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Preservationists
Projects
A.R.A.R.
has undertaken several preservation projects of transportation vehicles
of those which is offered below a short review:
"RUSTON & HORNSBY" 0-6-0DM LOCOMOTIVES
These
two broad gauge (1,676 m. / 5ft 6in) Diesel-mechanical units were acquired
around
the end of the 1950s by Argentine State´s Oil Company “Yacimientos
Petrolíferos Fiscales” (Y.P.F.) for their employment in the storage
plant of the
San
Lorenzo Refinery, located in the homonymous city to some 25 kilometers
North
from Rosario.
Both
locomotives were equipped with special devices to permit their sure employment
in sectors exposed to possible inflammable gas leaks, also have the distinctive
characteristic of be equipped with semi-automatic couplers of the “Janney”
type for the shunting of metre gauge wagons (the spurs of the plant are
tended in mixed trail through the use of a third central rail).
Already
in the 1970s one of the locomotives was withdrawn of the service and partially
"cannibalized" for the maintenance of the remainder, that was maintained
in service until principles of the 1990s, when the San Lorenzo Refinery
was sold to the private sector, in the first stages of Y.P.F. privatization,
adopting the denomination "REFISAN S.A.".
Rescue
and Storing
During
1995 A.R.A.R. took contact with REFISAN S.A., that finally relinquished
both locomotives to the entity, after something which around the end of
January 1996 was accomplished the transportation operation of the units
through an special train disposed to the effect by the New 
Central
Argentine railway operator that it permitted to deposit them in the Grain
Elevator Terminal Number One of the Argentine Federation of Agrarian Cooperatives
(F.A.C.A.) in the Refineria quarter in Rosario. In such dependencies,
during 1996/7 was
proceeded
to the exhaustive inspection of the most complete locomotive, that
in
some opportunities was started and accomplished some shunting duties, also
were received some spare parts batches also relinquished by REFISAN S.A.
Meanwhile,
A.R.A.R. transacted in repeated opportunities the obtainment
of
a site with railway access for the safe storage of these locomotives in
addition
to railway rolling material that was selected for its incorporation in
the future Railway Museum (anticipated in the facilities of the former
Rosario Norte Rolling Stock Depot, General Mitre Railway). However,
the Rosario Municipality delayed and then stopped the negotiations that
in such sense was accomplishing along with the A.R.A.R. from time back
before the Argentine Managing National Entity of Railway Assets (E.N.A.Bie.F)
-this topic is widely developed in the paragraph “Rosario Railway Regional
Museum and Archive”-.
Locomotives
in danger
The
sudden close of the Elevator plant and thereinafter the streets opening
by the railway lands (around the end of 1998) provoked the urgency from
withdrawing the locomotives before result rail isolated, what would demand
a costly road transportation with the misadventures that this implies.
The fact of were unable to receive them the Rosario Norte Rolling Stock
Depot, carried us to request other company deprive a physical space where
to locate temporally them and, at the same time, to obtain broad
gauge traction for the tow. In the last months of 1998 and first
of 1999 the A.R.A.R. transacted both things; however, the answers were
beed differing.
Both
locomotives were staying in proximities of Gorriti and Rawson street, until
where they had been displaced (without our knowledge neither assent) from
the spur in which was found, under alertness, in lands of the Elevator
Unit Nº 1. As is of supposing, upon remaining released to its
luck, began to suffer damages and wreckage therefore there was that proceed
at once to their retire; on the other hand, was imminent the raising of
the tracks in that sector and the same were very obstructed therefore it
was necessary to clear them to permit the access of the locomotive that
would tow them.
Last
Minute Rescue
The
case took public state through the “La Capital” newspaper, that reported
it
initially,
continuing its alternatives in successive issues. All the process
took several days but peaked successfully on March 15, 1999 when finally
we achieve to assure their movement, the last stage of which was to cargo
of N.C.A. whose personal answered with the greater possible speed and drove
them to the Tiro Federal Spur, where remained stationed in a restricted
access area, to the waiting of the obtainment of a site that permit the
A.R.A.R. to continue with the interrupted conditioning projects.
TRAMWAY Nº 277
The
preservationist project of longer breath than impels the A.R.A.R. is
that
of rescue, reconstruction and implementation of a tramway coach;
the idea was sponsored by the incorporator of the Association, Professor
Ramón Farreró Gou as of the era in which these were withdrawn
from the service, and finally began to be crystallized in the 1980s.
In
that moment, the A.R.A.R. presented the project referred to the Rosario
Municipal
Council, where it was approved and declared of Municipal Interest.
After
several search years, was selected the tramway coach Nº 277 that it
would
be one of the three prototype streetcars, designed and built totally
among
1938 and 1940 by the Rosario´s Mixed Municipal Transportation Company.
Said
vehicles were conceived for a subsequent mass production, that remained
partially
truncated on account of the effects of the World War II. Nº
277
entered
service in 1939 and it was in service until 1963, the end of the
Rosario
tramway system, and it was mainly employed in the central lines Nº
9, 15 and 19. Light and agile, of advanced aerodynamic lines for
his era, 277 and its similars own outstanding characteristics, so much
of confort as of service perfomance, and they were the first serious step
of the incipient tramway industry in Argentina.
Rescue
and Reconstruction
The
Nº 277 bodyshell was located in abandonment state in the margin of
the Paraná River, his rescue in 1984 meant an arduous joint operative
of several municipal dependences.
After
be submitted to a photographic report and subsequent dismantling of the
affected
parts, the bodyshell of the 277 entered in Rosario Municipality central
shops in July 1988 for their definitive repair.
Previously,
the A.R.A.R. already had transacted in the city of Montevideo (Uruguay)
the purchase of a tramway truck of identical characteristics to which equipped
it originally by 1939, what permitted to him to reinstate exactly the lost
material.
From
its constitution, the Technical, Executive and Administrative Commission
for the Rehabilitation of the Historical Tramway had to face several tasks.
They
had to be tracked ancient papers, professional and surviving craftsmen
of
that
era, and to reproduce on the training of a new human group the specific
technological
knowledge.
The
Engineering Faculty of the Rosario National University (U.N.R.) offered
their
support, constituting the Advising Commission of Electrical Transportation
in September 1985 and accomplishing electromechanical studies and designs
that assure the technical aspect of the project.
They
are found pending in the Rosario Municipality central shops the completion
of
the carpentry works in the bodyshell (that it was thoroughly rebuilt in
1993/4) and to execute the assembly of the rolling truck that it was almost
thoroughly rebuilded through the collaboration of the metallurgical company
FRANCOVIGH S.A. and of the Pérez Shops of the by then General Mitre
Railway. For the numerous projects execution of wood was counted
on the invaluable contribution of the lumber company DANTE RUMIERI S.A.
The
Historical Tramway Route
After
an exhaustive identification accomplished by A.R.A.R. associates was relieved
the existence of track sections able so that return the streetcar to service.
It could be determined as of repair more economic the track section between
the Wheelwright and Rivadavia avenues, from Presidente Roca toward the
Rosario Norte Railway Station that conserves almost intact, even, the poles
for the support of the contact wire.
The
utilization of this sector complements the work of the central section
of
the Littoral Avenue incorporating an attraction motive into North Park,
in
whose
insert intervened the Planning Secretary of the Rosario Municipality upon
executing the duplication project of the referred traces.
A “FIAT” FOR THE HISTORY
Even
though the name of the A.R.A.R. determines in meridian form their railway
roots, his character of founding member of the American Friends Federation
of the Rail and the Electrical Traction creates the auspicious conditions
for the study and publication of other modalities of the electrical transportation
as is, in this case, the trolleybus. It was as well as the A.R.A.R.
began before the Rosario Municipality the process Nº 24.507 of the
October 3, 1985, in the one which were requested the rescue of a FIAT /
Alfa-Romeo / C.G.E. trolleybus, in reason of the fact that those units
already were whitdrawn from active service.
“Is
intention of this entity that of to recapture one of the FIAT trolleybuses
currently
whitdrawn of the service, before suffer a destination less worthy and to
avoid as soon as a so characteristic vehicle of the transportation in Rosario,
arrive eventually to disappear as occurred with the tramways in era not
very distant...”, was one of the projecting paragraphs of the petition
note.
The
Municipal Intendant through Decree Nº 1.803/85 (thereinafter ratified
by the Decree Nº 6.413 of the Municipal Council) conceded in commodate
the FIAT Nº 11 (originally 39) trolleybus, and by Decree Nº 9.332/93,
was assigned a parts batch to apply to the relinquished unit.
A
characteristic vehicle
The
“39” was integrating the series of forty trolleybuses manufactured by the
Italian
consortium integrated by FIAT, Alfa-Romeo and the Compagnía Generale
di Elettricitá, having arrived at our city in 1961.
Of
resistant characteristics, and with a bodyshell design inspirational in
similar
vehicles developed in United States during the 1940s and 1950s, the
“FIAT” already they were part of the urban landscape of Montevideo (Uruguay)
as of 1954. Similar cars worked in the brazilian cities of Rio de
Janeiro, San Salvador de Bahía and Santos, being in this last city
in which -general repairs through- there were run a group of FIAT trolleybuses
until by mid of the 1990s.
In
Rosario, the new Italian trolleybuses were converted in the preferred by
the
public,
and they were assigned to the main trunk lines, though also were destined
them circumstantially for the intermediate lines.
Post
card protagonists, the “FIAT” with their classic livery colors cream, green
and aluminium, they were vehicles that identified to the city; and
ratified year after year, an insuperable quality that only was seen reduced
time after of the final of the useful life recommended by the manufacturers.
Even so, a handful of these noble trolleybuses, already suffering the total
lack of maintenance, continued running until 1984, when in November the
car Nº 25 was the last in decreasing its poles forever...
A
too much postponed rescue
Different
motives had deferred the pick-up of this vehicle from your traditional
storing place, the former “General San Martín” Station, in Pellegrini
Avenue 2850. This was not obstacule so that in more than an opportunity
the A.R.A.R. associates are given appointment in the place to proceed to
the useful pieces collection for a future trolleybus restoration;
frustrated tasks because of the systematical theft of all what had been
gathered.
Before
the sanction of the Decree Nº 14.567/98 for which was had the auction
of the remaining of the former municipal trolleybus fleet and of the last
private operator, destining produced it to the tasks of reconstruction
of the Historical Tramway Nº 277, we had to meet us with urgency to
the preparation of the vehicle for his subsequent exodus. Urged by
the times, and without municipal collaboration some -in spite that the
property of the vehicle continues being of the City- we appealed to the
voluntaries; gathering equipment and various pieces; remounting front and
rear axles; recovering tyres, and a endless number of tasks that peaked
with the trolleybus movement on September 9, 1998, toward a temporarily
relinquished particular building by friends of the A.R.A.R.
The
time will say when will be possible to face its restoration; but as first
measure is necessary to provide to the vehicle from one place cover for
his deposit -since currently is found the outdoors in the charitably relinquished
building-.
CHEVROLET TRUCK Nº 12 OF THE E.M.M.T.R.
Inspirated
by a similar purpose, in 1995 could be detected the existence of the last
remaining vehicle of the important support fleet with which counted the
Rosario´s Mixed Municipal Transportation Company.
It´s
an Chevrolet model 1938 truck, originally assigned to the Permanent Way,
Overhead Line and Buildings Department under the number 12, and that it
would be equipped with a case of lateral low designed for the simultaneous
columns transportation for the overhead wire support and of the construction
materials intended for the foundations of those. The vehicle was
thereinafter employed in several municipal duties and finally it was withdrawn
from the service during the 1970s, being stored in the ancient facilities
of the Central Tramway Depot “General San Martín”.
The truck, that is found inusually complete and almost in the original state, it was included in an auction of Municipality assets, what immediately motivated that the A.R.A.R. requested the withdrawal of this vehicle of the auction, what was achieved with the collaboration of several official dependencies. Thereinafter, it given the need of releasing space in the site of their deposit, the A.R.A.R. proceed to his movement in order to preserve it until the moment that it will be incorporated, together to the Tramway Nº 277 and the Trolleybus Nº 39, in the fleet of the Rosario Railway and Transportation Museum that encourages our Association.