Ferrocarril Militar de Puente Alto al Volcán

Ferrocarril Militar de Puente Alto al Volcán
Railway bridge over the Colorado River in the Cajon del Maipo
Route in a south-easterly direction along the Río Maipo
Route length:	60 km
Gauge :	600 mm ( narrow gauge )
Legend km 0 Puente Alto 8th La Obra 12 El Canelo 16 El Manzano Río Colorado ( 33 ° 36 ′  S , 70 ° 22 ′  W ) 24 San Jose de Maipo 34 El Melocotón 38 San Alfonso El Tinoco Tunnel ( 33 ° 45 ′  S , 70 ° 17 ′  W ) 48 San Gabriel 53 El Romeral 60 El Volcán

Tinoco tunnel

Old bridge

The Ferrocarril Militar de Puente Alto al Volcán was a 60 km long military - narrow-gauge railway with a track width of 600 mm from Puente Alto to El Volcan in Chile .

history

Construction of the railway began in 1906 on behalf of the Chilean Ministry of Railways. The line was put into operation in sections: on March 1, 1910 from Puente Alto to El Canelo, in 1911 to Peach and on June 9, 1914 to El Volcán. The route cost $ 2,335,630 and was in service until 1985.

The main task of the route was not to connect Chile and Argentina, as it is often portrayed in Chile, but to secure the Chilean border against Argentine attacks. When the state railroad hired an engineer to explore the area, his proposal to build a railway was initially neglected and the governments of Chile and Argentina showed little interest. Only after the army had expressed its interest in this railway line for a possible defense case , the Chilean government approved its construction.

In addition to strategically securing the mountain passes, the railway line should also be used for practical training of the military troops. The military took over the operation, administration and maintenance of the railway.

Engineering studies

Several engineering studies were carried out prior to the construction of the railway line:

1. The engineer Alberto Lira Orrego focused in 1895 on the road between Puente Alto and San José de Maipo .
2. Exploratory missions from 1899 assessed the valley of the Río Maipo to its origin.
3. The English engineer Josias Harding determined in 1901 that the route along the Río Maipo was the most suitable.
4. In 1902, Santiago Muñoz described the enormous benefits that the railroad would bring to society as a whole, as well as agriculture, trade and industry (paper mills, coal and tissue paper ).

management

The State Railway Authority primarily oversaw the desk work that was done prior to construction, such as: B. in the creation of an inventory list of construction and operating materials, the set of rules and the cost estimate. The decisions made had to be approved by others, including the Chilean Ministry of Railways, the army, the Ministry of Public Works and the state railway company.

business

The locomotives used first came from Koppel in Germany. These pulled flat and freight cars as well as wooden passenger cars. Occasionally a rail bus was also used.

Since the route ran through a very steep area, the small locomotives were not able to cope with the steep incline. Therefore, in many cases two locomotives had to be used, one to pull the train and the other to push it. In other cases a small but very powerful locomotive was used to push the train on the steep sections.

The transport of copper ore concentrate, gypsum and lime, living animals and agricultural products could be carried out economically and safely by rail. Without a doubt, however, the transportation of people represented the greatest advance in the mountainous area. Both the residents of the Cajon del Maipo and some day trippers from Santiago used the train for hikes and holidays in the mountain villages of the Andes from the 1950s onwards .

The journey time with the steam train from Puente Alto was 45 minutes for the 13.5 km to El Canelo at the entrance of the Cajon del Maipo, two hours for 35.8 km to El Melocotón and three and a half hours for 61.9 km to the final stop in El Volcán.

closure

From 1950 onwards, freight trains were increasingly displaced by road transport with heavy trucks, the travel time and costs of which were lower. The closure of Ferrocarril Llano del Maipo in the late 1940s, the Las Melosas earthquake in 1958 that damaged infrastructure, severe storms in the mid-1960s and the closure of the Volcano mine in El Volcán in 1976 were factors that contributed to the closure of the railway line contributed. In 1978, with the adoption of the regulations for the self-financing of the state railways, public transport on the route was discontinued and only route inspections were carried out. Jung's diesel locomotives had been delivered only a few months earlier, but arrived too late to be profitable.

Finally, the railway line was closed in 1985 after 70 years of use and dismantled in 1988 on behalf of the Ministry of Public Works. The thankless job was done by the same workers who previously ran the locomotives and maintained the tracks, which had often been destroyed by wear and tear and landslides. The abrupt manner in which this work was carried out is still remembered by many of the local residents.

Monument protection

Diesel locomotive Arnold Jung Lokomotivfabrik . Photography in 2018

Wooden passenger carriage

The remaining infrastructure of the route, in particular the high bridge to the volcanic mountain El Volcán, was declared a National Historic Monument in 1991 by Decree No. 432 of the Ministry of Education. Since then, restoration work has been carried out on the tracks and stations.

On December 21, 2002, an agreement was signed by the Chilean Army, the SERNATUR National Tourist Service, the National History Museum, the Ministry of National Monuments and the National Council of Monuments, which launched a restoration project on the site of the El Manzano train station, through which a cultural center with a military narrow-gauge railway museum is to be built. In addition, at the end of 2004, after the end of the Puente Alto Regiment, the steam locomotive "Panchita" and some wagons and lorries were brought to the Peach station for maintenance.

Web links

Commons : Ferrocarril Militar de Puente Alto al Volcán  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} "Historia del Ferrocarril en Chile" de Ian Thomson y Dietrich Angerstein, DIBAM, 2000 .
2. ^ Marco Sandoval O .; Trenes de Ciudad. In En Tren magazine No. 9, ACCPF, 2001.
3. ^ ^{A b} Reglamento Interno del Ferrocarril Militar de Puente Alto al Volcán , Instituto Geográfico Militar, 1934
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Gonzalo Iglesias: Apuntes de la Historia del Ferrocarril de Puente Alto a El Volcán
5. ↑ Construcciones existentes a lo largo del trazado del ferrocarril de Puente Alto a El Volcán (Estación de ferrocarril El Romeral) - CMN. Catálogo. Consejo de Monumentos Nacionales. Gobierno de Chile . Archived from the original on July 25, 2016. Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 25, 2016. 
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Ernesto Vargas: Historia del FC de Puente Alto a El Volcán .
7. ↑ 06X8 Stockpurchase .
8. ^ Ferrocarril de Puente Alto: Patrimonio histórico de la comuna | Portal Puente Alto | Lo mejor de nuestra Comuna .
9. ^ Ian Thomson Newman: Una nueva perspectiva de la historia del Ferrocarril Militar del Cajón del Maipo . 2005. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: monumentos.cl )  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
10. ↑ ^{a b} wish Ltda. Visita: www.micosapiens.cl: Ferrocarril Militar de Puente Alto a El Volcán. .

Coordinates: 33 ° 35 ′ 36 ″  S , 70 ° 22 ′ 14 ″  W