Steam in Chile 1998

Ian Thomson reviews the situation at the start of 1998:

3511 is laid up at Baquedano. I think it has injector problems, which is not surprising since the water is very thick with minerals up there. (Its boiler has not been washed out since being repaired ten years ago.) Ferronor intends to repair it, but has other priorities for the next twelve months. There is very little local active expertise to keep it going.

851 is laid up in Santiago. It didn’t make it back alive after an ACCPF organised jaunt to San Antonio in February 1996, and the Association seems to have given up repairing it. Some parts have been stolen from the locomotive.

714 was brought from Temuco by the ACCPF, since it was easier than repairing 851. It is still in Santiago. ACCPF active members say it is now out of action too, although the directors say nothing at all.

Derek Hyland is in charge of repairing 0-6-0T No. 489. It needs new tubes. ACCPF members have told me they plan to run it to Talagante and Buin, but there it is unlikely to get that far. It could run a shuttle between Central Station and San Eugenio.

607 is in the early stages of being repaired at San Fernando, under the coordination of Victor León.

534 is self-moveable in Temuco, and ran a special to Imperial in September, in spite of getting derailed. It was repaired first at San Rosendo and Osorno by Manuel Méndez, ex-chief of the mpd at both places, and taken to Temuco when he retired to there. Now he seems to be moving from Temuco, and the locomotive might go back to Osorno.