Re: Amazing NG rail vehicles outside NZ bush

Here is a somewhat conventional rail bus, converted from a highway bus to run on the 3 foot 6 inch gauge in Ecuador. Passengers are welcome to ride on the roof top luggage rack to enjoy the extra space, fresh air, and the view. The roof must be ridden with caution, especially in villages where low hanging wires often cross the tracks. Riding from Sibambe to Cuenca we came thru the village of Chunchi. While some of us roof riders were ducking behind the luggage, we watched in horror as one of our Ecuadorian guides was a little too slow. A wire twanged across the front suitcase and caught him right between the eyes. Although he bled profusely, his eyes were uninjured and he recovered from his cuts in fairly short order.

Another idiosyncracy of these buses is that they have difficulty maintaining traction on the 5 percent grades. Near the driver seat there is a hole in the floor, and next to it is a bucket of sand. On straight track the hole aligns with the right hand rail and the assistant can sprinkle sand thru the hole, however on a curve that alignment is lost and the bus can spin to a stop. On one bus trip we didn't have an assistant and my 6 year old daughter happily took on the sanding job. Unfortunately if the bus comes to a stop, the rails can't be sanded effectively, since the sand hole is in the front and the drive wheels are in the back. On that occasion we ended up stopped a couple of times, so I helped my daughter by getting off and sanding the rail ahead of the drive wheels. The result was predictable....the bus took off like a shot, and I was left running after the bus. Well, I always managed to get back on when the driver slowed enough. (These fuzzy photos are from digitized super 8 video).





Here is the 6-year old sanding assistant riding a box car roof with her mom





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/2019 05:05PM by Olaf Rasmussen.