Olaf,
Great to see a working freight train. When I was there in 1991 with Trains Unlimited we had a staged double headed freight. I stayed on after the tour left for BA in order to chase the weekly mixto from Jacobacci. The following day, Wednesday, I stopped into the dispatcher's office in El Maiten and asked him what the schedule was for today. He wrote it out in beautiful long hand and handed it to me. I almost jumped for joy, there was a Tren de Carga scheduled for today, But as I was about to dash out of the office it dawned on me that nobody had seen a freight train in several years. I then asked him what was actually operating today and he said there was a light engine move out of Cerro Mesa to Mamuel Choique to retrieve a pair of dead engines. I asked him what time and he said 11:00 mas o meno.
We took of for Cerro Mesa like a bat out of hell, pulling into Cerro Mesa at 10:50 to find a loco facing east with the blower on and ready to go. Exactly as promised!
Apparently the freight was scheduled for every Wednesday and annulled every Wednesday. I learned a lesson to always ask the right question!
Michael Allen