Late freight

Pedlar freight trains are seldom seen during daylight hours but last night’s was running exceptionally late, even by FCPyF standards, by the time it departed Grande on its way back to San Fernandez.

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Sunday service

No loco hauled trains today, just the railcars.

30 Grande-Cuarto-Grande. 22 Grande-San Fernandez-Grande. 36/37 Cuarto-Grande-Cuarto. 21 San Fernandez-Grande-San Fernandez.

Cascading

Stone traffic from Cuarto de Pulgada has, up to now, been handled by two five car sets of mineral wagons with #6 and #10 double heading the sets between Grande and Cuarto de Pulgada.

Experiments this afternoon have shown that a single locomotive can handle a four car set on the hill without difficulty so one wagon has been removed from each set. The wagons removed from set A (above, loading at Cuarto) and set B (below, hauled by #10) have been coupled to two additional wagons to create a third set, C, (below, hauled by #6).

Having three sets instead of two will mean that the trains can run more frequently and having shorter trains means they fit on the intermediate length cassettes in the staging area between Perejil and San Fernandez. Hereby lies the “cascading” in the title of this entry. The second full length cassette is no longer needed for the stone trains so two loco hauled two passenger trains can pass in the staging area.

Chili choo choo

Valuable cargo on this short freight extra at Resurreccion. Meanwhile, at San Fernandez, #117 is taking water before following the chili special to Grande.

Work train woes

The Maintenance of Way department have got a work train out on the high line this morning. Their Forney ran into trouble propelling it up the hill from Bodjio to Rio Paleta and stalled half way.

Not wanting to go cap-in-hand asking for assistance from the traffic department the MoW used their Wickham to give the train a push.

It wasn’t enough though so the supervisor’s inspection car buffered up behind the trolley. Not the kind of motive power you might expect to see, but this is the FCPyF so it pays to expect the unexpected.

Sunday afternoon at Grande and Cuarto

Two coaches of the tourist train derailed while the consist was being reversed and shunted for its return run to San Fernandez.

Investigation revealed the problem, these coaches were originally 2’0″ gauge, their wheels having been moved outwards on the axles when the 2’6″ gauge FCPyF purchased them. The wheels on one axle of the observation car had further moved and were out of gauge, thus causing the axle to split the points for the carriage shed siding.

Spare wheelsets on hand at the loco shed were quickly fitted but by then the return Trenzinho Caipira had missed its path on the single track section between Bodjio and Perejil so it had the wait on the middle road for a southbound train to arrive.

In the sidings at Cuarto…

’nuff said.

Saturday morning at San Fernandez

San Fernandez seen through the girders of the bridge over the station throat earlier this morning. The whitewashed building adjacent to the level crossing is work in progress. It is being built in situ so it fits the available space. I’m not sure if this was a good idea but it’s too late to change my mind now so I’ll press on with it and see how it looks when completed.

Los Forgonetas, the overnight vans from Cuarto de Pulgada, arrived just before three this morning and have been stabled in the bay. Their coach has been transferred to the stock for the Trenzinho Caipira (little peasant train) in the carriage sidings. The peasants prefer to travel in comfort though and railcar 305 is stood at the platform waiting to work a stopping service to Grande, the Trenzinho Caipira is a steam hauled tourist train.