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The Transandine- a short history of 2 halves


sir douglas
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Theis is basically a copy and past of a talk ive written to do at my club (Wakefield) some time in the spring of next year.

sources

-Kitson meyers, by Donald Binns

- The Transandine in 1931, NGRS

- Railways of the Andes, Brian Fawcett

- Martin Coombs of the "railways of the far south" website

- some photos from http://www.gwrarchive.org/index.php

- some photos from https://www.flickr.com/photos/124446949@N06/

- some photos from https://www.flickr.com/photos/porlaviadeltren/albums/72157666266316893

 

PART 1

 

caption and info UNDER photo not above

 

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With the expansion of the railways in South america in the late 1800's, a shorter connection between Chile and the east coast such as Buenos Aires was needed. but the as yet impenetrable Andes mountains stood in the way. having a route through would shorten the travel time to and from Chile since there was a great number of British and German people living and working in Chile, those who regularly travelled to and from europe as well as the tourists. The alternatives would be longer train travel round to the north through Paruguay, Bolivia or southern Brazil, instead you could take a ship directly round the other side through Panama which might take week more to do or the last option take train up to the farthest railhead and walk over the andes into chile.

 

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if getting off a ship from europe in Buenos Aires you would take the 5'6" gauge mainline up to Mendoza, change onto the transandine and travel over to Los Andes to change over onto the chilean 5'6" connecting to the Longditudal. the main north-south mainline

 

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Here we see Mendoza and Los Andes underlined in red either side of the Andes and the border across the top

 

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2 long valleys from either side wind their way to meet with a 13000ft ridge between them. The line was run in 2 halves, The chilean and argentine. FC is Ferro Carril which means railway in spanish. the TC is Transandine Chile and TA, Argentine. With each half working its own locos which met in the middle on the Argentine side of the summit tunnel to swap locos at Las Cuevas.

 

005.JPG.2e4e75c1a567ce31273f842bb1a09f1a.JPG
This 150 miles of this Metre gauge climbs ferrocious gradients up the valleys aided by rack & pinion in the upper sections to the Summit in the tunnel at almost 10000ft long and just over that in altitude. this tunnel also crosses the border. between Rio Blanco and the Summit ont he Chilean side, the rack assisted sections go up to 1 in 12.
Work started on the Argentine side in 1887 and 89 for the chile side. The work progressed for 23 years with breaks due to financial trouble but finally opened in 1910.
chilean locos. the chilean side was worked in 2 sections, los andes to rio blanco which was adhesion worked and from there to the summit was rack only. the rack fitted locos had a system fitted just like on the Snowdon Mountain railway where the loco is set in reverse to the downhill direction of travel which brakes it.

 

2114935410_006transandineHL2140-1889josemanuelbalmaceda.JPG.bb6dd543a8e49e9ab21905b1890778de.JPG
-1889 x2 Hawthorn Leslie 0-6-0. 28 tons. which only worked above rio blanco during construction

 

647686728_007BP3171-1890transandinerivadavia(1).jpg.c70099ff2de63a1b9a6bc7ce5817b741.jpg

008_bp_transandine.JPG.eb89308d37e7468e3b1572909697b2a7.JPG
-1890/99 x4 Beyer peacock 2-4-2 with rack. 45 tons

 

1424847190_009lima925-1904shaytransandine.jpg.6a57ec66725fbd0d9c5144049a15d7f8.jpg
-1904 x1 Lima shay. for some reason the line also had this 3 truck shay which was well liked by crews for its power, being able pull heavy trains up the 1 in 12 rack sections even though it was rack fitted. though it wasnt used much because of its slow speed and it lacked the bracking power coming back down

 

820274973_010borsig.jpg.4a9f521877455876cd597f26f7eb079c.jpg
-1905 x2 Borsig 2-6-2 with rack. 47 tons. youll note the gap betwwen the first and second driving axles. this was for the rack axle powered by inside cylinders

 

872187270_011borsig.jpg.2fbecbf99ff6fea0a35c9cf499af8e0e.jpg
-1906 x1 Borsig 2-6-4 with rack. enlargement of previous. 57 tons. inclined boiler

 

1326320417_012borsigtransandineNo6losandes.jpg.def5c84810b273b30704ec8884ceca07.jpg
the big borsig infront of a hotel in los andes

 

 

Edited by sir douglas
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PART 2

 

013.JPG.fca411a62d39ed29d9ce3933dcbc0e91.JPG
-1907/9 x3 Kitson meyer 0-8-6-0. 89 tons. it wasnt designed by kitson but a consultant engineerhired by the railway. they wanted a big powerful loco with rack to pull the heavy trains up 1 in 12 and round tight curves. Mr Abt of the ABT rack system was also consulted and he said it was imposible. at least on a rigid chassis. the engineer came up with a meyer,8 coupled front bogie adhesion only and a rear bogie with 2 rack axles carried by 6 un powered wheels. The railway was un happy with the loco ability on the rack with only being fitted to the rear bogie and requested an additional rack axle to the front bogie. these extra 2 cylinders put un necassery drain on the boiler that it wasnt designed to be able to do and the extra weight was damaging the track, the extra cylinders were removed in 1911. which afterwards these and their argentine sister did good reliable service for about 60 years

 

326687443_014meyerkitsonFCTCtransandine43.jpg.7bf73741769e8a0b3bc65baa2a8a58de.jpg
taken sometime between 1908 and 1911 because of the extra cylinders

 

1994662327_015meyerkitsonFCTCtransandine3349losandes1977.jpg.b83eaa19faf87312307951daa9930984.jpg
taken in Los Andes in 1977 out of service. note no extra cylinders

 

509654080_016meyerkitsonFCTCtransandine3348(2).jpg.bd3f783bb2584c2591719aaebc9186f6.jpg
of the 9 meyers from both sides There are 2 survivors both from the chile side. this 1 in the loco sheds at Los Andes

 

623393377_017meyerkitsonFCTCtransandine3346.jpg.79ae44836d355e8fc8bac750b18a2595.jpg
and this one at the Mendoza railway museum. the 3rd of the chilean is said to have derailed and rolled down the mountain and not recovered. but survived to be scrapped in the 1960's

 

1244418159_018esslingen.jpg.31c2bb5ea6156cf50775c559ef4e547e.jpg
1908/11 x2 Esslingen 6-8-0. 85 tons. After the succes of the meyers and after Mr abt saying it was impossible, he returned to germany and spoke with his friends at the Esslingen loco works to turn out something of their own that could do just as good. it is described just like a mallet although the word is never specifically used, probably because of copyright, it was like the meyer but the other way round, the front bogie was 3 rack axles carried on 6 un powered whels and the rear was 8 coupled adheasion. it turned ou not as good for not being as flexible as the meyers on curves. it couldnt transition between reverse curves as well. was some what prone to derailing and was awkward to re-rail and took much more time to detach the front bogie compared to the ease of detaching a meyer bogie.
argentine locos

 

790584395_019TransandineYE554-1898FCTA.jpg.14ee5673a782162e789a41c3bce15883.jpg
The argentines equivalant were x2 Yorkshire of Sheffield in 1898.

 

1329954590_020transandineYE-1898FCTA1908.jpg.15cbffa2b6d5fb91351cd946cbcf11dd.jpg
photo of a yorkshire taken 1908

 

901941764_021transandineHE500-1889FCTAmendoza.jpg.04faa5865bee87cfec6337705f9ecf6d.jpg
Hunslet 500 of 1889. worked as a shunter in Mendoza

 

1856817919_022dubs.jpg.b76cf6d4289627a4d41e10ca419d3864.jpg
1887 x6 Dubs 2-6-2. 32 tons. adhesion

 

97729909_023dubs.JPG.d226269c3b60826eb0b1708e5013ef42.JPG
1901 x2 Dubs 2-6-2 41 tons. adhesion. similar to previous but heavier and more powerful

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PART 3

 

1035939385_024vulcan-1909argentinetransandine51.jpg.b4ba4dd52b4f4a114dfbd856e935f30b.jpg
1909 x3 vulcan 2-8-4 72 tons. adhesion
1909/12 x6 0-8-6-0 kitson meyer same design as chilean but with longer tanks and without the extra cylinders from the start


025_garratt_transandine_BP_6544_-_1930_FCTA_No_62.jpg.cc02631f1d42a753700f39c2a63dac32.jpg
1929 x4 beyer garratt 104 tons. adhesion.


155036574_026transandinestationlosandes.jpg.2887b2cd5b8de712a64b10f330cceab7.jpg
lets have a look along the line, starting with Los Andes. a Meyer with 6 carriages waiting to depart. after 1911 without extra cylinders


1216065533_027soldiersleap.JPG.def65f3dd693ab7fb151e8315f11836c.JPG
about a 3rd of the way along the chilean side just before Rio Blanco is a narrow but deep gorge called Salto Del Soldado or Soldier's leap. a local tale from the early 1800's of a chilean soldier on horseback being chased by the spanish army jumped the gorge to escape. The railway spans this with a bridge joined between 2 tunnels


137319601_028transandinesaltodelsoldado2015.JPG.c280aa7b4301bcae7e01b234a4c0408b.JPG
a 2015 photo showing a train for Rio Blanco


1101317647_029transandinestationrioblanco.jpg.222f9210c6ca3ff685fbd45cd7b5f893.jpg
Rio Blanco, about half way up the chile side. this was the furthest an adhesion loco could go and was changed here for a rack fitted.


1139156890_030transandinestationjuncal(1).jpg.7012497864f781db84ae811738cb41a4.jpg
Juncal, about 2/3 the way up on the chilean side. 2 borsigs double heading on  their way down to Los Andes. here the line curves south off the main easterly direction to hairpin down a side valley to gain more altitude. the photo is looking towards the hairpin curve at the top of the valley. the line returns much higher somewhere in the top left of the photo


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basic drawing showing the hairpin taken through juncal to gain extra height


1389437071_032transandinenearjuncalrack.jpg.121abcbfcd08b7a6b1c75793cbc989fe.jpg
on the line somehwere between Juncal and Portillo


1604445770_033transandineportillo3).jpg.eef5f015ca80af68afe962567c09edbe.jpg
Portillo, a few miles before the summit. nowadays its very popular with skiers and snowboarders in the winter. part of the challenge for the railways was the deep winter snow, for this they had a self propelled rotary plough, 2 ordinary loco propelled ploughs and loco bufferbeam mounted ploughs. note the track climbing steeply away into the foreground withh the rack


957971999_034transandinerotaryplough(4).jpg.f82019e000b280d847f43b8a7536aca7.jpg
rotary plough


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ordinary plough


398650657_036transandinebridge(2).jpg.0f794cb68787e10ccfe2fa4a82900585.jpg
unknown bridge. showing the scenery

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PART 4

 

825130119_037transandinerack.jpg.423f0882bdbb588256b15a874fb1c3dd.jpg
unknown. picturesque look down a valley. note the rack


1926730058_038transandinestationcaracoles1917.jpg.b29188362db78db0582ab30d5db277e3.jpg
caracolles, the chile end of the summit tunnel 1917. the vastness of the landscape, the railway comes in at the bottom left and the tunnel is next to the white building


1578135547_039transandinecaracoles1920s.jpg.fa01940af92f60b91ea7517125f3bf08.jpg
caracolles 1920's showing the triple rack. tunnel mouth in the background


1567993935_040transandinestationcaracolessummittunnel2015.JPG.ed02e12221eee64a19554358a0ced771.JPG
Caracolles 2015. summit tunnel boarde up on the right


1457884939_041transandinestationlascuevas.JPG.1b9bc8ed1f138d2b173b3672b6b6e685.JPG
now through the other side of the summit tunnel into argentina, where the chilean and argentine locos swapped


325026234_042transandinelascuevas.jpg.b371b85b4ba88a4562d7a35c60aecd26.jpg
somehwere near Las Cuevas. the vastness of the scenery. the railway perched on a ledge. mountains above and river far below


610272555_043transandinestationlascuevas2015.JPG.3f1b098af8ec2feb2d36a9963d2e55f3.JPG
Las Cuevas 2015. the yard is about 3 miles from the tunnel. as you can see all the track and over head is still in place but further up its been severed completely by a new road


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unknown, a modern photo of somewhere on the argentine side


1528414376_045transandine.jpg.f092416107fb88ba4634f505cde05b5b.jpg
unknown


1787828422_046transandinestationpuentedelinca(2).jpg.95fe42ec7aaab004b4419094d0f6b3fa.jpg
puente del inca about 10 miles down from the summit. a popular tourist spot for the yellow and green mineral deposits and the natural arch in a stone formed by the river


1044814161_047transandinestationcachueta.JPG.0d3b2d11412a9b255fc0165c14490149.JPG
cachueta about 3/4 of the way down to mendoza 


2126893079_048transandinebridgelosbanos.jpg.dc8799d764d1abdbc2fecf14b44de154.jpg
a bridge just after cachueta


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somewhere near mendoza


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outside mendoza station


730976263_051Transandinestationmendoza(3).JPG.c66d5eb12ab133a6e0e7ec71c9774da1.JPG
a colour postcard of Mendoza yard
 

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PART 6 - END

 

309355294_056transandinewagonrioblanco.jpg.87349dad5d19f760c413327d05eede3d.jpg
a bogie flat wagon shown in this photo of some sort of official event with a leather sofa and benches in the wagon for the gentlemen


728570162_057transandinewagonmetropolitancattle1906(1).jpg.56b073ac5d4bd47cd3d729731c5afa7a.jpg
cattle wagon by the Metropolitan wagon works in 1906


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wagon of 1912 by the met


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Compared to the hot arrid low lands, the higher altitudes can get at least the 10ft deep in snow in the winter. this gives considerable concern for building a railway through it. as said before the railway has ploughs of different kinds. another way around it are tunnel like shelters built along various sections which are also to protect against rockfall. 2 modern views of some shelter now falling apart


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unknown. a lightly snow covered scene


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Electrification plans started in 1923 and opened in sections, the first being in 1927 between Rio Blanco and Caracoles. This is the upper rack section one Chile side to the summit tunnel and then through the other side to las cuevas in 1942. 3 of these 85 ton electrics were built in Switzerland in 1925, 1 by SLM 2 by Brown Boveri the same company that built the gas turbine for the southern. later added by 2 more in 1961. the Argentine side planned to electrify but never got around to it


1550885853_062cordillera1930.jpg.57153dabef0b0473d97faff4991b08d0.jpg
Cordillera in 1930 showing the overhead wires


1429496747_063baldwintipoW.JPG.cc571e4a2afed8f309d2a0f382b46554.JPG
steam was not rmade redundant wwhen the electrics came along since there was only 3 of them initially. after the other 2 in 1961 there was still at least 7 locos in service. 3 borsigs, 3 meyers and 1 esslingen and since about 1954 many of these 2-8-2 baldwins were regularly on loan from the Red Norte metre gauge system up in the north of Chile. these just worked the adhesion only lower half of the chile side. i havent found anything that give the state of locos on the argentine side but i presume most survived up to 1984, more on that later


1523454421_064transandinerailcar.jpg.7005d9249c274a4fa75ced13eff86732.jpg
railcars were introduced to take over the lighter passenger work


223704719_065transandinecumminsrailcar2013.JPG.517d464ba678fed5bc27c96605a3ec6a.JPG
a Cummins railbus used since the 1930's is still in use to take tours up the surviving chilean line up to Rio Blanco


66.jpg.6de4a310cd081474753de92203e516d1.jpg
running the railway in 2 sides wasnt working out so well so a contract was signed in 1923 to join the 2 companies together. the 2 still ran seperately but the receipts of all through traffic was shared. The control of the 2 sides both passed the control of their respecive governments, chile in 1934 and argentine in 39. and then the argentine passed to the Ferrocarril nacional general belgrano. the state railway company named after a nationally revered general in the war of independance. a flood in 1934 swept away an argentine section near mendoza, through services were contued by ferrying passengers by road round the section. as with much of the railways in south america the railways and the national economies were slowly failing. it took 10 years to fix the track by which time the roads had improved, more people had cars and trucks and air travel was taking the through passenger traffic. the through service called "the international" ended in 1979 due to tension between the 2 countries and chile had planned on sabotaging the railway fearing an invasion by Argentina. the last train through the summit was in 1984 because the argentine side had severe track damage in the winter of and there was no finance for repair, it wasnt even lifted. today most of the track is still in place abandoned. passneger service on the chile side ended the same year though half the line up to Rio Blanco is still used for a copper mine and the tourist trips on the bus. The idea of rebuilding the whole thing is brought up every few years but the 2 governments are still broke. the summit tunnel is still in good condition but not used. there is now a trans andean highway which rns the same valleys but uses a new larger tunnel and gains height to it by zig-zag
end

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Theres also a kitson meyer left on the Argentine side (no. 40), at tafi Viejo works, but it's pretty derelict.

 

kitson-meyer-tafi-viejo.jpg

 

121592245.jpg

 

The photos of it in the 70s at tafi viejo show it in about the same state. Looking at the photo and google maps aerial shots I'd guess its stuck on the south end of the works as that's where the buildings look right (ie. Falling down with no roof), but I cant make anything obvious out on google maps.

Edited by brack
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some youtube

Los Andes to Rio blanco on the Cummins bus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJGPzfefZt8

 

photos ive not seen before

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhqBknqavck

 

something i forgot to mention, there was a car carrying service as seen at the end of this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI3VAvCi784

 

a short clip of a double header going over what looks like the bridge at Cachueta

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xNYXhnKduw

 

the depth of the snow and the rotary plough in action

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gxutamu7Yg

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