International Railroad Discussion > Fepasa Chile meter gauge Alco in latest livery

Sunday I ventured up to Fepasa's only meter gauge line (FCP is wide gauge except for this branch).  At the Rio Blanco yard, there was Alco DT1812.   The line's other two mainline locos are GE U9Cs and I didn't find them to see if they now have the latest paint job.  This operation from Los Andes to Rio Blanco is a 20-mile remnant of the fabled Tranandine which went from Los Andes, Chile to Mendoza, Argentina.  The segment was saved to serve the huge Codelco Andina copper mine via a 6-mile long spur from Rio Blanco to the mine at Saladillo.  Copper concentrate is carried in sealed containers. At Los Andes, the boxes are lifted onto wide gauge flatcars to continue the journey to Ventanas on the coast.  The spur features a switch back and cars are brought down in ten car rakes.

Here are photos of the Alco and also the 'swithback' caboose. When leaving the mine loadout the engine leads;  after traversing the switchback the caboose leads the train down into the Rio Blanco yard.

The new livery has returned the D prefix to all diesel numbers.  For some reason the meter gauge power was numbered Dt in Fepasa's blue/gray...I never remember to ask why.  When the went to blue/red the prefix disappeared on all units.   Now with the new livery with big letters, the D/DT prefix has returned to all units. 

The 1812 was re-gauged from wide to meter gauge in 2015 as the line needed a third unit.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/23 10:59 by masterphots.

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Interesting to know that Fepasa has two gauges. Do they have third rail for dual gauge sections like we see in Brazil?
Beautiful pictures, specially the tiny caboose.

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

There is a bit of dual gauge trackage in the yard where the containers are lifted from one gauge to the other but that's it.

I really like these meter gauge ALCO's. Reminds me of travelling on the greek pelopennese railways...

Very interesting series!

Larry