International Railroad Discussion > Bio Bio Chile Railfanning - The Big Fail

Our plans for Tuesday, April 16, to do some morning poking aorund and then spend the day camped out along a remote stretch of beach in Lota waiting for a log train, were always risky. Everyone in the know told me that trains ran on this line more often in the dark than in the day. But the images on line from people who caught trains in the day were spectacular enough that we were willing to take a chance. The morning poking around did get some interesting images at least.

Started off heading down to Horcones (which is the farthest south I have ever been).

Images one and two are of a FEPASA GE U5B waiting to begin its work in the yard at Horcones.

Image three is a roster grab of the U5B.

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Image four is another roster of the U5B. At this point we went and spoke to the crew getting ready to switch. Although there was a language barrier, we came away feeling like there was no chance of a morning train, but maybe a chance for an afternoon one. With that "scope" we drove up to Talachuanco to see if there was anything going on there.

Image five is the old shovel nose I saw on the trip, pretty derelict looking in the yard in Talachuanco.

Image six is a GE 74t heading back into the yard in Talachuanco (it is passing under a semaphore, but I am screwing up and not including that in my shot because, as often happens when I see a train, I got excited and blew the overall scene shot).
 

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Image seven is of the GE 74t backing away.

At that point we drove back to Lota and settled in for the rest of the day waiting for a log (or a celulose train). We waited and waited and waited. When the light got perfect, I did what I often do and took a picture of what might have been. Imagine this with an Alco pulling a train of logs. That's all we could do, was imagine. Oh well, next trip.



 

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That shovel nose looks a lot like WP&Y early shovel nose engines. Any builders plate on the carcass?  The last shot would make a great module for a narrow gauge portable layout.
CM 80.46

D5111 had its cab wiped out in a sideswipe at Rancagua 8/9 June 2017

Rebuilt by Casagrande at Chena, released back into traffic February 2019