WOOD BURNERS IN THE CHACO
by Roy Christian

Brazil's Madeira-Mamore is probably the most isolated railroad in South America but the industrial railway of the Carlos Casado Company in Paraguay must be a close second. No commercial airline flies to Puerto Casado. The one automobile in town belongs, to the Paraguayan Air Force. Puerto Casado can be reached 5 times a week by flying with the Air Force or weekly by boat on the Paraguay River. Even the Madeira-Mamore and Argentina's Rio Gallegos line have commercial air connections and a number of buses and automobiles.

On our second try John Kirchner and I finally caught the C-47 flight from Asuncion to Puerto Casado via Concepcion. We sat in paratroop seats although no parachutes were issued. A Paraguayan gentleman next to us survived the flight by closing his eyes and clamping his crucifix in his mouth. His constant prayers must have helped us arrive in Puerto Casado.

The only VW in town came jolting along a stretch of 762mm track to pick up the day's travelers. The town was dominated by the large quebracho fabrica (factory). The fabrica processes the quebracho logs into tannin, used to tan leather. The logs are brought by rail from the forests stretching into the Chaco to the west. After processing, the tannin is floated on barges to Buenos Aires for export.

First impressions of the town were negative. Grim-faced men bunched around an office building where a sign read "No Work." The heat from the overhead sun bore down with a vengeance. Warm Coca Cola was the only refreshment available.

The Tuesday morning we arrived happened to be a few hours before the weekly train left for the interior of the Chaco. The temperature was already above 100 degrees F. but the passengers, mostly Guarani Indians, crowded aboard the wood coaches long before the engine arrived. An amazingly large engine, considering the gauge, a Henschel Mikado, finally arrived. Its tender was loaded with wood to a level above the roof of the cab and it was pushing an auxiliary water tender. With ease it backed out of the yard with a 6 car consist. The journey was supposed to take 20 hours to make 160 kilometers.

In the afternoon we gained entrance to the fabrica after an interrogation by the chief. Once we proved we were interested in locomotives and locomotives only, the reception was cordial. We postulated labor trouble had prompted the caution. The guide stalked the engines with as much enthusiasm as John and I. Two small 0-6-OTs were busy around the yard, moving the quebracho-loaded flats toward the chipper. Several steam cranes worked unloading the logs. A Manning Wardle 2-8-2T was under general repairs as was an 1898 Koppel 0-4-OT. The Koppel was labeled "Primera locomotora del Chaco Paraguayo."

The most exotic locomotive was a derelict Schwartzkopff inside-cylinder 0-4+4-0. Later, this engine, built in 1925 (C/N 8459), was identified in Wiener's 1930 Articulated Locomotives as a chain driven locomotive designed to cope with irregular road-beds.

By late afternoon the sun had taken its toll and both of us felt like we were suffering from salt depletion or heat stroke. The debilitating weather drained our energy to such a degree that we discussed going to bed early and expressed only mild interest in returning to the fabrica to watch the arrival of a train from the Chaco at 9 P.M. With the setting of the sun and the hydration from several more warm Coca Colas, we remembered why we had made the pilgrimage to Puerto Casado and dutifully hauled ourselves back to the fabrica to watch the arrival of the night train. It is a good thing too, for the sight of a wood-burning locomotive at night hauling 22 loaded cars must rank as one of the greatest thrills experienced in steam railroading. We both had seen a good number of woodbumers. In the day, they aren't too exciting to watch. The wood fire creates rather small amounts of soft white smoke and the exhaust sound is a weak whoosh rather than the bark associated
with higher-pressured locomotives. In Asuncion, I had enjoyed watching the Central woodbumers in action at night. The shower of sparks flew into the air like fireflies. I had read other accounts of woodburners and they usually referred to the night exhaust as fireworks. But nothing, absolutely nothing I had read or seen, prepared me for the fantastic beauty of the woodbuming Henschel Mikado that night at Puerto Casado.

A full half hour before #9 was to arrive, the gateman said to us "Hay el tren." His trained eye had caught the faint orange glow out on the Chaco long before we had any idea where to look. Soon we too could see an orange light pulsating on the horizon. Slowly it grew until finally the general glow could be resolved into a distant engine and from its balloon stack there issued a column of glowing red embers a hundred feet high. Lucius Beebe had described a woodburner as "a traveling conflagration." Now we knew what Lucius was talking about.

As the engine approached town, the spark arrestor was adjusted and suddenly the column of fire was extinguished. The spark arrestor is used only in critical fire danger areas for otherwise the smokebox would overflow with ashes in a short time. Although the crew was helpful, our photographic efforts were unable to fully capture the drama of the woodburner's arrival. The fire column is only visible when the locomotive is working and our open flash technique can take a picture only when the engine is stopped. But we tried and watching the woodburner at night was an exciting climax to our trip to the most isolated, or perhaps second most isolated, railway in South America.

COMPANIA CARLOS CASADO, Puerto Casado, 762mm (2 ft 6in) gauge