Wagons ancient and modern The first rolling stock The battered remains of the ex Ministry of Marine wooden wagons at Rio Gallegos. This one is a hopper with low-level side doors and a ridged floor, but there were other high-sided ones and even one or two small tankers.
Wagons and passenger stock from the 1922 order was also brought down by sea, to be unloaded onto Río Gallegos beach. These were built in Belgium by Famillereux. Each type of wagon is illustrated in the chapter on the 1922 empire, but Fernando Carnero also has photos of examples at Rio Gallegos on his website. In the early days up to thirty wagons formed a train. As well as open wagons for the carriage of the coal, there were a number of covered vans (box-cars) and 'furgon' brake vans. Specialised vehicles included two ambulance vans, normally stored at Río Gallegos.
The vehicle above is a 1922 Famillereux first class coach, whilst the van below is a 1922 'furgon carga' though reclad on the outside with corrugated iron and relegated to ordinary diamond/archbar bogies.
With the general clear out of old equipment at Rio Gallegos in 2000, the ambulance vans were moved to a hospital on the east side of town. It is to be hoped that they will be looked after and not scrapped through lack of interest.
As happened on other lines using the 1922 equipment, all sorts of modifications were made over the years. Here are one or two examples:
Bigger wagons
The wagon below is a typical 23 tonne tippler from Ferrodinie, a worksplate and RFIRT axlebox cover are shown above. This particular vehicle has been relegated to departmental work and has gained a couple of crudely-cut side doors.
These wagons appear in a variety of guises. The next one has been turned into a locomotive water tender by making it water-tight and adding a top with fillers and a handrail. The purpose of the arrow is uncertain.
This next wagon is a 'colero', painted with red and white stripes to denote the end of the train. In this case the usual four figure wagon number is incomplete owing to the replacement of a couple of steel panels.
Below are a variety of wagon bogies - from left an old-fashioned diamond bogie (an archbar truck to Americans), then a more recent but still conventional cast steel bogie with roller bearings, and finally a rather unusual design also using rollers.
Eventually the railway found it easier to purchase old metre gauge wagons from the FC General Belgrano when it needed special-purpose vehicles. These could be easily regauged, and were usually well within the the RFIRT's generous loading gauge. A very large steel wagon converted into a water tanker.
A set of tank wagons also probably from the Belgrano.
A staff riding/living van, of unknown origin. It doesn't look like a 1922 chassis though the bogies appear to be from 1922 passenger stock, probably fitted to improve the comfort.
References: 28-5-08 | |||||||||||
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