Tren Turistico Arenal

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Tren Turistico Arenal
Diema diesel locomotive with a passenger train
Diema diesel locomotive with a passenger train
Tren Turistico Arenal route
Route
Route length: 3.5 km
Gauge : 600 mm ( narrow gauge )
Maximum slope : 73  ‰
Legend
   
 0.0 La Pequeña Helvecia restaurant
   
 Hairpin
BSicon vWSLaq.svgBSicon STR + r-STRro.svgBSicon .svg
Circular viaduct (54 m)
Tunnel - if there are several tunnels in a row
 Short tunnel (35 m)
Tunnel - if there are several tunnels in a row
 Long tunnel (43 m)
End station - end of the line
 3.5 Hotel Los Heroes

The Tren Turistico Arenal is a 3.5 km long narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of 600 mm in Nuevo Arenal in the Tilarán Canton of the Guanacaste Province of Costa Rica .

history

The Swiss hotelier Franz Ulrich and his wife Silena Mocanda built the narrow-gauge railway from their Hotel Los Héroes in Nuevo Arenal to their panoramic revolving restaurant La Pequeña Helvecia (Little Switzerland).

Route

viaduct

The 3.5 km long route overcomes a height difference of 200 m with the help of two tunnels, a circular viaduct and a hairpin . The maximum gradient is 73 ‰ .

The first tunnel is 43 m long, the second 35 m. The 30 m long mountain station is located in a tunnel below the viewing restaurant, which can be reached from there via stairs. The main attraction is a loop on a 54 m long ten-arch stone bridge, which is reminiscent of the Swiss circular viaduct of Brusio .

Rail vehicles

Passenger train

The rail vehicles come from a mountain farmer in Chéseaux who had built a field railway but was not given a permit in Switzerland to operate it. The hotelier acquired the vehicles and the track material in 1999 and put them into operation in 2000.

There are three diesel locomotives, two of them DIEMA DL 20 from 1965 and a completely overhauled red painted Raco-Saurer type 1313 from 1938 with a C410D engine. Five green two-axle passenger cars with 9 seats each and a locally built, 14 m long six-axle panorama car with 30 seats are used for passenger transport.

Important visitors

Former US President Jimmy Carter officially opened the railway line and officially put the panorama car into operation.

Web links

Commons : Tren Turistico Arenal  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ La Pequeña Helvecia 1989-2001 (5.8 MB PDF file)
  2. ↑ a b c d e Ferrolatino: The mountain railway at the Hotel "Los Heroes".

Coordinates: 10 ° 28 ′ 37.3 "  N , 84 ° 49 ′ 31.2"  W.