From San Antonio (Oeste) intermittently to Bariloche An interrupted start
Obverse and reverse of the medal presumably struck to commemorate the start of works in 1910.
The plans were approved in August 1909, under law 5559, and work began on the first 110 km. to Valcheta. Construction of all three Patagonian lines was under the overall direction of Ingeniero D. Guido Jacobacci who took personal command of this particular route. A photo of a narrow gauge 0-4-0T arriving on a lorry for use in the construction is displayed in Chapter 12. Most materials arrived by sea at San Antonio where a new muelle was built - soon to be surrounded by railway stores and workshops and the first temporary station. A railway hospital was built and houses for the engineers and administrators. In 1910 President Figueroa Alcorta paid a visit to inaugurate the new line. In December 1909 the second section had been approved, at a similar cost of around 19,000 gold pesos per km. Km. 217 (west of Ministro Ramos Mexia) seems to have been reached by September 1911. By 1915 the line had been opened another 151km. to Maquinchao, but war conditions slowed work thereafter and although rails stretched as far as Ing. Jacobacci in early 1917 no further progress was made. From March 1916 the line became the responsibility of the FC del Estado, up to that time having been constructed directly by the Ministry of Public Works. Work began again in 1922 and by the end of 1923 the operating line was 281 miles long. Construction was then started eastwards, back towards Viedma, with a view to linking up with the main Argentine network via a 200m bridge across the río Negro to Patagones. Viedma was reached by 1925 but even then the line remained isolated from most of the Argentinian system, for it was only in 1936 that the river was bridged to join the FCE line to the Buenos Aires Great Southern network and create a through route to the Federal Capital. Progress westward was slower, and Pilcaniyeu was not reached until not until1926. After further delay a bigger effort was then made to finish the line; opening finally to San Carlos de Bariloche in 1934. It is worth noting that there had been plans to extend the broad gauge further, to Llao-Llao, south to El Bolson, and even across the Andes to Osorno in Chile. Work on the first of these, and on a grand hotel at Llao-Llao, was summarily halted by Dr. Perez, the new Administrator-General, on the occasion of his visit in 1925 (). San Antonio and its works The railway's starting point and port facilities were on the west side of the bay and given the vast tidal range at this location (approx. 9 m at springs) they obviously dried out at low tide. It is interesting to note that Ing. Jacobacci was talking in the 1920s of a proposed 47km branch around the east side of the bay to a proposed new deep water facility (1). This was never built. When the line to Viedma was commenced it branched off the original line to the west of the town before rounding the north of the bay. This left San Antonio on a short branch. The railway initially built muelles for the unloading of materials. Offices for the management, a hospital, houses for the senior staff, and a 'barrio' of workers' accommodation all grew up. The works were first established to erect the new locos, but grew to maintain all the stock on the line, which for its first twenty or more years was isolated from the rest of Argentina's broad gauge network. Most tasks could be dealt with, in a wagon shop, paintshop, boilermakers' shop, and having even a wheel lathe for loco driving wheels. There was also a large 'vias y obras' area for the permanent way and civil engineering teams. Power for the workshops came initially from a 30hp Blackstone engine though in 2000 the site still had a Ruston steam portable engine lying derelict. Later of course electric power was increasingly used, from the town's own generating plant. A catastrophe came in November 1943 when a large part of the works burnt down. However the new manager, Don Bernardo Aimar, shifted machines to local warehouses and soon managed to resume work on an improvised basis. However, from 1950 onwards the role of the works began to decline (). The narrow gauge Esquel line established its own facilities at El Maiten. Then the broad gauge steam locos were replaced by diesels, maintained in Bahia Blanca. Wooden wagons and coaches were succeeded by steel and aluminium-bodied vehicles. In 1961 the government proposed to shut the workshops, together with a number of other national railway facilities. Eventually a solution was found in the transfer of the works to a separate cooperative, COMSAL, which would subcontract work on wagons from the FC General Roca. Additional jobs were taken on in the repair of equipment from the fishing fleet and for the YPF state petroleum business. Activity since then has been erratic though there is still a little work to be undertaken for the new owners of the railway, SEFEPA. Main features of the route A comprehensive list of locations on the line with their facilities is in an appendix page. Click here to move to that page. Water supply for locomotives was always a problem at the San Antonio end of the line, being brought down in tanks from the reliable stream at Valcheta. This problem must have contributed to the early decision to go diesel in 1953. One of the smaller wayside stations on the approach to Bariloche.
The Pichileufü bridge about 30 miles before Bariloche. The coach over the right hand pier is an FC Sud type R7 sleeping car, one of 18 built in 1922/23 on six-wheel bogies.
A postcard of the station at San Carlos de Bariloche probably shortly after the opening of the line in 1934 ().
One of the TB class three-car Ganz diesel units sits in Bariloche station in about 1938.
A more recent view (2000) of Bariloche engine shed, just west of the station and the true end of the line.
Operating
Like most railways in Argentina the FCE used British style semaphore signals. In the smaller stations these would be worked from an open ground frame. The latter were definitely not of British style. The picture far left illustrates a four lever frame and the extreme movement of the levers - almost down to ground level - can be seen. The weights part-way down the levers allow for wire length compensation in varying temperatures and also make it easier to pull a stiff wire. The first movement of the lever initially raises the weight a little rather than jerking the whole length of wire; by the time the wire actually gives, the lever is moving well; and the weight's movement back down the lever puts extra tension on the wire.
Traffic
The most interesting figure in the above table is the last one. Clearly at this stage the railway's biggest task was the transport of new material to the railhead in preparation for its extension further west. Overall tonnages for the line including its narrow gauge branches from 1916 to 1941 are in the following table:
More detailed figures for passenger and cargo in the early 1940s were published in the FCEs's history of Argentinean railways (3). They are reproduced below: Whilst the passenger figures are not far from those in the table above, the commercial traffic figures for 1941 and 1942 are now not far below the totals in the above table, showing that the railway's own materials were now far less important as one would expect.
FC General Roca SEFEPA Recent news References: 26-5-08 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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