RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted September 15, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted September 15, 2021 (edited) 6 hours ago, New Haven Neil said: Great shots of Panama, Jamie. It occurs to me that despite having made several transits in both directions, you have seen a lot more of it that I did - you can't see much from the engineroom of a ship ( ), and watches are double-manned going through so it's work or sleep....pah! It tok 12 hours from dawn to dusk and I must have lost some weight charging up and down the stairs to get the starboard side photos. The commentary was excellent . All in all a day not to be missed. Not sure that Beth found it as interesting though. Jamie Edited September 15, 2021 by jamie92208 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium New Haven Neil Posted September 15, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 15, 2021 Our transits were always in the dark, I wonder if they keep the daylight groups for passenger vessels? Taking fuel oil bunkers in Panama City is a strong memory, humidity and heat, and the biggest cockroaches ever on the quayside - plus the trains bustling around, quite an experience. I'm looking forward to the continuation of the Tardis trips! 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted September 15, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted September 15, 2021 1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said: Our transits were always in the dark, I wonder if they keep the daylight groups for passenger vessels? Taking fuel oil bunkers in Panama City is a strong memory, humidity and heat, and the biggest cockroaches ever on the quayside - plus the trains bustling around, quite an experience. I'm looking forward to the continuation of the Tardis trips! Yes the passenger ships pay a substantial premium for garunteed time slots and daylight passage. Jamie 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted September 16, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted September 16, 2021 (edited) Good evening from a rather dark Charente. The Tardis is still in Costa Rica and it's still the 4th January 2007. Having thanked the manager profusely I set off to have a look round the workshop complex. There was quite a bit of stock around mostly in a state of decrepitude. There was a breakdown crane though. There is also, in the entre a pylon from the electrification that took place in, I think the 60's, with European aid money. It didn't last too long apparently the locals found out that when their lights went out, the overhead went dead as well and the copper fairies got active. Here a not very good interior shot with another caboose in the foreground. At least 2 coaches were being refurbished to a fairly high standard to attract American cruise ship passengers. This lift was to make it ADA compliant for Holland America line. Whilst wandering round another security guard came and asked what I was doing. He seemed happy with my halting replies but then came round with me. With so much rain, wellies are essential. The railcar was apparently French Built And this was the main servicing track. Even worse than Blyth Cambois but a good bit warmer. Jamie Edited April 15, 2022 by jamie92208 15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted September 16, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 16, 2021 1 hour ago, jamie92208 said: And this was the main servicing track. Even worse than Blyth Cambois but a good bit warmer. Jamie Any idea of what happened to the locomotive on the left? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted September 16, 2021 Share Posted September 16, 2021 likely fallen and rolled over 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted September 16, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted September 16, 2021 36 minutes ago, PhilJ W said: Any idea of what happened to the locomotive on the left? No idea I'm afraid. My Spanish isn't up to asking questions like that. However Sam's idea is probably right. Jamie 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted September 17, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted September 17, 2021 (edited) Good morning from a rather misty Charente. The Tardis is still in Limon, Costa Rica and it's still 4th January 2007. After seeing the running shed..... I made my way back to the office and thanked the manager for letting me round. The security guard let me out and I followed the track back into town. This is the link line from the workshops to the port. Then it was off into town to find some Evo Stick, I hadn't forgotten the other task. I eventually found an ironmongers and after a trip to the cash machine bought the necessary. Back at the ship I repaired the sandal and yes, Cinderella did go to the ball. Some brownie points were gained. We set off eastwards that evening heading through a force 8 gale for Aruba. Sunday service the next morning, in the theatre was a moving experience, with the speaker stacks swinging on their cables. And guess what we sang, The Manx Fishermen's song, "For those in Peril on the Sea". No trains were found on Aruba but we did get supplies of Stilton. Then it was on to Trinidad. On the 7th January we moored there and after a stroll round the centre I was allowed to head for the docks on my own. I did find some rails leading into the dock area. And this was the main railway station. Sadly it is now a bus station, with the whole, standard gauge system having closed in, I think the late 50's. I think one of the locos is preserved as a static exhibit at the Middleton railway in Leeds. However this muriel is inside the bus station. And the train shed is now a market. There is however a reminder of days gone by on the main doors of the old station building. Nearby I found a park, and this was parked in it. Cosmetically restored but no sign of what it was or it's history. I wondered if it was a Porter. And that's it for early 2007. No railways to see on Barbados, but there are still more travels to come. Jamie Edited April 15, 2022 by jamie92208 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Northroader Posted September 17, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 17, 2021 (edited) Looking at that damaged loco, I’d say it was a sideswipe on converging tracks. Edited September 17, 2021 by Northroader 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted September 17, 2021 Share Posted September 17, 2021 https://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/trains/trinidad01.htm 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted September 17, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 17, 2021 There was a railway on Barbados but it was long gone when I visited the island in the late 70's. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbados_Railway Subsequently a tourist railway has been built. https://www.therailwayhub.co.uk/5262/a-railway-in-barbados-again/ 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold PaulRhB Posted September 17, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 17, 2021 53 minutes ago, sir douglas said: https://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/trains/trinidad01.htm From Sir Douglas’ link 1168 of 1914 HE = Hunslet Engine Co. Not much more on the Leeds Loco site apart from it’s original number. http://www.leedsengine.info/leeds/locolist.asp?page=1&order=SELECT+*+FROM+locos+WHERE+ID+>+-1+AND+phact+AND+(NOT+notls)+AND+[Builder]+LIKE+'%he%'+AND+[Builder]LIKE+'%%'++ORDER+by+[Works+No] 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted September 17, 2021 Share Posted September 17, 2021 There used to be a Ransomes built single-deck trolleybus dating from the late 1940's in use as an office somewhere in Port of Spain - certainly into the 1990's, though whether it still exists is another matter. The system closed in 1956 - scroll to the end of this for some info... http://www.tramz.com/tt/tt.html 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold PaulRhB Posted September 17, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 17, 2021 (edited) 2 hours ago, jamie92208 said: However this muriel is inside the bus station. And . . . . . . she looks fabulous! Edited September 17, 2021 by PaulRhB Sorry couldn’t resist the ancient joke ;) 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted September 18, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted September 18, 2021 (edited) Good morning from a rather damp Charente Maritime. The Tardis has now moved on to December 2007 and for various reasons I had gone to El Salvador with a church based group to help build an earthquake proof house in a jungle township. We were hosted by a local Baptist church and the 14 of us were accommodated in members houses. We were picked up each day in an old US school bus. and the pick up took about an hour and a half. I had seen somewhere that the railway system had closed down but to my surprise at one of the stops there were some tracks and a hoarding advertising a commuter service. The tracks ran through shanty type dwellings Clearances were a little tight and the tracks were well used by the local inhabitants both for freight an passengers. However the rails did look used. It turned out that the commuter service had only restarted in the November before we arrived. Jamie Edited April 15, 2022 by jamie92208 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted September 19, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted September 19, 2021 (edited) Good afternoon from a sunny place. It was sunny all the time in El Salvador. I think that this must have been the 9th December 2007, another well maintained crossing. The next 2 weeks were taken up with building work in the township and by the 20th we had helped finish the house. Steel sheet windows and about the size of a double garage but with electricity and rain and animal proof. The family were very pleased as they had had to rebuild their mud and palm house 3 times in 20 years. That night as they were dropping us off I saw the tracks near the pastors house in use, unfortunately not by rail traffic. However things got better. My interest in trains had been noted and one of the teenagers, who acted as interpreters, asked if I would like to visit the railway HQ. Her grandad was a retired railwayman. Of course I said yes and on Christmas Eve, 5 of us piled into a taxi and drove into town. This was the sight as we got out of the taxi. At last a piece of rolling stock. We got past the armed guards at the gate with Alex leading the way and this sight greeted me. FENADESAL is the national railway operator. I believe that the loco is a GM product with an 800 HP motor mounted in the centre of the underframe with cardan shafts driving the two bogies. Jamie Edited April 15, 2022 by jamie92208 14 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium John M Upton Posted September 19, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 19, 2021 2 hours ago, jamie92208 said: We got past the armed guards at the gate with Alex leading the way and this sight greeted me. FENADESAL is the national railway operator. I believe that the loco is a GM product with an 800 HP motor mounted in the centre of the underframe with cardan shafts driving the two bogies. Jamie A bit of digging around confirms this to be an export model from EMD, a GA-8. Sixteen purchased number 851 to 866. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted September 19, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 19, 2021 3 hours ago, jamie92208 said: We got past the armed guards at the gate with Alex leading the way and this sight greeted me. FENADESAL is the national railway operator. I believe that the loco is a GM product with an 800 HP motor mounted in the centre of the underframe with cardan shafts driving the two bogies. Jamie They had an 850hp diesel engine powering two 400hp underframe mounted motors driving the wheels through cardan shafts. The trucks (bogies) were standard freight car ones. The gauge was 914 mm (3 feet) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_GA8 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted September 19, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted September 19, 2021 (edited) On 14/09/2021 at 02:52, ChrisH-UK said: Those don't look like sloths to me, sloths can be the right way up but given a tree and the choice would prefer to hang beneath it. They look more like howler monkeys (I googled "costa rica primates" then did an ID parade) First of all an apology to Chris, I've just been back through my Costa Rica photos and have found my photo of a Sloth. You were quite right about the Howler monkeys. Here's the Sloth doing not a lot, Sorry. I've also found my book about the railways of Costa Rica. It's an interesting tale and re reading it has cleared a lot up in my mind. Briefly there were always two systems that met rather awkwardly in the capital San Jose. The Pacific lines and the Atlantic lines. Ownership was complex and divided between the United Fruit Company and a company in London and also the government. All lines were nationalised in the 70's and went through various names and Spanish acronyms but now operate as Incofer. The Pacific lines were electrified in the 1930's at 15 KV. Some of the Atlantic lines from Limon north towards Nicaragua were electrified at 25Kv overhead with European money. Alsthom built the locos which could operate on either voltage. The mountainous and very steep link from the Atlantic coast lines to San Jose was never electrified and the railway bought the more powerful GE U10B and U11B diesels in 1979 these are in the number series 50-59, 75 to 79 of 1050 HP and and 80 to 90 of 1100 HP respectively. The last 11 were financed by an oil company to haul oil trains up to the capital. The line up through the mountains was closed by landslides in 1988. The electrification had been abandoned by then and the Alsthom locos had gone to the Pacific section. The isolated lines from Limon serve mainly banana plantation both north and south of the town. According to the book, one early diesel was earmarked for scrap but was 'hidden' by workers at the workshop and painted yellow to act as shop shunter, it's a GE 60 tonner no 5 builders no 29202. I think that this is it, apologies for the very poor photo. No 34 that was in the picture in the Dole yard is an earlier 400 HP GE as Mike Walker said. The damaged loco on the servicing point is one of the U11's probably 88. From looking at it I would support the roll over theory as the centre of the cab and the engine hood look to be intact along with the main frame and footplate. Jamie Edited April 15, 2022 by jamie92208 8 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted September 20, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted September 20, 2021 (edited) Good morning, the Tardis is still in El Salvador and it's still Christmas Eve 2007. After paying 10 cents (US) for our return tickets to Apopa we boarded the train and set off. This was the view from the rear coach. Apparently the railway owns 17' either side of the track but the shanties date from the civil war era (1980's) when the capital was flooded with refugees. Obviously no garages so just park your beetle next to the track. Here we were crossing one of the main roads out of the capital, San Salvador. Quite bit of the route was along the sides of steep and deep ravines. These areas were notorious in the civil war as it is believed a lot of the 'disappeared' were dumped in such places. The railway were trying to get some revenue so had painted 4 coaches in advertising livery. One was for a burger chain. Here you can see my host Tony and his younger son David. They had never been on a train in their lives and had many questions ofr me. Here we are at Apopa, the end of the restored operation. El Salvador used to have a 500 Km network that even connected with Guatemala. That line was part of the International Railways of Central America (IRCA) that was owned by the United Fruit Company. The whole network got very run down and closed in 2002. When a bridge carrying the main southern highway out of the capital collapsed in, IIRC, 2005 there ws a short lived commuter service to Soyapango. The service to Apopa, 15km was on the route that went to the port of Acajutla which is the main port for the country. From Apopa it runs round the north of a large and active volcano, and through a town called Sonsonate towards the port. There used to be regular oil traffic to San Salvador from the port. Anyway here our loco, another GA-8 had to run round. You can see a heavily armed transport policemen in the cab. There were four on the train altogether. There had been fears that the resumption of services would be opposed by the shanty dwellers along the route. You don't expect to see security staff with assault rifles and pistols, plus CS, on a short commuter train. And head towards the other end of the train. Before coming back towards us. So far so good. Jamie Edited April 15, 2022 by jamie92208 16 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium John M Upton Posted September 20, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 20, 2021 Not sure I can make out the number... 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted September 21, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted September 21, 2021 (edited) Good moaning again from the Charente. The Tardis is still in Apopa El Salvador and it's still 24th December 2007. The day got better as I mentioned to Tony that it would be great to get on the loco. In a minute we were up in the cab for the ride back to San Salvador. This was the view looking back at the train. As we went past the church pastors house his wife had come out to wave. The multicoloured train looked interesting.The right of way between the shanties looked very narrow. We stopped many times to pick up people taking produce to the market to sell. We then made a special stop for them all to get off at the back of the market. Our driver, Romero who was an excellent host. He had some interesting stories to tell of continuing to work during the civil war when he sympathies were for the rebels. He had 3 bullet wounds in his legs. I wished him well as they were planning to extend the service to the next township. He then went off to re-marshall the train for the afternoon run. I looked across at this inviting sight. Jamie Edited April 16, 2022 by jamie92208 15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted September 22, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted September 22, 2021 (edited) Good morning again. It's still Christmas Eve 2007 and I'm still at the railway HQ in San Salvador. From the station, with Alexandria's Grandad as a guide we walked across to the workshops. Various bits of rolling stock were in the repair shop. However in the roundhouse were two steam locos that looked in good condition. I believe that they were formerly ICRA locos and I was told that they were in working order and had in the past done photo charters. Another view of them. There was also a nother type of diesel. I think German built from memory. And another GM-8 in an earlier livery. Jamie Edited April 16, 2022 by jamie92208 15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted September 23, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted September 23, 2021 (edited) Good moaning from the Charente. The Tardis is still in San Salvador and it's still 24th December 2007. A last look at the roundhouse before we went to the workshops. The workshops had two bays with a traverser between them 866 was here. Most of the rolling stock was here but apparently some items were at Sonsanata half way along the line to the coast north east of the capital. New seat frames in the woodworking shop for refurbishing more coaches. A general view of the yard. In the waiting room there were some old photos on the wall. I was told that this was the southern terminus of the system near the Nicaraguan border. The line south heads off through Syapango and then past the area where we built the house. Our train loco had by now finished it's shunting. It had attached a water tanker between the loco and the coaches. This was to spray to keep dust down in the afternoon. That was to avoind making life more difficult for the shanty dwellers. Jamie Edited April 16, 2022 by jamie92208 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted September 24, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted September 24, 2021 (edited) Bon Apres midi de La Charente. The Tardis is still in San Salvador and it's still Christmas Eve 2007. After we came out of the workshops the top end of the yard was visible with a caboose. Then 851 and a coach in need of a bit of tlc. 862 had now acquired a running mate to help haul the afternoon train. We then went round the back of the works and found this steam crane hiding in the undergrowth There was also a line of tank wagons from when the oil trains had been running. A fully air conditioned cab for the steam crane. And a final photo of our guide, Alex's grandfather. He has since died and Alex was very grateful for this photo of him. Alex is now happily married with a child and living in New York. It was then time to find a taxi and head back to the house in Soyapango. Jamie Edited April 16, 2022 by jamie92208 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now