International Railroad Discussion > Buscarril and the Chase Gone Wrong

If there is one thing I have learned and yet somehow never remember, it is that if you have a plan, stick to the plan unless something goes wrong. The morning of April 15 we had a plan to ride the Buscarril from Talca to halfway and back. It was about a four hour commitment and we had a long drive ahead of us after the ride. I was the first of the two of us to say, "what if we chase instead?" I figured that way we have the car and could get on our drive faster. My friend was against this, but unfortunately as breakfast went on, he started to see my side. I wish he hadn't.

Chasing the Buscarril out of Talca would have been possible had we chased on the east side of the river, but we tried on the west side, where the roads are dirt and hard to understand and but one mistake can put you miles and miles (on dirt roads) away from where you were trying to go. And this is what happened to us. Lesson learned once more - if you have a plan, stick to it. Here's what we did manage to get.

Images one and two are of the train leaving Talca.

Image three is of the train at a crossing near Corinto (by this point we knew we were in trouble and when se saw a great bridge just a little bit farther down the line that would have been a much better shot that this, we knew we were in over our heads).

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Image four is of the train leaving us at Corinto (and approaching the really cool bridge three more minutes away that we don't know about yet).

Image five is in Tricahue (or near it). by this point we had gotten completely lost and having found the tracks again, decided to just wait there despite the shadows. The train going the other way, to Talca, arrived about half an hour later.

While this would be a disappointing chase, we did go back to Talca to ride the train two days later in order to make up for our debacle.

 

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I LIKE this train. Straight out of the "50's, if not older. Would like to know the history. Sorry you got lost, but the pics are worth it.

the trains were built in the 1950s... don't know a whole lot more

No “ anti-climber above the rear coupler, no towing capabilities on the front! Good luck to the crew when things go haywire!
If you have more pics of this adventure, please, please, please continue to post!  You should start a “Go fund me” for the next trip, I toss in a few dinero, I’m too old for dirt road train chases! 
Thanks again, if you can post more!
CM80.46