Ballast Leaps and Barley Wine

 Phots are HERE...

We had all been considering a trip to Argentina for some time, but had always been deterred by the cost of flights. However, when it looked like Iberian imports were threatening the ALCo operations, we decided to take the plunge. We fixed a week, aiming to use a bank holiday to maximise efficiency of annual leave. We initially considered easter for the double holiday, but decided that two extra days of Sunday service were likely to be counterproductive. We settled for the holiday at the end of May, then it was time for net-trawling to find flights.

Rant 1: How the fuck is it £250 cheaper to fly an hour in the wrong direction first? Manchester was our airport of choice, but BA wanted over £800 for the trip, connecting (badly) in London. Even just from London, they wanted £730. In contrast, we got flights from Manchester, via Paris, with Air Frog. Cost? £550. Still hardly cheap but the cheapest option by far. Gazza booked flights for himself and me, and Redhill later booked from London, meeting us in Paris.

As we’d booked four months in advance, we had plenty of time for planning. Gazza was more interested in beer, and set about some exhaustive research, while I spent hours finding railway gen. Redhill meanwhile did fuck all as he was too busy at work (needs to sort out his priorities!). I found online timetables for all the operators (more on that story later!), and through worldrailgen got in contact with local crank Martin, who furnished me with loco status updates and practical information.

After a couple of months, Gazza had a near complete brewery listing (see www.scoopergen.co.uk for the full gen), and I had compiled a Buenos Aires timetable compiled from the online timetables, suitably reformatted, along with maps and a homemade simplifier of available leaps on long distance trains. We then met up in my home town of Sheffield to compare notes, though admittedly it was just an excuse for a piss-up really!

Friday 26^th May 2005

Finally, after all the planning and waiting, I met Gazza at Manchester airport. He had already checked in, and reserved me the seat next to him. We then failed to use the automatic check-in machines to check me in, so I stormed up to the desk with no queue, only to find I’d gatecrashed the business class desk. Ada objected at first, but when we explained our scenario she checked me in. With a cheery v-sign to the masses queuing for the peasant class desk, we wandered off through security which was predictably over-the-top.

As we went to board the plane, the Ada checked Gazza’s ticket, and welcomed him by surname. Could be fun, I thought, and I was right as she made a complete hash of pronouncing my Polish surname. Once on board, we took our seats directly behind business class. The drinks trolley had the usual second rate wines and tenth rate beers, so we both settled for orange juice, but the business class trolley dolly had some champagne left over and so offered it to those at the front of peasant class. Blag! At Paris, we landed at T2F as booked, but though our tickets quoted us out of there too, we were actually departing from T2C. There is an airside shuttle bus, but for some reason we still had to undergo a full scan after our bus ride.

We boarded the Boeing 777-200 on time, and sat in our allocated seats, window and middle, near the front. Redhill’s arrival was cutting it fine, and at the terminal they called his name over the PA to get him to hurry up. He made it in plenty of time, and went to his seat on the far side of the plane. Shortly before take-off, he noticed there was only one normal in the row behind us, and duly took the window seat. I then noticed the row behind that was similarly underfilled, so took the window seat there, thus we all had window seats and a space next to us. The seats were fairly spacious anyway, as Air Frog uses a 3-3-3 arrangement rather than the 3-4-3 favoured by some operators.

When the food arrived I was pleased to see beef on the menu, as I’d had terrible visions of being served frogs’ legs and snails. After dinner I settled down to watch a couple of films, aiming to go to sleep around my usual hour, but Argie time. I ended up not getting much sleep, but still felt ok. I’ve now come to the conclusion that jetlag doesn’t exist, though Redhill pointed out that if anyone’s gonna escape, it’s gonna be us, as cranking gets one used to having one’s sleeping pattern buggered up!

Saturday 27^th May 2006

Landing was a few minutes early, and passport control was surprisingly fast, very much a ‘purple haze’ affair. Should’ve given them an out of date Coast & Peaks, for all the attention they were paying they’d have probably just stamped it and waved me through. We were given declaration forms to give to customs, and people were queuing to pass through a bag scan area. We noticed a couple of people bypassing this area, so did likewise, which raised not the slightest interest from the security and customs staff. I can’t imagine this is an official route, as somehow we’d completely ‘F’ed customs, and hadn’t handed in our declarations.

A quick visit to the cashpoint, and it was time to play ‘beat the tout’. We were immediately approached by a chap offering us a taxi, but when five minutes of gibber didn’t convey the message that we wanted Ezeiza station rather than the city centre, he was dismissed. We then used a taxi office to book our ride, and about 8.30am we were standing at Ezeiza to await our first move.

I had a quick look at the shack timetable to verify my preplanned move, and my worst fears were confirmed: the TMR website was seriously out of date. The timings had been tweaked subtly, so that overall service level was not much reduced, but annoyingly there were now only two diagrams instead of three.

We took the first Canuelas departure, bailing at Dr R Levene. As we had been warned to expect, the train was crawling with touts eager to sell whatever they had managed to procure, ranging from coffee to tv remote controls. For a laugh, the entire list of things we were offered over the week is at the end of the report.

Due to late running caused by the vacuum pipe falling off at Ezeiza, all we could really do was fester for the other diagram into Canuelas. Upon arrival there we checked the next part of my move, the incoming Gral Alvear service, which we planned to take to Temperley to cover the track hauled. We then set off into town in search of beer but found none, apart from a couple of shops selling Quilmes, which we suspected (and later proved) was utter shite. The only noticeable thing about Canuelas is the number of stray FRSMs (Flea-Ridden Shit Machines!), though we were to find this was a countrywide thing.

As planned we took A621 to Temperley, then after a quick out-and-back scratch move (and a much-needed burger!) headed up to the bizarre junction at Avenida de Elia for a spin on the narrow guage TMB. The first BsAs bound train produced silent(ish) G22 MF705, but we piled on anyway. Here again, we found the website gen to be hopelessly inaccurate. After the mileage move round the corner to Tapiales, we saw GE U12B F618 heading towards Belgrano. Like most shacks in the Buenos Aires area, Tapiales has chicken wire between the tracks, but fortunately in this case it is mounted in a frame of lightweight rail, so we simply stepped off our train onto the fence and then onto the other train, which promptly departed.

Rant 2: What’s the fucking point of the chicken wire? It only exists in stations, people wander round the end of it, and no-one gives a toss when someone climbs over it (at the risk of ripped clothes and worse – several shacks top it with barbed wire). It doesn’t help prevent fare evasion as everyone just wanders on and off the platform ends anyway. So its only purpose is to stop people leaping off a train onto one going the other way. Are they really that vindictive towards cranks or is it just a completely pointless waste of time and money?

Anyway, after a few leaps to cover everything out, we stood back at de Elia to head back to Temperley when previously-unseen F601 rolled round the corner on a Puenta Alsina service. We took this all the way, and back. A quick look at the timetable showed the service on this line has completely changed, but for the better – a shuttle to Aldo Bonzi now runs all day. The Puenta itself is a magnificent structure, and had we realised how close the other end is to Buenos Aires shack we’d have made the walk, as the rest of the day was a fairly long-winded way to get into the city.

Upon arrival at Constitucion, we got a metro to Plaza San Martin to check into our hotel. The room was arranged with two beds in the main room, and another in a smaller room, into which we relegated Redhill as he snores loudest. Check-in accomplished, we went to the Irish bar down the road where we tried the rather pleasant Porter and fairly pleasant Scotch, both from Antares, as well as the far from pleasant Ottromundo from San Carlos ‘brewery’. With this we had some excellent steaks which, although cooked longer than I would normally choose, were delicious. In the middle of our meal we were highly amused to see a tv advert (for Coke I think) in which arms had been grafted onto various everyday objects, which then proceeded to give the familiar ‘bashers’ salute’!

Note: no mileages included as I currently don’t have the info. Also missing many train numbers as TMB and TMR don’t publish them.

Sunday 28^th May 2006

While Gazza opted for a lie-in, myself and Redhill headed out early to cover a UEPFP GT22 heading for Mar Del Plata, though we were only doing a leap to Temperley. Or so we thought! As we approached said shack we slowed down, but then just before the platform the driver sounded the horn and revved up. D’oh! We’re still not sure if that train’s not booked to stop, or it’s a request stop and seeing no-one on the platform we ran straight through. Either way, bowled! I had a list of stops, but absolutely no gen how far they were (and now no faith in actually stopping at them!).

We hoped that we might get checked in a station, but no such luck. However, approaching Burzaco I noticed we were slowing, and we debated jumping off. Just then, a normal pushed past us and jumped off himself, so we thought we might as well follow suit! Bert’s drop off was obviously pre-arranged, as the train accelerated as soon as the driver saw Bert safely on the deck – fortunately myself and Redhill were also off, as it had only dropped to about 15mph in the first place, not ideal for a ballast leap! We then walked  to Burzaco to pick up a unit back to Temperley. We resolved that in future we would only do long distance trains inbound, attempting to leap on at Temperley.

Back at Temperley we went for breakfast, in the form of ‘hamburguesa completo’. Upon deducing that we were English, the Bert mentioned football, and that he had been to the UK to watch his team. He and a customer then said ‘Maradona’ while holding their hands up high and making tapping gestures! Good to see the Argentines remember him as a big cheating bastard as well, I had feared his countrymen would consider him the hero of a fair and hard fought match!

We then headed over to Ezpeleta to cover the La Plata and Bosques loop trains. We were pleased to get a real GM for the hour-long run, albeit a dud. Contrary to previous reports, GT22s are far from uncommon on the loop trains, covering at least half the diagrams. We scored a few of the turbo-charged machines, as well as a few of the vastly superior G22s and a G12. We also came across another G12, A601, but sadly it was Dead In Tow behind a GT22. Wrong way round!

At lunchtime we headed back to Temperley, and on to Haedo. Unfortunately, for the third time in a row we ended up on the diagram worked by A709, and again passed winner A604 halfway. We decided to scratch A604 in, as sod’s law dictates that the one engine guaranteed to be swapped overnight is the one you want to stick! We therefore carried onto Haedo, and doubled back to de Elia to pick up A604 at last. We then headed off to Moreno to cover the three diagrams on the Mercedes line, though sadly our scratch move meant we no longer had time to visit Mercedes. We also decided we were tired and couldn’t be bothered to hang around for the inbound Bragado, as more than likely the same loco would produce on our planned overnight to Lincoln on Friday night.

Typically we turned up at Moreno to see TBA’s recently restored GT22 9045 sat on our train. This meant we opted for ‘Plan C’ rather than ‘Plan B’, so as to maximise ALCo. We therefore headed out three shacks to pick up D659 back to Moreno, on which we met Gazza. We all then took D659 to L Y Torrezuri to intercept the awesomely claggy D657, still in the old livery. Had we stuck to ‘Plan A’, we could have had this monster over the whole line, but we still enjoyed what we had.

After a rather tedious 40-minute cart ride, we decided it was brewpub time (well, Gazza and I did, Redhill just tagged along!). We caught one of the hellfire wooden-bodied Line A metros to de Mayo, certainly an experience to watch the coach walls literally lean over on sharp curves! A more modern metro took us on to Retiro, where we caught an EMU from Retiro Mitre to Dr Luis Maria Drago, for a five minute walk to Spangher. All along the route it looks like the directions must be wrong, such an improbable location it seems for a brewpub, but we duly found it and stormed in. We had a jug of each of the three beers (Rubia, Roja and Negra) between us, though they wouldn’t take no for an answer when they offered us ham and cheese. First they asked us, and we said no. Then, they described it (still in Spanish), again we said no. They then produced a picture of ham and cheese, before finally resorting to bringing a plate of ham and cheese and waving it under our noses. By then we’d finished the beers, so were able to make an exit before we were force-fed!

Though there were still trains running when we left (11ish pm), we opted to hail a taxi to take us to the Buller brewpub, where we all had large pizzas, while myself and Gazza set about scooping all six beers in, while Redhill fell asleep halfway through his pint of IPA. The pub itself has a rather American feel, as did the pizza and the beers. Eventually, we staggered out and hailed another taxi to return us to our hotel.

Monday 29^th May 2006

Time for a scratchfest! Impeded by a lack of a valid timetable, we decided the only way to reliably cover everything on the Pilar line was to head out as many shacks as necessary to allow a simple ‘step down’ approach, a series of one-shack leaps heading in towards Retiro. We were pleased to pick up hired-in GR12 6617 and RSD16 8450 early on, the latter complete with hellfire flashing light on the nose. Due to the fact that some trains go further than others, when we got to Santos Lugares we hit the inevitable break, where a succession of trains in each direction was dud, while there were still winners to come.

Among the tat on sale, one bloke tried to sell me a hairclip – he was dismissed when I just looked at it and pointed at my freshly-shaven head! Some coffee was purchased, but swiftly boosted when it turned out to have more sugar than coffee. No need!

Once we had cleared up, we then took new-liveried B823 to Jose C Paz, for B812 forward to the end of suburban operations at Pilar. There we jumped on one of the frequent no. 276 buses to Escobar, though we only went as far as Vila Rosa. Departing Pilar shack, the bus seemed empty, nothing like the wedges of which I had heard. Such relief was short-lived, as we pulled into Pilar bus station to find what seemed like the entire population of the town waiting for our bus. One ada near the front was lardy to almost American proportions, and I gave silent thanks that I’d opted for the single seat behind the ticket machine. Next thing I heard was ‘Oh, that’s fucking booked!’, and turned to find Redhill squashed up against the window by ‘Large Marge’.

Progress was slow, due to stopping at every lamppost. Ours appeared to be the first bus for a while as we became even more wedged, before being overtaken by several relatively empty 276s. With only one train per hour working through to Vila Rosa, we were keen not to miss our train out, and eventually arrived at Vila Rosa just as E701 rolled in. We bought pieces as the loco ran round, and took our seats for some thrash. Ferrovias has by far the best stock in BsAs, and probably the best GMs. The fleet of 20 G22s are extremely loud, even beating HZ 2062s. Another good thing with bashing in BsAs is that if the locals are cold, they move away or put more clothes on, rather than the European-style anti-fresh air ranting.

Once we arrived in Retiro, we set about another scratchfest, again stepping down, partly because locos would soon start coming back out of Retiro anyway, but also because Ferrovias has the best gripping and worst chicken wire. About 6pm we started to notice the trains getting more wedged, and by 7pm people were hanging three-deep off the doors. We didn’t see many people get tail-lighted though, and made damned sure we got on each move, reasoning that a normal not getting on costs him 10 minutes, but us failing meant a couple of hours’ wait for the lok to come back!

Tuesday 30^th May 2006

A more leisurely day, heading off to cover TBA’s other two lines. We had picked a Tuesday so as to get between the lines using TEA’s twice-weekly BsAs-Posadas train, which uses ALL G22s, usually TEA-liveried 7927.

Redhill and myself headed over to San Martin station first for a quick check, and saw winner B826 in the bay, on stock. Sadly nothing was on the screen for this platform, and it was only when we decided we should head to Mitre for the unit to Victoria that we noticed people boarding B826. A quick check revealed it to be on the 0737 departure, which at a push we could do to Palermo. We chanced it, passing 8450 just before Palermo on what we assumed to be the on-time 0850 back into Retiro. We figured the next departure was only going to give us about two minutes to get from San Martin to Mitre, including getting tickets, but fortunately a GT22 appeared a couple of minutes later on what turned out to be the delayed 0850. Phew! Ever Mr Greedy, I casually remarked ‘just need this to be A916 now’ (our last one). And lo, as the number came into resolution, ‘and it is’ replied Redhill. Bonus!

We still had to hurry to Mitre, as buying tickets is not always quick with the queues and the language barrier. In the end we comfortably made the 0817 unit, the last one we could safely catch. Upon arrival at Victoria we crossed over to the Capilla platforms where 656 was waiting, with Gazza on board. In the end a delayed departure meant the following cart easily made. First concern came at Dr Schweitzer, where we expected to pass another train, but didn’t. Gazza confirmed that he’d checked the station timetable at Victoria, and it matched my internet one (miracle!), so we figured punctuality was not the order of the day. We passed hired-in ALL GAIA 5287 at El Talar, noting that a desperate leap wouldn’t have made, as it’s a long loop and 5287 was on the move long before we reached the shack. We weren’t sure which shacks were passing loops, so rather than risk a out-and-back move, we bailed off at Maqta Savio for breakfast, picking up the GAIA forward.

At Matheu the driver saw us photting the huge GAIA worksplate, and invited us all into the cab for the run-round. We then rejoined the stock to return to Maqta Savio to pick up ALL’s RSD35 6425 to Capilla. We waited ages at Matheu for no apparent reason, so arrived at Capilla del Senor some 25 late. There had been no line trailing in, so we couldn’t see where the TEA train would come from (by this time it should’ve already gone). A quick enquiry revealed what I should’ve expected – it went from another shack! The return to Victoria had been retimed, giving us time to check out the other shack. When we got there, we saw a family waiting, and figured there was nothing else they could be waiting for. We asked them about the train to Posadas, and though we didn’t understand the reply we got the gist that it was late.

Eventually the Posadas train turned up, about 45 late, with scruffy BAP liveried 7915 in place of the expected 7927. We took this as planned to Zarate Nueva. As a change from the usual tat on sale, one enterprising chap was running his own raffle!

Zarate Nueva is basically a platform in a freight yard. An ALL GA8 was there, but we had no time to phot it, as the delay left us little time to get to the TBA Zarate shack. Seeing no taxis (not surprising really!), we asked a Bert in an office to summon one, and after about three minutes our car appeared, though it appeared to be some bert’s private car – not that we were fussed if it got us across in time!

We easily made it to Zarate for the 1425 departure, and set about covering the three diagrams on that line, before going our separate ways at Villa Ballester – Gazza returning to BsAs for beers, while Redhill and I waited for the evening kick-out turn. A quick tour of Villa Ballester produced no beers other than Quilmes, so we scored that in (and in my case then wished we hadn’t!). Genuine ALCo-built D664 was the extra turn, but we were tired so decided to bail at JL Suarez, where we had made an unadvertised stop on the way in. We didn’t stop heading back out however, so reverted to plan and went to General Pachecho to pick up 652 coming back (which typically was late, and stopped at JL Suarez). Then the tedious cart back to Retiro Belgrano, before a quick steak at the Irish bar and a relatively early night.

Originally we had planned to head over to Uruguay tonight, in the hope of scoring a ‘shovel-nose’. However, by now it was apparent that we were running out of weekdays in Argentina, so a combination of crap boat timings (current timings mean losing a day and a half in Argie, for the sake of a return trip in Uruguay, with no move at weekends), high fares (about £30 each way!), and uncertainty over the appearance of the shovel-nose, meant we abandoned this plan, and settled on staying in BsAs all week.

After dossing out almost as soon as my head hit the pillow, the next thing I heard was the door handle rattling,  followed by said door flying open accompanied by a loud ‘Ooooooooooooooooooooh!’ as a severely drunken Gazza made his return from his beer hunting. He proceeded to stumble around the room, while regaling us with tales (well, the same tale several times) of the bars he found, and in particular the 12% Barley Wine he had (evidently!) sampled.

Wednesday 31^st May 2006

I was awoken at around 5.30am by a loud crash, and upon enquiring ‘What the fuck was that?’ received the reply from Gazza ‘me falling out of bed!’. I returned to sleep for another hour, before Redhill and I left Gazza to his drunken snoring and headed out for another blast on the TMB narrow gauge system. We decided to use the metro and ‘pre-metro’ to join TMB at Presidente Illia, a slow process but still quicker than the alternative routes of Temperley or Haedo.

Presidente Illia is not the ideal station to deck-chair, as the platforms are staggered either side of a road, though at least this deals with the chicken wire problem. We viewed several duds passing before finally big GE U20C MF901 rolled in. We leapt on this to Lugano, which dropped us straight into our last TMB G22. Unfortunately this meant we were back to festering at Presidente Illia, though thankfully not for long as MF902 was behind us. Two classes cleared in 20 minutes! We bailed off at V Soldati as we wanted one of the hellfire U12/13Cs to cover the track into Buenos Aires, but after watching a succession of junk heading in, we gave up and piled onto the returning MF901, as we reasoned that by now we had seen all the diagrams. We therefore did this back out to Tapiales for MF701 to Castello. We viewed the Alsina local, F601 again, so walked round the corner to Aldo Bonzi to pick up F612 for a noisy run to Belgrano and back.

A709 (again!) took us to Temperley (passing winner A703 on the way), where we took A625 to Bosques for A608 to Guttierez and back, before heading to Ezpeleta for a serious scratchfest on TMR. Again the service patterns meant the most reliable move was multiple stepdowns. This was going smoothly, until we piled onto winner A921, only to find it was one of the limited stop services, and would now go non-stop to Avellenada. D’oh! However, we got stopped at a signal, and as I could see the shack ahead we decided to bail. A quick walk up the ballast took us to Sarandi, where we were immediately rewarded with A601 heading for Temperley – obviously a kick-out turn as by now everything else coming out was the locos already scored returning. This then dropped us straight into A701, and we continued as before.

The only locos we saw heading out that we didn’t cover on the return were A710 and A912. We then headed for Temperley to cover A703, unfortunately my net timetable was out of date, and the shack timetable showed we couldn’t take A703, frustrating as it was right in front of us waiting to depart. We then went to cover the Ezeiza diagrams as A625 had been had been swapped off, so we figured the might be winners up there. Unfortuantely we found only A704 and A604, so with hindsight it would’ve been better to finish at 7.30 and meet up with Gazza, as we ended up with a late night for no real gain.

Thursday 1^st June 2006

We headed out early to Constitucion to cover our few remaining winners, unfortunately it was over two hours before any of them appeared. At this time of day there’s no real move to view everything other than deck-chairing at Constitucion as winners could appear from the direct route to Temperley or from La Plata and the Bosques loop. A710 was taken for a quick spin to Temperley, which positioned us nicely to pick up 7928 on the inbound Bolivar. We then took the first EMU to Temperley to hopefully pick up A703 on the Temperley-Haedo route.

Yet again we were presented with A709, which we took to Hospital Espanol as it appears a reasonably civilised area (unlike some further up the line!). While there we photted a FEPSA GR12 on an oil train, and were withered to be passed by a RouteMaster! Predictably, A703 had swapped, and so we had A620 back to Temperley. Here we picked up an inbound La Plata with 9068 – all these trains seem to stop so we must’ve been unlucky on Sunday.

We crossed town for another blast on the awesome Ferrovias G22s, falling straight into winner E713. Just before arrival at Saldias we passed winner E708, so took E712 on the next train in to pick up the winner coming out. Unbelievably, this then dropped us at Saldias just in time to pick up winner E711 back to Retiro. Three of our four winners in well under an hour, and since we’d seen one in bits at Boulougne on Monday, we figured this was as close to clearance as we were going to get this trip.

We then crossed the road to see what UGOFE had to offer, before boarding the Pilar with 8453. We did this move as this loco seems to be less common than 8456, so we figured we had a chance to pick up 8456 on our planned overnight move Friday night/Saturday morning. Although my net timetable shows both Jose C Paz and Pilar as stops, by now I had no faith in this (especially as the Bert had refused to sell us tickets to either, though this was probably as there are suburban trains to both), so when we slowed to about 15mph over a level crossing just past Hurlingham I decided to bail, with Redhill close behind. At least this time we landed on a road rather than ballast! A short walk took us to Hurlingham, where we picked up winner B822.

We were meeting local crank Martin and a friend that night, so we took a taxi to the pre-arranged meeting place at the Patio Cerveza brewpub. Or so we thought! Martin and his friend were actually in the other Patio Cerveza further up the road! A quick text message soon sorted this out, and they joined us about five minutes later. We all had tasty meals, while Gazza and I assaulted the vast (but quite expensive) beer list. Martin and friend were drinking Quilmes, but soon desisted when we told them we would pay the bill to thank them for all the gen in planning the trip, but only if they drank real beer, as we refused to pay for Quilmes!

Friday 2^nd June 2006

We all had a late lie-in, as we could see no merit in getting up earlier. Redhill and I caught the metro to F Lacroze to cover the Posadas again, hoping for and getting a different G22. Again we had the official stops, but some were request stops and we had no idea at which ones we would actually stop. A shame, as the first is directly adjacent to a shack on the Pilar line. So yet again, we ended up bailing on a level crossing, though thankfully this time the train was at least stopped. The crossing was just short of the flat crossing with the Pilar line, and turned out to be on the same road onto which we had leapt the previous night! Again we walked to Hurlingham, but this time found no winners.

We returned to Retiro, as we had received gen that former CP Evil Empire beast 1417 was to make its debut that afternoon on the new 1626 service to Hurlingham. Upon arrival, 1417 followed us in on a test train, and we met Juan Carlos Gonzalez of Ferrovias. He told us that Ferrovias also had a new service, starting at 1825 that evening, using their newly shopped RSD35 no. ME61. A quick check revealed that we could do 1417 all the way, for something back, then get over to Retiro Belgrano for the MLW.

In the event, the EE lost time thanks to some poor signalling, several stoppers going in front, so we bailed at Caceros for A919 back. We then headed over for ME61, which unfortunately meant flagging our overnight to Lincoln to cover RSD35 6417 (for which we’d paid two quid each!). We were somewhat disappointed when the refurbished stock for the 1825 arrived behind a G22, though pleased to note that despite its plastic appearance (and power doors, which puts paid to any last minute hangers-on!) the stock has full bellowing windows. We decided to flag, and Redhill and I went off to Constitucion to seek our last two winners known to be around there, A703 and A912. We were pleased to fall straight into A703, but saw no sign of A912. We hung around hopefully for a bit before giving up and wandering off.

Redhill went back to the hotel, while I texted Gazza to see which brewpub he was in. He was out at Palermo, so I had little chance of finding him. I therefore went to find Rubia y Negra, the brewpub where Gazza had tried the Barley Wine. Well, I had to see what all the fuss was about! I walked to the pub (walking up main road parallel to Retiro Mitre, about 5 blocks up turn left, pub up hill on right), getting soaked in the process as the hitherto dry weather had abruptly ended that lunchtime.

Once at the pub, I set about trying all the beers, including a free wheat beer, and finishing on the infamous Barley Wine (which was suitably hellfire). Once I had finished, I got a text from Gazza to say he was heading back to town, so I met him at Retiro Mitre and we walked over to view some other bars. Most had only national beers so were flagged, and so we settled for a quick one in the Buller subsidiary, before retiring to the hotel to drink some of the scoops Gazza had bought and couldn’t be arsed to carry home!

Saturday 3^rd June 2006

Another day on the TBA system, we found no winners on the Capilla line. We had to take a bus from Matheu to Escobar, but managed to time it so that we viewed both diagrams simultaneously. Dud 664 was heading for Zarate, while ALL winner 6447 was heading for Villa Ballester. This was duly scored, giving a fine display of clag and wheelslip.

In the afternoon we had a look for A912, before taking a run to La Plata. I wasn’t too pleased to be doing the track on turbocharged piffle, but at least when we got there we saw why we hadn’t seen A912 – it was on one of the diagrams that sits at La Plata all day. D’oh! This being the case, we again went to Patio Cerveza, meeting up with Gazza. We then went to the other Patio Cerveza, only to find the beers not available in the first were also out of stock in the other. Gazza and I then went off to find some other bars, while Redhill retired for the night (though he tried to clear Metro Line A with the hellfire wooden stock on the way, forgetting it was late and the metro was shutting down for the night!).

We then went to the Gibraltar bar, where I tried two beers from Stone of Pilar, namely their hellfire Stout and more surreally, handpumped IPA! Cask ale scored for southern hemisphere, can’t be bad! We then went to another bar round the corner, scoring Koala Stout and Territorio Brown Ale, though we’re not sure of the origin of the latter. Yet again the beer museum was shut (Gazza having tried several times already), so we retired for a couple more bottles at the hotel.

Sunday 4^th June 2006

Redhill and I were determined to have A912, so we headed for Constitucion. As we knew where our winner was, we were able to work out which diagrams it could be on. We took A712 to Berazategui, where we covered the possible turns. We viewed most of them, producing no result. Because we stood on the southbound platform, and flagged both a La Plata and a Temperley, normals started to ask where we wanted to go, thinking us lost. We told them Temperley, just to get rid of them.

We got down to the last possible train when a GT22 approached. It was the wrong way round for A912 we thought, but no, our memories were obviously playing tricks as the machine duly produced heading for Constitucion. We set off over the footbridge (curse that chicken wire!) at a turn of speed impressive for two fat bastards, only to be shouted at and even pursued by the normals who obviously thought we were going the wrong way. We managed to evade them and pile on, sampling the machine (which was winner number 100) to Ezpeleta to pick up A911 to Temperley, though I rather hoped we’d miss the +2, as we knew the following Temperley to be a G22.

At Temperley we were pleasantly surprised to find another winner, A605, had appeared from nowhere, and was on our train to Haedo. We took this as far as de Elia, and were most pleased to see yet another winner, F623, roll in heading for Gonzalez Catan. We therefore scored the loco and the track, though sadly the driver was a total windbag, bloody typical. We then deck-chaired all the diagrams at Tapiales, while I corrected some guessed departure times from the shack timetable. Finding no more winners we did F618 to Aldo Bonzi and walked to de Elia  for – guess what? – A709 to Haedo.

We were pleased to drop straight into winner 662, which we could take all the way to Mercedes, though at one point it seemed unlikely we’d get there as the engine kept shutting down. Eventually we made it, and the problem was resolved as the return was without problem. We had viewed the other two diagrams, noting without surprise that both were dud, so decided to go for dinner in Lujan. We found little in the way of dinner, but did find a supermarket where we picked up some bargain wines, spirits and Yerba Mate. We then picked up the late-running inbound Bragado, with winner 9063, after which we called it a night.

Monday 5^th June 2006

We decided that our move for the final day would be to do 1417 to Hurlingham, for something forward, to cover the inbound Junin, hoping for 8456. At Retiro we saw B819 backing onto the train in front of the EE so stormed over for it, as it had been sat on the depot all week, refusing to work. We did this to Palermo for the EE, picking up B826 forward to Jose C Paz. We waited for the Junin, but it was clearly over an hour late, and as we had a flight we called it a day just before 10am, as we knew the next two trains behind B822 were both GM.

We just missed the last direct GM of the morning to Temperley, so had a tedious hour on an EMU to Ezeiza. We viewed the first of the two diagrams to appear, and as it was dud decided to play safe and head to the airport. We used one of the frequent but far from direct buses to the airport. It was getting wedged, so we piled in the back door, which meant we had to ‘F’ it as we couldn’t get to the ticket machine. The bus then went down various back-streets, before performing a bizarre manoeuvre involving driving over a bridge over a motorway, turning onto the motorway, under the bridge, immediately off the motorway, back over the bridge, then onto the other lane of the motorway for approximately half a mile. Having then called at a stop, we performed the same ridiculous move in reverse, before heading vaguely in the direction of the airport.

On arrival at the airport we were slightly disturbed to see some sort of rally going on outside, fearing a strike or worse, but it seemed to be a political thing to do with upcoming elections. Once inside, we checked in with minimal queuing, but despite arriving as soon as check-in opened we were unable to get window seats or even sit together, as the flight was full. We then festered, before catching a flight that was totally uneventful, apart from me actually managing a full eight hours’ doss, the most of any night of the trip!

Tuesday 6^th June 2006 (6/6/6!)

We landed in Paris on time, and Redhill bade us farewell as he had an immediate connection to London, while Gazza and I festered as our connection wasn’t for a few hours. I considered heading into town, but decided at €8 each way it wouldn’t be particularly productive. Our connection produced the booked Fokker 70, the first plane I’ve seen with 3+2 seat formation. By this stage I was starving, breakfast having long since worn off, and I’d refused to pay Paris Airport’s rip off prices (four quid for a butty? Three-fifty for a slice of pizza? Who the fuck do they think they’re kidding?!). I was therefore supremely unimpressed when the food turned out to be a cake about the size of my fingernail! Stingy bastards!

We landed at Manchester right time, and caught our separate trains home. Back in Sheffield, I went for a quick beer spin to catch up on what I’d missed while away, scoring five new (desperately trying to get to 10,000 beers before I turn 28 next April!). I then got on the net to book some flights, for trips to Ireland, Poland and Germany. Can’t stay in Britain too long at a time!

Conclusions

All in all, an excellent trip. I think we only missed a couple of engines that we’d seen working on long distance, and nothing on the suburban. The RSD16s and RSD39s are hell, as are the Ferrovias G22s. Like a lot of countries, there’s far too much turbocharged GM, but there’s plenty of other things to go at. Plus of course being on the first run of a 1400 from Buenos Aires was absolutely top. Add to that the ever-expanding range of micro-brewed beers (I scored 43, Gazza got about 80) and you’ve got a country that simply has to be done. I’ll certainly go back, though I may wait to see how they use the Spanish and Portuguese stock that’s on its way. I might be tempted with some long distance moves, especially the 700+ mile G22 run to Posadas. Just a shame they’re getting the Portuguese Alsthoms instead of the dumper trucks!

I was disappointed not to get to Uruguay, but doing so would certainly have cost us winners, possibly even leaving us below the magic 100 winners. If there were a weekend move we’d have considered it, but in BsAs,  every rush hour is needed on such a short trip!

Finally, for those yet to take the plunge (what are you waiting for?!), some notes on the traction available:

GMs:

G12 (TMR) – totally hellfire 12-567 engined hood units, mechanically like a big version of an Irish 121, but completely unsilenced. To be found on pretty much any TMR service except La Plata line.

GR12 (TMR, plus one NCA on hire to UGOFE) – updated version of above, still unsilenced, though slightly baffled, well worth doing. Work as above, plus NCA 6617 is used on UGOFE services from Retiro to Pilar.

G22 (TMR, UEPFP, TEA, TMB, FV) – Standard GM hood unit design used worldwide, though these are the less common co-co variant. They look like a shortened HZ 2062, and in effect they are, with a supercharged 12-645 engine. The five TMB examples are fairly heavily (though not totally) stuffed, and can now be found on any part of the TMB network apart from the Puenta Alsina branch. TMR’s are good as are UEPFP’s sole working example 7928, and the ALL freight locos hired in for TEA’s twice weekly service to Posadas. But the star of the G22 show is undoubtedly Ferrovias’s fleet of 20, possibly the loudest GMs I have ever sampled. A departure from the covered end of Aristobolo del Valle has to be heard to be believed!

GT22 (UGOFE, TBA, TMR, UEPFP etc) – Found on pretty much every broad gauge route in the country, these are another standard GM design, near identical to HZ 2044s. With a turbocharged, unsilenced, 12-645 lump, they’re like pretty much any turbocharged GM worldwide, fairly loud, but pretty dull, with the turbo drone drowning out any cylinder and exhaust noise.

GEs:

U10B (TMB) – identical to a Tunisian DM, in both appearance and, sadly, sound. Totally piffly shunters, thank goodness there’s only two!

U12/13C (TMB) – we had no idea what to expect from these narrow gauge hood units, but were far from disappointed. The two U13s (MF624 & MF625) have ALCo engines, while the U12s have something else that sounds very ALCo-esque. Possibly the most pleasant surprise of the trip.

U20C (TMB) – two larger locos, very similar in appearance to a Tunisian DN, though thankfully louder. What they really sound like is hard to judge though, as they are totally overpowered, and thus never properly thrashed.

ALCo/MLW:

RSD39 (TBA) – possibly the overall star of the show, the ex-Spanish 6-251 powered beasts have great thrash (and unbelievable clag!), though they are not worked as mercilessly now that the running speeds have been slowed on the TBA network. Now in a poor state of repair, most that we scored had at least two motors isolated

RSD35 (3 ALL on hire to TBA) – a better-maintained version of the above, sadly not quite as loud or as claggy, though still well rateable. Since our visit, the only surviving narrow gauge example has been returned to traffic by Ferrovias, it has a set diagram, but which is often covered by a G22.

RSD16 (UGOFE, UEPFP) – these 50-year old monsters still have plenty of life, indeed UGOFE are currently overhauling several examples. Physically massive, they make a great noise, though sadly a lot of it goes over the top of the train as they are so much higher than the stock.

GAIA (TBA) – Some Italian-Argentine design, originally with Fiat engines, later replaced with ALCo. Not as claggy as pure ALCo, and not as noisy either. They’re not too bad, but a bit of a disappointment when one turns up in place of a real ALCo!

And of course, Evil Empire:

Seven ex-CP 1400s are in Argentina, with another eight being prepared for delivery. Working passenger so far, are 1417 on UGOFE, 1467 for TBA, and 1448 for Ferrocentral working out of Cordoba in the north of the country.

Out of the 105 locos we scored, only 6 were silent (TMB MF701-5 and MF102) – not a bad ratio!

Credits:

Thanks are due to Gazza for the beer gen, and Martin in BsAs, Gareth Davey and Fly for the railway gen that made the trip successful.

Dave Unpronounceable, July 2006

20187@theevilempire.co.uk

The tat for sale, in no particular order:

Pens (which Bert spent 10 minutes demonstrating, then again with a different colour!)

Gloves

CDs (the worst, as they bring a ghetto blaster and stand there playing the CD, drowning out the thrash!)

CD cases

DVDs

Biscuits

Bread

Cakes

‘Ceramico’ – pottery

Lottery tickets

Raffle tickets

Padlocks (some without keys!)

Wafers

Superglue

Hairclips

Torches

Josticks

Lemsip

Marker Pens

Spirograph

Lighters

Hot Dogs

Fizzy Drinks

Battery Lights

Jewellery

Scissors

Diaries

Tape measures

Socks

Newspapers

Bird Whistles

Toothbrushes

Thermometers

Squeaky Toys

Headphones

Bird Dolls

Nail Clippers

Filofax

Wallets

ID Card holders

Paracetamol

TV Remote Control