https://www-infobae-com.translate.goog/ ... n-heridos/

It appears all the cars and locomotive fell over, but they claim there were no serious injuries.

You can see what appears to be a buckle or kink in the track where those people are walking. It may have been the cause of the accident.

Eyewitness James Fetchero on the scene: It was a washout, and there WERE "serious" injuries.

https://www.facebook.com/cass.fan.5872/ ... fyyTQtUbal



Mr. Fetchero has photos from previous days' operation of the apparent multiple-day charter on his personal FB page.

The derailed loco is apparently a Henschel 750mm (2' 6") gauge 2-8-2 built in 1923; the line has supposedly, according to other Facebook posts, only been reactivated two months ago for such charters after four years of dormancy, and little use in a decade or more........

What I immediately noticed in the picture are the axe-cut ends on the ties. Holy cow.

-Philip Marshall

Philosophically speaking..................

This would have been like the East Broad Top running a trip back to Woodvale/Alvan and Mount Union in 1963. Times a dozen in mileage.

Or some of those very first trips on the Durbin Line once the D&GV got the Climax running out of Durbin but hadn't done any trackwork (If you know, you know......).

I wonder what kind of recovery equipment is available? Let’s hope this doesn’t wind up like that Ottoman Empire train in the desert Lawrence of Arabia derailed ~100 years ago.

Don’t know much about Patagonia. No regulations? Lax regulation? For revenue passenger trains? Track standards appear non existent.

Any chance the locomotive will get repaired?

Wasn't there a similar accident on that line a few years ago?

Cheers,
Mike

I am curious why they don't send a speeder ahead of the train to look for these surprises.

BULLSEYE !!!!

Were there any weather events that would have created a washout condition, thus warranting a 'prerunner'? Or was this a 'clear sky' type event?

You're pretty much talking "the middle of nowhere" much more so than any North American deserts or tundras, and you're presuming they HAVE a track speeder or hi-rail vehicle capable of running the distances involved--on 750mm track (2' 6" gauge), no less. Plus the manpower to run it.

I recently watched the speeders that now follow the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic RR trains over the line as fire-prevention control, and spoke with their crews. I was struck between the concept of "such a cool experience you could probably charge riders for it" and "that has to get mind-numbingly boring after the first fifteen miles, no matter how scenic it is......" And watching those guys having to do fire patrol made me feel a bit better about the $155 per coach ticket my wife and I spent.......

OK, just in that one shot.....

Track settlement 'dip' obvious. No tie plates. No evidence of any tie replacement. Kink at the bolted joint LH rail. Missing interior spike on at least one tie LH rail.

Next time anybody whines at me about US track standards, I think I'll save this photo.

Wow, so scratch this one off my bucket list.

It seems like a wonderfully faithful recreation of what railroading was like in the past.

And why we don't do things that way anymore.