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FLB Friends of Latin American Railroads PR-OFFICE: Samuel Rachdi, Bahnhof, CH-6422 Steinen SZ; Tel. +41/41/832.01.34; Fax +41/41/832.01.35 Email: info@fahrplancenter.com
VOLTA O TREM Information Organ of the Association Friends of Latin American Railways 11th Year, Number 3 30th September 2007 Very important information: The meeting of 13th October 2007 HAS BEEN CANCELLED The next meeting will take place on the 1st December 2007 at Winterthur, at the old Nagelfabrik "Nagli" (old Nails factory), St. Gallerstrase 138, opposite Winterthur-Grüze railway station. This can be reached by S12 (Seen branch) and S26 to Winterthur-Grüze station or by Bus 3, 5 and 14 to Grüzestrasse, then 10 minutes walk straight ahead along St. Gallerstrasse (do not turn off)
FLB Notes VERY IMPORTANT! The meeting of 13th October 2007 has been cancelled! The next meeting will take place on the 1st December 2007 at Winterthur, at the old Nagelfabrik "Nagli" (old Nails factory), St. Gallerstrase 138, opposite Winterthur-Grüze railway station. This can be reached by S12 (Seen branch) and S26 to Winterthur-Grüze station or by Bus 3, 5 and 14 to Grüzestrasse, then 10 minutes walk straight ahead along St. Gallerstrasse (do not turn off) LATIN AMERICA NEWS Argentina Trenes de Buenos Aires increased services to Rosario from weekly to a daily departure Monday to Friday. These services are run by ex-Renfe class 593 diesel multiple units which have been repainted in violet/grey by TBA. August 15, 2007 Ferrocentral reinstated Tren de las Sierras between Córdoba Rodriguez del Busto and La Calera (14 km); two pairs of trains are offered, but they are only sold out on weekends, when all three ex-Portuguese Railways dmu must be put into service. El Salvador Cepa/FENADESAL are about to reactivate suburban services between San Salvador and Apopa. Two pairs of trains are foreseen for every working day; one way fare has been fixet at 0,10 Colones. We received confirmation that the most westerly line is out of service between Sabalo and Guane since a hurricane destroyed the line and a bridge heavily. The North coast line Santa Clara - Morón - Nuevitas is back in service after some infrastructure repairs. Due to lack of rolling stock the national trains Habana - Holguín and Habana - Guantánamo remain out of service, buses are running instead. Mexico Genessee & Wyoming Railroad have ceased operations in Mexico because the Mexican Government didn not pay for reconstruction of the hurricane damaged Ixtepec – Tapachula line. Because of this the Chiapas - Mayab Railway ended all operations. The national Isthmo de Tehuantepec Railroad runs freight trains to Coatzacoalcos on a temporary basis. by Torsten Schneider, Talstraße 7, 77948 Friesenheim, Tel. +7821/62417, t.schneider@fh-offenburg.de Paraguay Paraguay Railway FEPASA is still alive. At Asunción, Sapucay and Encarnación some activity can still be seen. During winter every second Sunday Tren del Lago tourist train runs Asunción - Areguá, pulled by steam loco 54 or 521; at Sapucay main works the last usable locomotive # 151 is steamed up very rarely and spare parts for the locos at Asunción and Encarnación are still produced; At Encarnación steam locomotives # 59, 60, 101 and 104 are usable and two of them are steamed up daily for shunting freight wagons which are brought to/from Argentina by ALL diesels. At Encarnación Soya is transferred from trucks to rail wagons. This part of the railway is still under threat if a further dam across river Paraná may be built. In a correction to VoT 10-3, there are no more usable tramway cars at Asunción, only coach 9003 is more or less complete. The remainders of 9001, 9005 and probably 9007, as well as of 9006 earlier exposed as a memorial near the railway station have, however been deprived of most usable parts. Brasil There are often "news" about operating industrial steam locomotives in Brasil in the Internet. They are no longer true. The only steam locos still operating are two Sentinel locos at the Amsted Maxion wagon works at Cruzeiro (SP), but of the two (# 166 & 167) only one is in operation at a time. They are just shunting flat wagons with steel parts on the western end of the industrial yard; there is also a self-made diesel loco at the other end of the works. Between São Paulo and Cruzeiro near Taubaté at the Vale do Itaim natural reserve a 2 km railway circle is operating with 2 steam locos (a SLM and a Linke-Hofmann, both eucalyptus wood fired) ex-Usina Serra Grande São José da Laje (AL). They use coaches of former Federal Railways RFFSA. Trains are running several times Thursday to Sunday.
ABPF-Santa Catarina has been running very successfully a test steam train from Marcelino Ramos to Gaurama in Rio Grande do Sul over 42 km) on July 8, 2007. It was the very first steam train after 40 years, the first passenger train after 30 years and the first public train after 11 years on this line! ABPF plans to run regular services over this very scenic line.
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