> Hi Bob,
Thanks for the reply. I have been to the Cusco and Santa Ana several times. On
several of the tours, passengers who had taken prior tours had pointed out a area
where there had been a large collection of dumped or out of service
locomotives. They were surprised to see that the area was completely changed.
No sign of locomotives, shops or remains. Professor John Kirshner of California
is leading authority on locomotive dispositions in South America. He may have
some information about the fate of this locomotive.
I believe that this was in 1999 and then in 2000. They said that only 5-6 years
ago the locomotives had been there. Everyone was very surprized how cleaned up
things were. If the #50 had survived till then, more than likely it is
scrapped. There is a Henschel 2-8-2 #123 on display in Cusco from this line.
Also a small 0-6-0t had been in the shops in Cusco on display. In 2001 it was
gone. I believe the new company PeruRail had moved it somewhere.
My Wife was with the inspection team for PeruRail that did the first tour of
the line in 1999. She said that the Brits were getting showed what the ENEFER (Empressa
National Ferrocarril)people wanted them to see. She acted as a interpeter for the inspection. When the tour noticed a steam locomotive in a loco shed, they denied that it existed. They never got into see the loco. That was 4 years ago. What kind of relationship exist now, it could be much different? The Government ENEFER people wanted to keep certain items out of control of the Concession. There was a lot of tension during the takeover of the three
national railroads by both PeruRail (Peru Southern and Machu Picchu lines) and
RDC (Central of Peru) in 1999. The PeruRail offer has been questioned by some
of those in Congress that they were given a special deal. The story of the year in
2000 was a huge scandal. It showed former President Fujimore's, Security Chief
Montessino in 1000s of hours of video tapes of bribes that showed that much of
the Government Officials, Congress and Judges had been involved. Both Railroad companies
have moved to improve their image here in Peru and have added extra service for
the locals on some passenger trains.
That is the present and past situation in a nutshell.
Regards
Dale Brown
Lima, Peru
