Colin Churcher 2020

  We had a special train between Bucay and Sibambe The crew and several of us rode the roof. There were several interesting villages along the way. No riding on the roof of the locomotive. The railway shared the main street A meet. The local ladies came out to get hot water from the injector, kindly supplied by the fireman. We finally arrived at Sibambe. Not sure about this picture. It is definitely at Sibambe but the train is heading towards Bucay away from the Devil's Nose.

  The mixto at Ventura My second visit to Ecuador was five years later in late 1993.  The system was operating in virtually the same way except that some new diesels had been obtained.  The service trains seemed to be even more over crowded than before.  We started out again from Duran with a special train. At Bucay we changed for a larger locomotive for the climb. There was an interesting delay at Bucay while we watched a steam locomotive being rerailed "Put her back on the way she came off".  The oft quoted phrase worked well here. They got the engine back in about twenty minutes. With fresh power we set out for the mountains.  We were allowed to travel anywhere on our train. Fireman Engineer Next we will climb the Devil's Nose to Alausi.

  Our special train at Tikan A landslide had severed the line north of Alausi so we had to use the highway to take us across the gap.  There were no operative steam locomotives in the north so we had this diesel for our train. There was a stop at Riobamba No. 10 was on display at Riobamba We picked up some head end vans at Riobamba A run past nearing the summit of the railway We reached Urbina summit 3,609 meters/11.841 feet above sea level where the locomotive was cut off to switch some cars of cement Urbina Switching was carried out using hand signals from the roof. We were now looking forward to a pleasant descent down to Quito passing through the valley of fire passing several dormant volcanoes including Chimborazo. Mary and I were sitting in the front of the second passenger car enjoying a box lunch.  We were directly above the truck. Suddenly there was a jolt and the car started to bounce up and down.  I shouted out "Hold on". That was all we could do. The vertical jolt

  We had to get up early to join our Ferrobus for the return to Sibambe and transfer to steam to return to Alausi.  The windshield has withstood a number of scrapes. While the branch line from Cuenca to Sibambe has been torn up Cuenca now has a new light rail system for movements within the city. Quite a contrast to the Ferrobus We made our way quickly to Chunchi where the tracks start to drop down into the valley. The reason for the hurry then became evident. We stopped at the head if the valley and waited for our steam train which had come out from Bucay and would meet us at Sibambe Almost an aerial view We moved along to pace the train below We are now getting lower and closer At Sibambe we had a cross platform transfer of ourselves and our bags The crew took water while we made the transfer. We left Sibambe in a hurry and quickly ascended the Devil's Nose. The idea was to take a look at the Alausi loops. The problem was that there was a service train following us. The loops wer

  A luxurious inspection trolley at Sibambe In 1988 there was a Ferrobus service between Sibambe and Cuenca. We had a chartered Ferrobus.  It was a tight squeeze to get all our baggage and ourselves into the Ferrobus. The roof was mainly taken up with our bags leaving only limited accommodation for passengers. The line to Cuenca has now been abandoned. Climbing up away from Sibambe. The line to Bucay is in the valley to the left. In the Ferrobus the crew sit ether side of the motor.  The front windows have both been splintered. Photo stop at Chunchi There was still freight service. Chunchi A wrecked freight car has been abandoned - too difficult to retrieve Santa Rosa The main line at Santa Rosa.  Many of the houses had straw floors with guinea pigs living in them.  Pretty easy to catch and cook a meal. This track crew had to unload the trolley before it could be lifted off the track It was a good opportunity for a photo A runpast in this amazing country Not much room for passengers on