Shades of Mt. Tamailpas--"World's Longest Roller Coaster"

J3a-614 · **Posted:** Tue Nov 11, 2014 2:23 pm

This is in Columbia, and has a drop of 2,500 feet in 14 miles, an average in excess of 3.3%:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhIF-7UPDCw

p51 · **Posted:** Wed Nov 12, 2014 9:10 pm

What's the story on this line? Looks relatively intact.

J3a-614 · **Posted:** Thu Nov 13, 2014 6:09 pm

Lee, your question got me to looking to see what I could find on the railroads of Columbia. There doesn't seem to be that much available, but what does turn up suggests a very interesting system that unfortunately has suffered a good deal of neglect.

http://www.unhcr.org/47b069e72.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Colombia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antioquia_Railway

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tren_Turis ... _la_Sabana

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_trans ... tation.JPG

http://www.turistren.com.co/

No. 75 sounds out of square, and there's a steam leak somewhere on the other side, but the whistle sounds great, and the people watching the train remind us of the universal language and appeal of steam:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muOfim0AsOk

No. 72 sounds a bit better--and is that what looks like a postwar Baldwin builder's plate on the smokebox?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksswTYnrQSY

No. 72, now with the hissing leak of No. 75--but this right-side view reveals she has a power reverse:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGIMy5JdDMI

Lengthy passenger train, and a fair bit of speed, too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cScFRqgRm1Q

Same location, but check out the locomotive--an outside-framed 4-8-0! I wonder who built her? Overall she looks very American, but the sandboxes under the running boards suggest British practice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE5_nvIUmuU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4KLXMn6Iu0

Motorcycle page, but scroll down to check out a "moto-rail" car:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/newsle ... 9-12.shtml

tkautzor · **Joined:** Sun Dec 21, 2014 7:14 pm **Posts:** 8

J3a-614 wrote:

Same location, but check out the locomotive--an outside-framed 4-8-0! I wonder who built her? Overall she looks very American, but the sandboxes under the running boards suggest British practice:

No. 76 is a Baldwin, as are the three Turistren Mikes.

Check out http://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/tra ... bia005.htm for more info.

The guy who posted the youtube video is the owner of 2-6-0 No. 8.

J3a-614 · **Posted:** Thu Dec 25, 2014 7:49 pm

Thanks, TK, for posting the other information on the railroads of Columbia. A most interesting system indeed, with 3-foot gauge 4-8-2s! I wonder what North American counterpart might have used such power--perhaps D&RGW, if the bridges could handle something like that? I do know they were looking at narrow gauge 2-8-8-2s at one point. Never got them, of course--and the only narrow gauge Mallet type articulateds to run in the US were the engines for the Uintah that later went to the Sumter Valley and wound up in Guatemala. . .