RIO NEGRO, Argentina — Four tourists were reported to have been injured — including a British passenger who is now described as “fighting for his life” — when a remote narrow-gauge, steam-powered heritage passenger train derailed Saturday in Argentina’s Patagonia region.
The train was operating on the 750mm (2-foot, 5½-inch) gauge La Trochita Railway, which came to international fame as the “Old Patagonian Express” in the Paul Theroux book of the same name. The full 402-kilometer route is closed, but portions operate as tourist rail operations; Saturday’s incident occurred between Mamuel Choique and Rio Chico, according to the online news site BNN.
Initial reports said all of those injured were Americans, but the newspaper Metro UK reports this morning (Monday, Nov. 13) that one of the passengers is a British man who was initially hospitalized with minor injuries but transferred to intensive care overnight when his condition worsened. He is suffering from a heart arrythmia. That report, in contrast with earlier articles, says four others were hospitalized.
A translation of original report from the regional Rio Negro newspaper reports two of the injured were taken to a hospital in Ingeniero Jacobacci, about 82 kilometers (51 miles) from the scene, with multiple trauma and fractures, while a third with a pelvic fracture and circulatory issues was transferred to Maitenes, some 265 kilometers (165 miles) by road. The fourth American, age 76, was taken to Bariloche, 260 kilometers away, for “extensive study of bruises.”
U.S. railfan Jim Fetchero was among those on board, and said the train hit a washout at 17 kilometers per hour (about 10.5 mph).
Fetchero said 48 passengers and 10 to 12 crew were on board, with U.S. and British passengers forming the majority of the riders, but Australian, Danish, and French also on board. The train was only 29 minutes into its trip to Norquinco. when the derailment occurred at 11:18 a.m.
“We didn’t get much warning,” Fetchero wrote in an email to Trains News Wire. “But the feeling of being in a wooden coach as it rolls down the hill is pretty scary. And the wood fire was even scarier; the other coach, they had some fire damage but were able to put out the fire.” In a Facebook post, he described kicking out the car’s doors and crawling out through the remains of the car’s vesibules. Fetchero said he had suffered bruised ribs and a hip.
Fetchero, in a later email from onboard an overnight train, wrote that the first railroad truck arrived an hour later, with police and fire arriving about 1:30 p.m. and an ambulance arriving shortly thereafter. Those on board were brought to the community center at Cera Mesa (Rio Chico) by 3 to 4 p.m., where an “awesome lunch” was served, he wrote.
Local officials told Rio Negro the cause of the derailment was not yet known.
— Updated at 7:50 a.m. with new information on British passenger.
No word abut the staff on board. Hopefully they are all well
That is some scary looking track, it looks like they are operating on a VERY small budget, and track maintenance has a low priority
Those of you complaining about the look of the track after it derailed and the quality of the ties…..mind you, US Class 1’s have detectors, sensors and road railers checking the tracks constantly and they still derail just as much if not more than this remote tourist rail service.
Honestly the picture looks like one from the Central Pacific crossing Nevada in the late 1800’s.
I know Jim and apparently his sense of humor wasn’t banged up Notice his comment about an “awesome lunch”. As for the track. Looks like a lot of 19th century track, local trees and spiked directly to the ties no tie plates.
Wash out or not, I wouldn’t ride on a railroad with track that looks like that in the photograph.
I have to agree with you. That is some rotten looking track. I ve never seen track that looks that bad. Even 10 mph short lines have better track than that. The ties look like they just cut down some trees there not even squared off.
Not to mention the lack of tie plates. And is that rolling stock from a heavier and larger gauge RR mounted on ~30″ trucks, thereby making them top-heavy with a high center of gravity???
Very sad event and hopefully all will recover. This is also a reminder that railroading has inherent dangers and is never free of risk.