when we will be off to here in December 2007......