Re: Riding the Trans Andino Railway - February 1977

After crossing into Chile and traversing the (nearly) 2 mile long summit tunnel, the our diesel cars started down the west side of the Andes, with easy grades at first, followed by a steep descent with grades up to 8 percent. The train lost 7,783 feet of elevation in the 41 miles Los Andes at 2,669 ft. This was a tough climb eastbound for the Kitson-Meyer 0-8-6-2 cog-and-adhesion engines. In 1927 the Chilean side of the railroad was electrified using Swiss-built locomotives, although the Kitson-Meyer engines remained in service, and were the primary power on the Argentine side.

Descending the steep grade on the Chilean side, the diesel railcars are about to enter a snow shed







An electric train on the Chilean side (this slide was sent to me by a railfan friend, but at this moment I am not sure who it was)



By 1977 all of the Kitson-Meyers were retired except for one that was kept in reserve for snow plow duty. Unfortunately it was kept in the Los Andes engine house and was difficult to access for photos. (I took this photo in November 1978 on my next South America trip)



We were lucky to ride the Trans Andino when we did. Later in 1977 passenger service from Argentina to Chile was halted because of the Beagle Channel island conflict. Passenger service resumed in 1978, but was terminated in 1979. Through freight service ended in 1984, and trains only operate on a section of the Chilean side for mining traffic using diesel power.

The next part of our trip explored broad gauge steam action (as well as volcanoes and alpine lakes) in southern Chile (a possible future thread)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/2024 09:26AM by Olaf Rasmussen.