British railways in Argentina

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    More than 100 years ago, the British capital was having business in Argentina since 1870. In 1921 they built two paralell lines of electric trains that went from Retiro Srarion to Tigre, using the well remembered Metropoolitan Vickers carriages, They offered a quuck travek along the northwestern coast from BA and helped to develope small populations like Nunez, Rivadavia, Vicente Lopez,Olivos, La Lucila, Acassuso and San Isidro, ending in Tigre.

    Here are some photos of these trains which served from 1921 to 1960, with more speed than nowadays, Frequencies were every 11 minutes.

    The carriages were designed specially for the weather of BA, often warm.That is the reason of the ventilators in the ceiling of the carriages.

    The interior was lavish, plenty of fine wood and very comfortable seats. There were special rooms for smokers and non smokers.

    Other electric line was in the FCO (Ferrocarril Oeste) now called Sarmiento.

    A good new was that the employees were fairly paid and they can retire al 50 years, having a wage almost the same as when they were working. The railways were the first private investors which gave retirement to the aged employees. I remember having members of my family thay were employees of the Railways, and they were looking with respect and appreciation. The best job was being an engineer in the locomotives, almost as a pilot of a huge commercial plane,

    As I've mentioned before my grandmother always spoke fondly of her favourite uncle who came to Argentina to ''build the railways''. She never said if he returned to Scotland or stayed here. I'd love to find out.

  • Splinter

    Changed the title of the thread from “Britisch railways in Argentina” to “British railways in Argentina”.
    Quote from Rice

    Thank you for this impressive and charming piece of history, Carlos ! The photos and description make me wish we could hop on one of those trains.

    Those trains were discarded in the 1960, after 40 years of good service. They were subsitituted by Japanese trains (Kawasaki Kinki) and now we have Chinese trains. Even with these new trains, the speed was equal to the original Metropolitan Vickers electric carriages. But the original wood interiors of the first electrical trains never come back again.

    Now they cannot go faster because at the terminal station in Retiro there are many tracks that are obsolete, and to avoid accidents the trains approach at 6 km per hour. It seems that now the government have understood that the first priority are the tracks, and then the carriages or wagons.

    Quote from UK Man

    Pretty sure a cousin of mine was into researching the family history on my mothers side. I haven't been in touch with him for years and years though. I'll see if I can make contact with him.

    Do that, Mr UK Man. It will be a satisfaction for you, and much more for your descendants.

    I, as a professor, have contact with many young people that cannot pronounce their family name well, because they do not had a full education knowing the language of their ancestors. Even they do not know from what country they came from. Ignorance of the famiy history is common here, perhaps because their ancestors were very poor and not fluent in their own language. Especially those immigrants from the Mediterranean sea. English and French immigrants, on the contrary, still speak their language. I have a friend, third generation argentinean from French origin which speaks Spanish with french accent. When I am in their home I warned him that they must not speak a evil word about me, because I understand French.

    Professor Bozzoli, you sir are an absolute gem. When I started my research of BA I wanted to ride the train from the capital to Mendoza. I read recently that train service from the capital to San Martin is available? I don't mind bus service, just the train always seemed to represent bucolic and serene leisure. Cultured if you will. I'm not referring to the subway(sarcasm). Though the Paris subway was highly efficient, but that was twenty plus years ago.