International Railroad Discussion > Cement hoppers in Chile

Pedro's post of Brazilian hoppers got me to dig out a few from here.  The ones lettered for a particular company seem to have disappeared, now just the bland curved side version.  Here, most cement operations are served by trucks and many do not have a rail connection at all.

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Images of what is seen today

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Hi Alan, the cement cars in Chile  re very nice. Too bad the trucks took their place. The second one looks to be adapted ona flat car.

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

pedrop Wrote:
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> Hi Alan, the cement cars in Chile  re very nice.
> Too bad the trucks took their place. The second
> one looks to be adapted ona flat car.

Polpaico had quite a few of these.   They also had a five-mile railroad connecting with the EFE, later Fepasa, mainline.  They had a 45 ton GE switcher to haul the cars from the plant to the mainline.  Fepasa took over the operation but now the track has been pulled up.
Here are photos of both the Polpaico and Fepasa trains:

1.  Polpaico GE and train at the cement plant.  1-17-94

2.  Fepasa GE 70 ton 6112 heading to the mainline.  1-9-04

Cemento Melon had a 12 mile meter-gauge operation from their mine to the plant at La Calera.  This was badly damaged by the Feb 2010 earthquake so they too switched to trucks.   Since part of the line was leased from Ferronor it still exists but FN doesn't run trains south of Vallenar at the present time but from time to time talk about restoring operations.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/15 18:58 by masterphots.

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2nd picture sure looks like a PS-2 covered hopper imported from North America.  Cool!

Nice yard switchers. We have some small GE in steel plants also, but the cement plants here use road railers or old locomotives like Orestein Koppel. Holcim had a RSC3 and Alco/GE244, that were sold for another company years ago.

Pedro

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1