Ramal Talca-Constitución

Talca – Constitución

A rail bus on the Ramal Talca – Constitución

Route length:

88.4 km

1000 mm ( meter gauge )


	0.0	Talca
	12.6	Colin
	17.3	Río Claro
		Rauquén
		Pocoa
	26.7	Corinto
	17.3	Estero Los Puercos
		El Morro
	33.4	Curtiduría
		Los Llocos
		Tricahue
		El Peumo
	43.5	González Bastías
	47.5	Toconey
		Pichamán Oriente
	52.8	Pichamán
		Los Romeros
		Los maquis
		Forel
	62.9	Quebrada Honda tunnel
	63.0	Quebrada Honda
	66.0	Huinganes
		Los Digüeñes
	74.2	Maquehua
	81.7	Astillero
		Banco de Arena
	83.4	Río Maule , Eiffel Bridge
	88.4	Constitución

The Ramal Talca-Constitución or Ramal de Maule is a 88.4 km long narrow-gauge railway in Chile with a gauge of 1000 mm.

Historical meaning

The Talca – Constitución railway is one of the last meter - gauge branch lines in Chile (Ramal is Spanish for branch line). The 88 km long route runs in the center of Chile on the north bank of the Río Maule and connects the municipalities of Talca and Constitución . The route offers delightful views of the foothills of the Andes on the Pacific Ocean . The route is stable enough to be driven at 80 km / h. After being the preferred means of transport in the region in the past, it is now threatened with closure due to increasing road traffic. Since a television documentary entitled “El último Ramal” (The Last Branch Line) and a national television report entitled “Frutos del País” (Fruits of the Land) in December 2005, the train has been increasingly used by Chilean and foreign tourists.

The railway line is remarkable for several reasons:

It runs through an area that has so far hardly been accessed by roads.
It is the last meter-gauge branch line for passenger transport in Chile.
The Banco de Arena Bridge over the Río Maule was designed by the world-famous engineer Gustave Eiffel and built by Schneider & Co from 1908 to 1915.
On May 25, 2007, the route was listed as a national monument.

history

The Banco Arena bridge over the Río Maule, designed by Gustave Eiffel

In the Región del Maule , the first railways were built by the North and South American Company in 1889 . The section between Talca and Curtiduría was opened on August 13, 1892 and extended to Pichamán on November 1, 1894. In 1902 the construction work had progressed to the sandy bank of the Río Maule opposite Constitución, where a train station was built that could be reached by ferry. This station operated for 13 years until the bridge was completed.

The route originally ran through the so-called lake baths, a popular excursion area since Victorian times , which has since been abandoned. Later became at the paper mill of Celulosa Arauco y Constitución (CELCO) . To get there, the trains ran like a tram through the streets of Constitución. Since this posed a variety of problems, it was banned by the city council in the early 1970s. Despite the regulation, the trains ran through the city until the 1990s.

The railway line was badly damaged by the earthquake in Chile in 2010 , but was then repaired so that the line can be used again.

In the 2019 timetable, two pairs of trains run every day with a travel time of over three hours.

González Bastías train station

Ferrostaal rail bus

González Bastías is a small town halfway at kilometer 44 and a mandatory stop for trains in both directions because it is the intersection of the single-track line. During their stay, train travelers often buy a rescoldo , a hearty bread with pork sausage and hard-boiled eggs. There are also some retired rail vehicles there. González Bastías was originally called Infiernillo (little hell) because of the stifling summer heat. The city was later named after a local poet, which is why the train station is also known as Estación Poeta .

Web links

Commons : Ramal Talca-Constitución - collection of images, videos and audio files

Tren Central: Buscarril (official website)
SWR television: Video »By train through Chile«. In: Railway Romanticism. July 22, 2018. Retrieved November 25, 2018 .