International Railroad Discussion > Santiago Railroad Musuem

I know a lot of railfans don't like shooting ralroad musuems. For me, I'll shoot anything on display. It's usually the only place that type of locomotive still exists and I enjoy capturing their images for myself. While in Santiago I wound up at the railroad musuem there by myself. Comparing this to Los Angele's similar Travel Town, I have to say Santiago is keeping its display equipment in much better shape and the whole thing is set up to show off the locomotives. For me, this was a "Well Done."

Here are a few images to share.

Image one is an Arn Jung (German) tank engine that had been used by the Chilean Army.

Image two is an Alco Mountain (Type 110). 

Image three is the Kitson Meyer 0-8-0+0-6-0T from the Transandine.

 

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Image four is a Henschel Northern (Type 100).

Images five and six are of an Alco 2-6-0 (Type 57) on a girder bridge.


 

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Image seven is of three Borsig locomotives.

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Number 3 is so burly!  I love it.

-John

Do you happen to have more pics of the kitson-Meyer locomotive?!  What a great modeling project. Is it narrow gauge?
CM80.46

The Kinset is narrow guage. I don't have enough shots to model it from, but here are three more.

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Thank you for  the additional shots. Love the safety chain and hook, the additional plow blade on top of the pilot, and the builders plate to make further reaserch so much easier.
Did you travel there for railfanning or other reasons? Looks like a nice collection of equipment.
CM80.46

Was there to railfan... have a couple other threads with pics from early in the trip.

CM80-46 Wrote:
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!  What a great modeling
> project. Is it narrow gauge?
> CM80.46

This locomotive is actually meter gauge. In Chile, the souther rail network (broadly speaking, to the south of Santiago) is broad (66 inch/1676 mm) gauge, while the northern routes (north of Santiago, plus the Transandine) are meter gauge. Another point to note is that this is a combined rack-and-adhesion locomotive. The "front" engine (the 0-8-0) works on adhesion only, while the rear engine powers the rack gears; the six rail wheels are carriers only. If you look closely at the close-up photo of the rear engine, it is clear that the wheeled axles are not fitted with counterweights or coupling rods; the main rod and coupling rods are instead connected to two jackshafts, in between the carrying axles, that carry the gears that drive on the rack I don't remember how the Whyte system nomenclature works with this kind of wheel arrangement - maybe 0-8-0 + 0-6(2R)-0 ?

Interestingly, the Chilean Transandine was an "early adopter" of electrification (Chile, like Switzerland, has plenty of hydro-electric power, at least in the central provinces, and this probably had a lot to do wit the choice). I don't have access to my information right now, but as far as I can remember the electrified section extended from Los Andes in Chile, eastward through the summit tunnel to Potrerillos in Argentina, not far (about a mile?) from the tunnel mouth. There, Kitson-Meyer rack-and-adhesion locomotives (similar to the Chilean one shown here) of the Argentine Transandine took over for the rack section southbound downhill to, I think, Punta de Vacas, where adhesion working took over and the line turned east towards Puente del Inca. 

Because of the electrification, I'm not sure why the Chilean Transandine even retained a Kitson-Meyer; I suspect it was kept operational for emergency use when wires were down, or maybe it was used on a non-electrified branch to a mine. Not a lot of information has been published on this line; "Railways of the Andes", which I thought would contain at least some details, only goes as far south as the Antofagasta (Chile) to Salta (Argentina) line, and completely ignores the Santiago to Mendoza route (Note to self: must do some more internet research. As if I had that much free time to mess around with...). Oh, and just forestall all of you who are sure to ask for photos: sorry, I don't have any. In 1953, Argentina was run by the nationalistic Peron autocracy, which was suspicious of anyone taking pictures in "sensitive areas" -- which included just about the whole country, and especially the railroads; plus, good quality film might as well have been made of unobtainium (or maybe if was dilithium crystals ;>)). Bottom line, my Dad and I had only one halfway decent camera between us (a 1937 Voigtlander "Bessa" 120/620 roll film folding camera with an f6.3 (!) lens), and we didn't want to risk it being confiscated.We should appreciate how good we have it today!

Glad to see you made it to Puente del Inca, Nick. On that same 1953 trip, my parents took us up to the "Cristo de los Andes" - the statue commemorating the final settlement of the border dispute between Argentina and Chile which sits on the summit of the pass right above (about 3000ft) the railroad (now road) tunnel. The road parallels the railroad line, and is quite spectacular; a 1934 flood washed away much of the railroad between Puente del Inca and Punta de Vacas, and it had to be relocated much higher on the valley side, closer to the road. Views of the ruins of the old grade are impressive (or at least they were in 1953!).

Hope these ramblings are of interest.

Roger Lewis (airbrakegeezer)

CM80-46 Wrote:
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> Thank you for  the additional shots. Love the
> safety chain and hook, the additional plow blade
> on top of the pilot, and the builders plate to
> make further reaserch so much easier.
> Did you travel there for railfanning or other
> reasons? Looks like a nice collection of
> equipment.
> CM80.46

If you want more information on these locomotives I recommend Donald Binns 'Kitson Meyer Articulated Locomotives'. The Transandine locomotives were particularly interesting, the locomotives originally had another set of cylinders and another rack pinion on the leading, adhesion bogie. It looked very strange but didn't last very long, the third set of cylinders being removed in 1911, after just four years.

All very interesting.  Thanks

Great photos Charles, I like all your pics from Chile.  I had a similar feeling when I visited a static museum in Merida, Yucatán, Mexico last year.

Rich

Love that rack engine:)

Posted from iPhone

Very interesting indeed, thanks a lot for posting.