El Maiten yards and brake systems

Forgot to add that they do use the vacume brake system. In fact they only use about half the trains brake lines. This time they were using some extra cars for braking. Couplers are standard knuckle with safety chains between the cars. Passenger stock is a mixture of different shapes and sizes.

They usually have about 2-4 locos in service. The yards in El Maiten is littered with dumped steam locos. Many are two far gone to be of any service again. Many of the engines came to the Esquel line from other parts of the 75 cm network that was never connected to the mainline. In fact some unused locos were still packed in a warehouse on the coast till early 1960's. All the locos were ordered in 1922 from both Baldwin and Henchel. The Government of Argentina went on a spending spree for the 75 cm equipment and ordered far more than was needed.

Dale Brown