La Trochita

La Trochita runs on track just 750 millimetres wide, laid across the Chubut steppe from the 1920s to connect the Andean settlements to the national network, a line that took decades to build and was never finished as planned. It survived as a working railway carrying passengers and freight until the 1990s and now runs as a heritage service, hauled by Baldwin and Henschel steam locomotives from the 1920s, with wood-panelled carriages heated by wood stoves. The most common trip leaves Esquel for Nahuel Pan, a short run of about twenty kilometres to a station where Mapuche families sell crafts and food. Longer journeys operate from El Maitén, where the workshops that keep the locomotives running can be visited.

History

In 1908 the government planned a railway network across Patagonia, with a branch from Ingeniero Jacobacci to the Esquel and Trevelin settlements, but ministerial changes and the First World War stalled most of it; after the war cheap narrow-gauge equipment was plentiful, and in 1921 the line was agreed on 750-millimetre track, with Belgian coaches and wagons and fifty Henschel locomotives ordered in 1922 and 25 more bought later from Baldwin in Philadelphia. Floods wrecked much of the related Chubut Valley works in 1931-1932, building restarted in 1934 with some 1,000 labourers, many of whom stayed, and trains began to run on finished sections in 1935, reaching El Maitén, where workshops were built, in 1941. Paul Theroux's book The Old Patagonian Express of 1978 made it famous, and it now runs as a heritage railway (Wikipedia, La Trochita).

The main sights

• The steam locomotives - 1920s engines still in service on narrow gauge.
• The wood-stove carriages - original coaches with stoves and timber interiors.
• Nahuel Pan station - the Mapuche craft and food stop at the line's end.
• The El Maitén workshops - the depot where the engines are maintained.

When to go

October to April, when services run most frequently; departures are far fewer in winter and can be suspended. Timetables change from year to year and services are sometimes cancelled for maintenance, so confirm before travelling and book ahead in January.

Things to know

The train is slow, the ride short, and the scenery open steppe rather than mountains. Smoke and cinders come through open windows. It runs on a reduced and occasionally unreliable schedule, and it is a nostalgic experience more than a spectacular one.

Nearby

Esquel is the main departure point; El Maitén lies north on the same line.

Key facts