Facatativá steam excursions 1999

Ian Thomson reports (13th September 1999) that the trips to Facatativá (below) were aborted after 3-4 runs as they did not prove to be of sufficient interest.

Ian Thomson was in the country recently (22nd March 1999):

"I got into Santafé de Bogotá on Sunday 7th March, and, after checking in to the hotel where I was put, took a stroll down the road to take a couple of slides of the tourist train coming back from Nemocón.

What I didn't know then was that the same day a second service was inaugurated, from Bogotá to Facatativá, which is a railway town with a locomotive overhaul shop, ex F.C. Cundinamarca. (I am not sure whether the shop still operates. I have not been to Facatativá since 1986.) According to press reports, this second service was hauled by 4-8-2 locomotive No. 72 (BLW70894/44, I think). It was a trial run. The service should run regularly every Sunday as from 28th March, and will include a car for carrying bicycles. The run is 40 km each way. The train will leave from the Sabana station at 09.00 hrs. The fare equates to U$ 10. Some parts of Colombia are best stayed away from at the moment, but in Bogotá itself there are no more problems than anywhere else.

Another Baldwin 4-8-2, the number of which I had no time to note, has been put on static display in the middle of a roundabout in the city of Armenia, which was devastated by an earthquake in January. (The latter was the reason for my being there.)"

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