FCS diversification

It is often forgotten that railways companies did much more than run trains. Commonly they operated ships, managed ports, ran bus services, and in some cases supplied the necessary water, electricity and other services to towns that had grown up alongside them. The FC Sud was no exception. It did many of these things in Bahia Blanca and was the obvious competent engineering contactor at hand when major works were required in the upper Rio Negro valley.

Irrigation works for the Río Negro valley had been started in 1883, using convict labour from Fuerte Roca to dig a canal.

A feature of many major Argentine rivers was their propensity to flood. The Río Negro and its sources, the Río Limay and the Río Neuquén were that way inclined. By Law Nº 3927 of 31 December 1898, studies were initiated into the river systems with a view to controling flooding and to providing water for irrigation. These studies showed that a barrage was required across the Río Neuquén some miles above its confluence with the Río Limay.

The Southern Railway did more than run trains. By Law Nº 6546 of 28 September 1909, the Southern Railway was engaged to undertake massive engineering works to provide irrigation along the north bank of the Río Negro. This included the Dique Cordero which took six years to build and which diverted waters to a massive reservoir with a capacity to store 2, 000, 000, 000 cubic metres of water. This is what is today called Lago Pellegrini.

The branch line
To get supplies to the site of the dam, a branch line was constructed taking off from the end of the triangle at Cipolletti station.

Distance from Buenos Aires	Location
1188	Cipolletti
1194	Km. 1194
1201	Km. 1201
1203	Km. 1203
1218	Cinco Saltos [originally called simply Km 1218, then Contraalmirante Cordero, as was the nearby barrage, or La Picasa ˜ opened 25 June 1910 (A)]
	End of line at barrage.

Colonia Regina de Alvear
One of the objectives for providing railways in Patagonia was to encourage the agricultural colonizing of the land. Part of Chapter LVI of Rögind's book deals in detail with the establishment of an Italian colony in the Río Negro valley called Colonia Regina de Alvear after the Argentine president's wife.

The process was much the same in most such settlements. In this case a development company was formed which purchased, in some areas land was granted by the Government, some 5, 000 hectares (approaching 19 square miles) of land provided with primary irrigation. The company then started to develop the first 1, 300 hectares by dividing it into 130 plots of 5, 10 or 15 hectares, fenced it, provided roads and a network of secondary and tertiary irrigation canals. The company promoted a ladies' committee to build the church. The village associated with the development, in addition to the church, was provided with a school, sub-police station, post office, recreation centre and an electrical power station.

The Southern Railway's contribution was in the form of a new station which included a large double-ended goods station for the transfer of agricultural products.

You can read the complete text of the chapter translated in an appendix. Click here to go there. (8)

Fruit for the World
The Southern Railway did not concern itself with just running trains. In 1908 it established a subsidiary, the Compañía de Tierras del Sud (the Southern Land Company) to acquire and develop land. In the Río Negro valley it promoted smallholdings much along the lines described above for Colonia Regina de Alvear. (9)

From the 1920's agricultural production in the smallholdings tended to start to concentrate on growing fruit for export. In 1928 the Southern Railway created the AFD or Argentine Fruit Distributors. This undertaking developed the picking on individual smallholdings and arranged its transfer to packing stations strategically located in the upper valley where the fruit was graded and packed ready for transport.

These packing stations were naturally incorporated into goods stations of the Southern Railway located at Cinco Saltos, Cipolletti, Allen, J J Gómez and Villa Regina (Colonia Regina Alvear as was). (10) From these points the fruit was whisked by train in ventilated vans to Buenos Aires for export to the Northern Hemisphere. This traffic grew over the following twenty years, demanding the use of engines of significant capabilities. Engines of classes 15A and 15B were often engaged on this traffic and became known as fruteras ˜ fruiterers.

Sources:
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25-5-08