International Railroad Discussion > Ferronor Chile new EMD and rolling stock

Now for the other railroad up north.  Ferronor won a contract to haul sulphuric acid and copper cathodes for the huge BHP Escondida copper mine.  As a result they purchased 14 EMD GT32ACL (built in Indiana), and from China 150 tank cars and 40 flat cars.  When I was in Baquedano on my FCAB expedition last December,  all the cars and the first four locomotives were there.  Five more locomotives have since arrived and possibly the final four too.   Start up of the operation has been delayed for various reasons,  but the equipment is in place.

1-2.  No. 2004 at Baquedano  12/1/22
3.     No. 2003    same



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/23 05:39 by masterphots.

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4.  The new tank cars.  Baquedano  12/2/22
5.   Tank car EDA1040       ditto
6.   Flat car PEC1006         ditto

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Veey nice the orange tank cars. It's a very dangerous load for sure.
The GT32ACL has a different cab from the ACe series.

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

Final four locos are in storage at the Progress Rail Muncie, IN factory. Any chance you took pictures of the locomotive builder stickers?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/23 17:59 by alamode.

No I didn't.  But I did write down the builders numbers.   20208101-001 through 004.  Assume the rest of the order will continue the numbering.

Great to see pics of the new GT38ACLs! I thought they were replacing the old G12's - is that not the case?

zorz Wrote:
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> Great to see pics of the new GT38ACLs! I thought
> they were replacing the old G12's - is that not
> the case?

They pretty much are.  The best GR12s will be used for switching here and there,  as is the case on their iron ore line based at Vallenar,  where the GT46ACs did so

Start of Ferronor's Mina Escondida contract was delayed by BHP for 30 months.
The current contractor FCAB has had their contract extended.
A condition of the new contract (apart from new locos and rolling stock), was ISO9001, plus upgrading the last 60km of (Ferronor owned) line into the mine.
Ferronor is experiencing difficulty obtaining ISO9001.

No skin off FCAB's nose loosing the contract, as they own and operate the tank car loading facilities at Mejillones, and Ferronor will have to pay FCAB tonne/km to use their line for 80% of the journey.
FCAB is moving away from tank cars, and moving to 20' container tanks on splines. FCAB subsidiary TRAIN Ltda, run over 120 tractor/trailers, and the company has put in rail to road interchange pads to handel TEU.
Copper concentrate has moved from road, to 20' half height containers on rail. The road to Calama is now a toll road, so rail has become more competitive.