Postcard from Argentina - UPDATED

Many thanks to Stephen Cobb from Ipswich, UK for sending along some photos of electric locomotives preserved by Ferroclub Argentino, a rail preservation organization based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. These photos were taken in 2007 and they're some of the better photographs I've seen of these locomotives.

Ferrocarril General Urquiza 950 was built in 1920 by Baldin-Westinghouse. It was part of an order for a company called Central Limones that never actually took delivery of the steeplecabs they ordered. So the locomotives sat around for a couple of years until B-W could find buyers for them. This one was sold to the Pacific Electric in 1923 and became PE 1590. In 1951 it was sold to General Urquiza Railways in Argentina. Unfortunately I have very little idea of when it was retired from service and acquired by Ferroclub.

General Urquiza 951 was built at about the same time as 950 and was also part of the same order intended for Central Limones. Like 950, this locomotive was sold to the PE in 1923, where it became number 1591. It was sold in 1951 alongside 1590 for use in South America.

General Urquiza 952, visible right behind 951 in the above two photographs, has a slightly different history. It was built by B-W in 1927 for Red River Lumber in California. It ran for RRL until 1944, when it was sold to Central California Traction as their number 24. After only a few years, it was sold in 1947 to the Pacific Electric, where it became PE 1592. It barely spent more time with PE and was sold in 1951, after only four years, for use in Argentina.

One intriguing aspect of these locomotives is that I believe all of them have trucks, motors, and even control that was salvaged from ex-PE 1100-series cars. For whatever reason (maybe simply because they had more of them on hand) the General Urquiza Railway seemed to prefer the cast trucks and GE PC control on the 1100s to the Baldwin trucks and WH equipment that came with these locomotives. There's one (at least) ex-1100 still around, General Urquiza 3140 (presumed to be ex-PE 1140), which is on display in a small town some 200 miles from Buenos Aires. Even though it's stripped you might be able to make it mechanically complete using a set of equipment off of one of these steeplecabs.

Thanks again to Stephen for sending in these photos!

UPDATE: Stephen has sent along additional photos and information from Argentina and from his trip there. He writes:

I have attached photos of the other 4 which survive (or did in 2007) one of which is certainly an interesting one to try and work out what it actually is. - #907, #908, #954 and a rusty wreck. 

The biggest problem is the lack of material, either published or available on the internet about railways in Argentina in general. Presumably there are Spanish language books on the subject locally, but they don’t seem to travel very far. There is a listing of Argentine locos that was published in the UK about 20 years ago, but it commands a high price as it is long out of print. I’ve never actually seen a copy of it, though one of the people who was on the 2007 trip had access to one when we returned.

Apart from the F.C.Urquiza that had the PE equipment, there were two other lines in Buenos Aires that operated electric locomotives in the past:

FERROCARRIL OESTE

They operated a line in a tunnel under the city centre to reach the docks area and obtained a couple of Baldwin-Westinghouse boxcabs in the early 1920’s to work freight trains. They were broad gauge locos with 3rd rail and overhead capability. One of these – 2002, the one in the photo – is/was “preserved” somewhere (certainly as late as 1990) in Argentina, but I haven’t found if it still exists. There was a lot of elderly material “stored” that we found on our 2007 trip that most people wouldn’t be aware of unless you actually visited the buildings in question. 

FERROCARRIL CENTRAL DE BUENOS AIRES

This standard gauge operator obtained 5 steeple-cab electric locos from Dick, Kerr, in Preston, UK, in 1907 (#1-#5) and they were used for freight services over the City tramway network. Another 3 were constructed by the Company themselves, presumably using parts supplied from the UK (#6-#8) This article I found online gives more details...

https://buenosaireshistoria.org/juntas/ferrocarriles-en-la-ciudad-los-trenes-por-las-calles/

From information subsequently found after the trip to Argentina in 2007, three of these locos survived in service as late as 1966 – presumably latterly on the F.C.Urquiza lines.

At Lynch, there is a loco numbered #907, which has a rather ungainly boxcab body, and its numbering suggests it is one of this class of electrics, heavily rebuilt.

The local Tramway preservation group (AAT) members have restored another one - #908 - to its original condition and it was, in 2007, on loan to Metrovias in Buenos Aires to shunt Metro cars at their Polvorin depot, which, conveniently, is where they run their heritage tramway trips from on the street-running depot access tracks from the underground A line Metro.

Also at Lynch, though whether it is part of their collection, I don’t know, , was a very decrepit shell of a steeple cab electric. It was the other side of the running lines and by an area of shanty housing, so close inspection was not encouraged!

That may well be the third loco that survived to 1966, again, heavily rebuilt from its original format. I’ve not found any photos of that style body design anywhere online.

THE ODD LOCO....

The other loco at Lynch, #954, is rather more interesting/confusing, depending on your point of view.  It has a body style in line with the PE 951/952 locos, but it does look a bit more “homemade”.

The strange thing is that the 2 Argentine online sites I found that actually mention this loco, claim it is descended from PE #1599 in some form, I.e. the comments on this image..

http://busarg.com.ar/fotogaleria/displayimage.php?album=72&pos=67

There is a Swiss based website that says more or less the same thing (in English) though it rambles off in terms that don’t make much sense!

I found photos of PE #1599 online and apart from being a steeple-cab, the trucks are totally different.

There appears to be a discrepancy between what is recorded in the US as to what the Argentines bought and what they say were bought from the US which doesn’t help!!

I agree with Stephen that if 954 does have any origins with PE 1599, then there's not much original left! It's possible that it got trucks from PE 1100s like a couple of the other locomotives got. -Frank