Virtual Railfan Tour of Uruguay - A Tale of Two Teapots

 


I only made one trip to Uruguay and that was with a Canadian government delegation in 1984.  This was when I also visited Paraguay and Argentina.  We flew into the capital, Montevideo, from Buenos Aires across the estuary of the River Plata, arriving in the afternoon with meetings beginning the next morning.  We decided to have dinner at the restaurant in the main railway station.  
During the meal we were served tea from a beautiful, but badly chipped, teapot complete with the railway symbol (AFE - Administración de Ferrocarriles del Estado) and one of their diesel trains. I asked if I could buy the teapot but was roundly denied.
Thinking nothing more of it I went into the meeting with the railway general manager the next morning.  Before the meeting started there was some quick fire Spanish and a lady in a kitchen smock was summoned.  Just as the meeting started the lady reappeared with a brand new teapot which was presented to me.
It took me a little while to figure out how I could get my ceramic teapot safely back to Canada. I eventually found out that it would fit into the bowl of the leather hat which I had bought in Paraguay and to make further room I stuffed it to the brim with dirty socks.
The AFE teapot was first used during a restoration session on Car 27 at Thurso, QC., but there were complaints that the tea tasted of dirty socks so I brought it home where it has a place of honour.
Officials from the AFE were very kind and eager to show us their railway.  I will start with the main station in Montevideo.
Looking towards the overall roof if the stub end station from the throat. 412 is possibly a GE 44 ton locomotive

The Central station interlocking tower

One of the station switchers, a Kawasaki diesel?

From the platform end


The equipment came from a number of different countries. 
1528 is an Alco of 1954, 802 is an Alsthom of 1963

This is a sleeping car stored in the station

An official car stored along with the sleeper

These stop blocks (hydraulic?) were at the line ends. With little traffic they seemed hardly necessary.

The whole yard ares was fenced with this fancy grill work with the original abbreviation of the London based Central Uruguay Railway.  Presumably these were cast in the UK










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