La Trochita - Viejo Expreso Patagónico |
U9200 Esquel, Argentina (Chubut) |
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| Address |
Roggero 1702-1800
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| Floor area | unfortunately not known yet |
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Opening times
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Status from 01/2017
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Round-trip: $ 150 Residents of Argentina: $ 80 |
| Contact | Unknown contact data for this museum - please help via contact form. |
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| Location / Directions |
Esquel is a town in the northwest of Chubut Province in Argentine Patagonia. It is located in Futaleufú Department, of which it is the government seat. |
| Description | Wikopedia: La Trochita, in English known as the Old Patagonian Express, is a 750 mm (2 ft 5 1⁄2 in) narrow gauge railway in Patagonia, Argentina using steam locomotives. The nickname La Trochita means literally "little gauge" though it is sometimes translated as "The Little Narrow Gauge" in Spanish while "trocha estrecha" is often used for a generic description of "narrow gauge." The Trochita railway is 402 km in length and runs through the foothills of the Andes between Esquel and El Maitén in Chubut Province and Ingeniero Jacobacci in Río Negro Province, originally it was part of Ferrocarriles Patagónicos, a network of railways in southern Argentina. Nowadays, with its original character largely unchanged, it operates as a heritage railway and was made internationally famous by the 1978 Paul Theroux book "The Old Patagonian Express", which described it as the railway almost at the end of the world. The Trochita todayThe line is in possession of 22 steam locomotives, 11 Henschel and 11 Baldwin Mikado type locomotives, 7 of which are currently operable, 2 Baldwin and 3 Henschel in the El Maitén - Esquel section, and 2 Baldwin locomotives in the Ingeniero Jacobacci section. The locomotives are oil fired and have been in continuous service since its introduction. There are no diesel engines in use anywhere on the line. The present rolling stock as the locomotives date from 1922, with the exception of the dining car and some first class carriages that were constructed in 1955. The train no longer runs between Esquel and El Maitén; instead two special tourist services run (i) between Esquel and the settlement of Nahuel Pan and (ii) between El Maitén and Desvío Thomae. The journey from Esquel to El Maitén took almost seven hours'. There is a regular tourist service which offers a return trip to the first station and back which takes about an hour. As of 2010, tickets for the tourist services are $ 150, round-trip, and a discount to $ 80 for residents of Argentina. The maintenance of the original 1922 locomotives is increasingly difficult, due to the lack of parts and expertise, and the remoteness of his base in El Maitén. This can cause frequent delays or service shut-downs. The Government of Argentina declared La Trochita as a National Historic Monument in 1999. In 2003, "Friends of La Trochita Association” was created by members mainly from Esquel, El Maitén and Bariloche. |
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