Since I'm always running my mouth - and keyboard, about COLOMBIA, and her fantastic railroads, I thought this weekend I'll post a few Videos, for y'all to visit, both the good and the bad. feel free to comment. A few years ago this line was too dead to bury, in fact most of it WAS buried in mud. Those of you who have NEVER been in Colombia, enjoy the trip through the farm country as we climb the Andes into the cooler coffee region from the hot low flats of the Cauca Valley near Cali. Yeah, I know Lunican, we need to mow the lawn, cut back the bushes and spray for weeds, hell we even need some computer signaling now that traffic is moving again! This track is only 3 FOOT gauge, the same as the famous steam trains on the Durango and Silverton in Colorado. The Diesel is a modern GE product a U-10, and these ancient coaches, saved by sponsors, were made by Superior "School Bus" in their Colombian plant. You will gather by our speed just how nice this track has become, in fact we are very proud of it, considering a couple of years ago you couldn't find it! Some of the bridges back then just had rails hanging in the air, the rivers or creeks had taken down the structures. In the end of this 9 1/2 minute you can hear us talking about the USA, "Estados Unidos." Also keep in mind the type of neighborhoods that tend to grow next to railroad tracks, as most of Colombia, is quite clean and neat. You would find that even in the poorest house, you could eat off the floor...clean to a fault.
ENJOY my purple theater:
http://www.youtube.com/v/yJj3Zggq7JM&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x402061&color2=0x9461ca&border=1
OCKLAWAHA
Bob, great Video!! Beautiful countryside! Did I hear the driver say that he was making thirty-one KPH? Seemed faster than that by a lot and uphill at that. Did he call the river the Rio Viejo? The accent was throwing me a little.
How do they know when to blow the horn for the road crossings? Are there signs in the right-of-way that tell them? What's the altitude change? Was was that route abandoned in the first place and why restored?
What was the double track looking section through the bridge?
Really good looking road bed, BTW.
Ok, looked at the title finally. Coffee Country Tourist Train.
Quote from: Dog Walker on October 31, 2009, 02:53:14 PM
Bob, great Video!! Beautiful countryside! Did I hear the driver say that he was making thirty-one KPH? Seemed faster than that by a lot and uphill at that. Did he call the river the Rio Viejo? The accent was throwing me a little.
How do they know when to blow the horn for the road crossings? Are there signs in the right-of-way that tell them? What's the altitude change? Was was that route abandoned in the first place and why restored?
What was the double track looking section through the bridge?
Really good looking road bed, BTW.
There is more to come.
Your answers are, he was saying the route was 31 miles, part of the Pacific Division. This line is completely new, anyone remember the landslides in Colombia back in 2005/6? It was this area that was the hardest hit. We had just finished the reconstruction of the whole railroad from the Port at Buenaventura to Cali, and WHAM! That highway you see in the one scene just vanished. The railroad was untouched. I'll add that the regular numbered Federal Highways or Expressways in Colombia, look JUST LIKE OURS, from the pavement, to the markings, safety rails, international signs, reflectors etc... But when the whole mountain comes down there is little one can do. Trouble is we didn't have the Railroad equipment in position to reopen, so 1,000 trucks sat while cargo spoiled and we stood and watched unable to ferry them around it!! It was quite sad and very frustrating.
The River is the RIO VIEJA (Old Woman River) as I said, she might be old, but she still has a wild fling now and then.
Whistle posts are set before each crossing, but sometimes, peasants decide that a nice metal sign would make a better griddle over the old BBQ. The operators MUST be qualified on their routes, that includes enough to be able to sketch any part by memory without exclusion of a single switch stand, crossing, derail protection, signal etc. Same thing here, if your out of Jax on AMTRAK you must know all routes into and out of town, to the next crew change point, even though usually you'll bid and be awarded a set daily route.
Starting altitude in the Valle Cauca, is about 1,000 meters, the train will crest the Pacific Pass at about 2,500 meters, (I don't have my data handy so this is on memory of a division quite distant from my normal home turf).
Abandonment came to the railroad system in Colombia, sadly the only comprehensive system in all of South America, starting in the 1970's. Just like the USA, everybody had decided to put the big money into "Autopistas" (Expressways). Soon a country that was served by 1,200 miles of railroad was seeing giant 18 wheelers walk off with the cargo. Worse yet the railroad had been nationalized and in politics, and attempting to follow a fair trade practice, the government wouldn't let the truckers be undercut. Soon there were thousands of "them" and very few of "us". Except for a couple of isolated Coal or Concrete lines, the whole system shut down. Between 1985 and 2005, nearly everything of value had been removed. Only rails, stranded freight cars, and locomotives remained. Buildings were gutted of machinery, and as a whole the shops rendered useless. Sidings were cut all through Medellin, off of a river front freeway, preventing rail access to such places as the Chevy Truck Plant, The LG appliance Factory, The Renault Auto Works, etc... But in the 2000's, change was on the march. Colombia was/is on the rise, and the economy was soaring. Millions came in new investment in Oil and Coal, Soon followed by a way to get it from the top of the World to the Sea, on both sides of Latin America, (Colombia is the only South American Country with an Atlantic and Pacific Coast). Today that snowball is rolling downhill, and I'm loving every minute of it. Over on the Pacific, new contracts in the Cauca River Valley, have turned the Sugar and Coffee business rich once again, and Spain invested some 88, Million to rebuild that division.
The Double Track through the bridge isn't double track! It's called Guard Rails. Basically it works by trapping the freight or passenger car wheels from either one side or the other, in the event of a derailment. This is used here in town too! It a car climbed a rail to the right, and the wheels hit the ties, there is nothing to stop them from going another 3' (in Colombia) before the back of the left wheels struck the right rail. By then the right wheel is probably on it's way into a ditch and the whole car topples. When guard rails are in place, a right hand derailment would trap the left hand wheels... Etc.
See diagram and photo:(http://www.wiringfordcc.com/guage_split_turnout.gif)
The short Guard Rails in a switch are easy to spot, the ends bend in to "feed" the stray wheels into place.
(http://www.donet.com/~paulrace/trains/primer/bridges/trestle/lilly_bridge_guardrails.jpg)
Just a garden model but the Guard Rails are FIRST CLASS regulation stuff.
Hope this helps! More to come!
As for "Tourist Train," yeah, because the new "High Speed" stuff wasn't delivered yet for passenger service. But everybody wanted to "ride the antique railroad..." (sadly the common name of the system after so many years of "facts" about how railroads were as good as dead!) But don't let that fool you, 850,000 Tones the first year, and over 3 Million by 2007!OCKLAWAHA
Nice work Ock.............interesting to say the least..........I got one question regarding Mud. When there is a mud slide, do they show up with 1001 shovels or is mechanized equipment railed in? Water cannons might be of use to cut through.....not really something that I am up on!
Ock, thanks for the education. Interesting stuff.
Cool guys, thanks Dog Walker, another edition in a few hours. CS your question inspired me to answer it on it's own thread. Please understand I am NOT picking on you, simply using a very typical American impression to answer in a broad sweep.
Your particular answer is:
Peasants, poor blacks, Indian's, scrabble farmers, highway squatters, all came running to help, they probably had 10,000 shovels. They fed the drivers from their meager supplies, nursed the sick, and in Colombian tradition identified the dead - then stole their watches and money! (sorry but for them it's about survival, I understand). The government started an airlift with the 100 choppers sold to Colombia by the Bush Administration. Engineers and heavy equipment as well as blasting went on night and day for weeks, and we had a 50 yard line seat from the other mountain. The mountain they were on, in that extension down to the river is almost 100% soup-like clay. This is wash down top soil, clay and loose rock from the higher altitudes over millions of years. I haven't been back over to see the fix, but they were talking down any more walls, as the slides just push them and the road off the side. I suspect they bridged that area, IF they could find bedrock somewhere below.
The equipment is also interesting as Colombia shops on a world market, so you have Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Italian, Indian, US and Britt's, all working with huge contracts and every toy in the little boys imagination.
OCKLAWAHA