Kevin Hoggett reports on his trip with the Railway Touring Company in October
2016.
Puno
We sailed into the docks on a lake cruise. S.S. Ollanta, the passenger ship built 1930 by Earles of Hull which provided the overnight service to Bolivia until 1981 is berthed
here and looks in good condition. She is owned by Peru Rail, a daughter of Belmond, and they say she is under repair with the intention of operating lake cruises, let’s hope so! Close by is a steam bucket dredger, built 1930 which is apparently still used to keep the channel to Puno clear, and the old train ferry (motor).
About two miles outside Puno, along the railway towards Juliaca, SS Coya is beached. She is used as a function room /restaurant. Coya was built by Denny of Dumbarton in 1893. Two of us on the tour decided we wanted a closer look (she was fairly close to the hotel) and walked over. A man who was apparently the caretaker noticed our interest and produced the keys allowing us to look on board. She was most unusual; The engine was a compound, but with each cylinder connected to a separate crankshaft, hence propeller! There was only one set of controls and telegraph, so the propellers always worked together! A condenser was built into the engine frame between the two cranks. Steam was provided by two oil fired twin furnace scotch boilers.
We also paid a visit to the Yavari, built 1862 by James Watt and the Thames Ironwork and Shipbuilding company, she was first lengthened and converted to motor as long ago as 1914. The engine then installed was a 4 cylinder Bollinder semi-diesel which is still on board and is restored to working order. There is a nice museum on board with models of all of the lake steamers. The ship is only awaiting some modern life saving equipment to be fitted before she commences cruising with fare paying passengers. Restoration has been carried out by a British based society who have eyes on the Coya as the next project.
By way of comparison this is Coya ca 2004. It appeared on http://www.kellstransportmuseum.com/Tit.html but that site
is now defunct as are others owned by the photographer, Michael Grimes. I have
recovered the image from http://web.archive.org
and I think it in the public interest to preserve it. If I have offended his
inherited copyright, just let me know and I will remove them.
