The 2-foot gauge railroad from Saboya to Capitan Pastene in Chile

Since I touched briefly on this 2-foot gauge railroad in southern Chile (post "NG Christmas cards from Brazil. Nicaragua, Mexico"), I thought I would provide a bit more detail on another fascinating railroad that I might have had a chance to see had I known about it when it was still operating. This 2-foot gauge line ran from Saboya, north of Temuco, southwestward into the Valdivian Forest coast range, to the Italian "colony" of Capitan Pastene. The railroad had a length of 22 miles and operated with three steam locomotives. While my interpretation of Spanish is not the greatest, I gathered that the railroad had one first class coach, one third class coach and numerous freight cars. I also concluded that much of the freight business was wood products. By March 1972 when Ken Mills took the below photo, it appears that passenger service was provided by a diesel railcar, and freight, if any, was conveyed by a tri-weekly steam powered mixed train. Undoubtedly trucks and buses took away the railroad's traffic, and the line closed in 1978.



In 1920 business was likely more substantial, as shown here with a passenger train in Capitan Pastene



At least two of the steam engines were built by Jung in Germany, including the 0-6-2T in the first photo. One of the steam locomotives, a Jung 0-6-0T was saved and is now on display in Santiago. The three engines all appeared to be different, with the little Jung 0-6-0T likely the least powerful. ( I lost track of the saved 0-6-0T, and will post later).