Ferrocarriles Livianos Agrícolas del FCS

BAGSR
A train that is loaded with wheat and pulled by a 20 HP tractor (Ex WDLR 20 HP Simplex) . The first car is from the WDLR P-class
BAGSR Agricultural railways in the southern part of the province of Buenos Aires Red: light railway with 600 mm gauge Black: Broad-gauge railway with 1676 mm (5½ feet ) gauge
Gauge :	600 mm ( narrow gauge )
Legend Ricon Lad dos Naciones Puerta del Diabolo Escuela 18 Sosa Balcarce La Vigilancia S N Augustine Tamangueyu Defferrari R. Santamaria Energia Christiano Muerto Orense Ambrose La Manga Barrow El Bombero Frugoni IA Josefina El Ocorro Urbina Micaela Cascallares Irene Aparicio El Ferrido Bil Zubiaurre Oriente Río Quequén Salado Copetonas Michele Aldaoro Roussing Gundensen Amasagasti Blue: field railway with 600 mm gauge Red: Broad gauge railway with 1676 mm (5½ feet ) gauge

The Ferrocarriles Livianos Agrícolas del FCS were founded around 1930 in the southern part of the province of Buenos Aires in Argentina by the Ferrocarril del Sud (FCS), the successor to the Buenos Ayres Great Southern Railway , BAGSR for short or B ^S A ^S GSR ^Y , as a network of four agricultural field railways operated with a track width of 600 mm.

Route

The BAGSR operated a network of four agricultural field railways as feeders to the broad-gauge railways of Ferrocarril del Sud (FCS). The four field railways had reloading stations at the stations Balcarce , Orense , Micaela Cascallares and Copetonas for the onward transport of agricultural goods with the broad gauge railway . The field railways of Cascallares, Copetonas and Orense supplied the broad gauge railway to the port of the engineer White in Bahía Blanca, which led to an increase in the traffic volume of the FCS.

business

Balcarce

The length of the main and secondary lines was 138.2 km without the sidings in the stations. 15 coal-fired steam locomotives with 45 HP and 11 oil-heated steam locomotives with 45 HP as well as 2 petrol tractors with 40 HP were used on the field railway from Balcarce.

The freight trains needed 1½ hours for the approximately 25 km long distance if they transported up to 120 tons of freight. Passenger trains with 4 cars took 1¼ hours and had to overcome a maximum gradient of 18 ‰.

The traffic volume was usually as follows:

• 57,598 tons of potatoes per year
• 8,801 tons of grain per year
• 6.381 tons of corn per year
• 3,826 tons of general cargo per year
• 11,948 passengers per year

There were several branches that served Amarante, Nereo and Crovetto, Baurín, Newton, Baudrix, Luro, Urdampilleta, etc.: Ramal al Rincón (from Balcarce to km 52), Ramal Sosa (from km 17 to km 24), Ramal Puerta del Diablo (from km 29 to km 38), Ramal Dos Naciones (from km 38 to km 35), Ramal Tropezón (from km 41 to km 46) and Ramal Vigilancia (from Balcarce to km 32).

Orense

The length of the light railway tracks was 68 km on the main line and the branch lines. The first 49 km were inaugurated on May 23, 1921. By 1927 the route was extended to 71.2 km.

There were two gasoline tractors with 40 hp that could pull 150 tons and four gasoline tractors with 20 hp that could pull 75 tons. The speed was 12 km / h.

141 Hudson flat wagons with 6 tons, four coupling wagons with 6 tons, 64 coupling wagons with 5 tons and one open wagon of the Sacaggio type with 6 tons were used for the transport of goods.

From July 1, 1929 to June 30, 1930, 4,140 tons of grain and 12 tons of goods were transported.

Micaela Cascallares

The length of the main and secondary lines was 91.5 km without the sidings in the stations. There was one gasoline tractor with 45 hp, seven gasoline tractors with 40 hp and three gasoline tractors with 20 hp. These carried 288 flat wagons weighing 6 t.

The light railway had four main lines: main line to Membibre, from Cascallares to Echarry al NE (from km 23 to km 36), to Vanoli (from km 26 to km 37) and to Bombero (from km 36 to km 43). The branch lines led to the plants Urbina, Luro, Urioste, Hurtado, Echarry, Caríde, Battis, Filipelli, Membibre, Vanoli etc.

According to FCS statistics, 14,159 tons of grain and 345 tons of goods were transported in 1928.

Copetonas

The length of the light rail tracks was 48 km on the main line and the branch lines. In January 1922 the light railroad with a length of 45.7 km was put into operation. It was extended to 61.7 km by 1927.

There were three gasoline tractors with 40 hp that could pull 100 tons and five gasoline tractors with 20 hp that could pull 50 tons. For the transport of goods there were 100 wagons with 6 tons each, 100 wagons with 5 tons each and 32 bulk goods wagons for ballast with 3.5 tons each.

A fully loaded train took 2½ hours was calculated. In 1930, 9,900 tons of grain and 300 tons of goods were transported in eight months.

remains

Locomotive shed for the field railway from Balcarce to Dos Naciones

From the field railway from Balcarce to Dos Naciones, the Dos Naciones locomotive shed is still preserved today.

Legal basis

According to a decree of November 28, 1919, the following applied to the construction and operation of the so-called Decauville railways: “If the railway companies under national jurisdiction build 'Decauville' railways, their construction and operation are completely independent of the operation of the national railway line and its costs may not be included in the capital of the respective company ". If they were clearly Decauville Railways, even though they were owned by the National Railways, they were not subject to the National Railways Act 2873.

During the court hearing regarding a lawsuit brought by Juan Martin Lahitte against FC Sud because of a field fire in the Balcarce district caused by the light railway, it was taken into account that the municipality of Balcarce had granted Ferrocarril del Sur a concession to use the Decauville railway. The Dirección general de ferrocarriles del ministerio de Obras Públicas de la Nación made it clear that the existing Decauville tracks at FC Sud's Balcarce station were not connected to the general network of this railway and that these tracks were not part of the national railway system operated by the company and that their cost did not appear on the company's capital account as national railroad. With that in mind, there was no doubt that the action brought in the lawsuit of facts or guilt or negligence attributable to a Decauville-type train operating under a municipal concession or its personnel was not covered by Act 2873 on the national railways was regulated, so that the Federal Supreme Court did not declare itself responsible in this case.

Photo album

From the field railways leading to the Ferrocarril del Sud (FCS) narrow-gauge railway, an album with seven silver gelatine prints (dimensions 17 × 23 cm) without a border and with a matt texture has been preserved, which are inscribed on the reverse in English as follows:

• A branch line near Orense.
• A train of the field railway, loaded with potatoes.
• A train of the field railway with covered wagons.
• Award ceremony group "on the way" for the exhibition in Palermo.
• Track material in the courtyard of the Balcarce station.
• A field railway train loaded with wheat, powered by a 20 hp tractor.
• Transfer of potatoes from Decauville-Loren to the mainline wagons at Balcarce station.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ B ^S .A ^S .GSR ^Y . Agricultural Light Railways in the Southern Part of the Province of Buenos Aires.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Hèctor Francisco Guerreiro: Caminos de Hierro en Bahía Blanca, Ferrocarril Pago Chico. Boletín Nº 86, March 18, 2017.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Ferrocarriles livianos agrícolas: Los caballitos criollos del FCS
4. ↑ Lahitte v. FC Sud. October 1932. In: Jurisprudencia argentina, Volume 39, 1932, pp. 687-688.
5. ↑ El Ferrocarril del Sud y el Transporte de Mercancías: El Decauville. Buenos Aires, 1929-1931.

Coordinates: 38 ° 41 ′ 0.5 ″  S , 59 ° 46 ′ 32.6 ″  W.