Restoration progress for British built steam locos preserved in Argentina

RESTORATION of Vulcan Foundry-built, former Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway 1676mm gauge Pacific No. 3925, at the Ferroclub Argentino museum at Remedios de Escalada in the southern suburbs of Buenos Aires, is making progress. Earlier this year the loco, which has been under restoration for 20 years, was reunited with its tender. The Ferroclub intends to return the loco to working order within the next few years, hopefully before its centenary in 2025. The three-cylinder, Class 12E 4-6-2 loco (Vulcan Foundry 3911/1925), was originally named General Rondeau. The British-owned Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway was nationalised in March 1948 and all the Class 12E locos passed to the new Ferrocarril National General Roca which operated as a division of new national operator Ferrocarriles Argentinos. The 21 Class 12E locos remained in service into the early 1970s and No. 3925 was withdrawn in 1973.

Steaming in Patagonia

In the south of Argentina, another British-built 1676mm gauge loco was returned to steam for the first time in at least a decade in September. North British-built ex-Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway (BAP) Class 1 2-8-0 No. 121 (North British 19778/ 1912) was tested in steam at the depot in Ingeniero Jacobacci, Río Negro Province, Patagonia on September 19. The loco has been stored there for at least 10 years and has been recently restored, although some work remains before it is ready for mainline use. No. 121 is one of 14 of BAP Class 1 locos built by North British at their Queens Park Works in 1911 and delivered in 1912, although the 140-strong class was built in multiple batches by North British and Beyer Peacock between 1905 and 1912 with Henschel supplying the last 14 locos in 1913.

Ex-Buenos Aires Great Southern 4-6-2 No. 3925 reunited with its tender for the first time in two decades, at the Ferroclub museum at Remedios de Escalada, in mid-August 2021.