Thanks for the update. A third of a century is a long time! As you know the former downtown area of Encarnacion with its rail line down 'Main Street' now rests in a watery grave beneath the Parana barrage. I thought the Argentine Noroeste track still ran across the 1990 bridge, terminating in a container transfer yard for road haulage on the Paraguayan side, but you write as though it hasn't done so for some time. I haven't heard of any diversion around the flooded section to restore the main line to the capital Encarnacion but it's good to know they plan to use the Northern section of the route from Ypacarai, even if it's only for tourism and would no longer be part of the nation's economic infrastructure.

@@NicholasLera-kd5tj When the information is right there was a container train in 2022 which crossed the bridge but in the seven years before nothing happened, that was when the diversion on the Argentine side had to be build as a result of the flooding. The current status of freight trains running is unclear, but earth works and building of new bridges and abutments can be seen on Google maps starting just north of the station of Encarnacion. I did see some information on the running of passenger trains across the bridge mentioned since 2014 using old DMU's that used to run here in the Netherlands and operated by Casimiro. The operation is between the stations either side of the bridge from Posada to Encarnacion and was still operational as by 2023.

@@Tom-Lahaye Thanks for the clarification, Tom. There was an initial confusion over the meaning of Encarnacion station. It evidently refers to the rather basic affair located close to the Parana bridge, and not the original downtown station seen in my film near the western end of the now flooded street running. Its good to know the rail track over the bridge is back in use. It's a start.

@@NicholasLera-kd5tj It's indeed the 'new' station near the bridge where currently the line ends.

The link for a tourist service is not a remote possibility, it is way beyond what the country can afford, and it could never attract private investment. I would love to be wrong.

We had them in the army on Ramp wagons . But they folded to the side not upwards when the ramp wagon was operated !

The 5' 6" rail gauge contributes to the Good the Bad and Ugly effect. Iberian 5' 5 and 2/3" in that film.

I get strong feeling of Indian railways

Trinity is my name 😃

I would love to visit Paraguay 🇵🇾 and South America, beautiful country, love from England ❤

It needs a drive to get there, but worth a visit for sure. Needs a full day there.

Not a full day out, a couple of hours is ample. An afternoon out

I had three or four hours, and I was dragged away. A few interesting old boys there.

Ař uvidíš nějakou v jízdě na vlastni oči tak budeš mít zážitek na celý život.

Loved the story of your 1989 travels in Paraguay. Thanks for sharing. Although I missed the steam ferry, as you can see I was fortunate that my good friend Manfred Stolz let me use his priceless 8mm film of the steam ferry, and associated steam loco workings, for the enjoyment of all, thanks to Utube.

Yes…0:53 says it all, mother and child crossing a railway track right in front of a very slow train….

God is also unable to believe how ancient rail works in Paraguay & other Latin American?

Mmm. Sounds plausible. If the track had close to no gradiences? It would be safe enough. The most early of locomotives had no brakes even on the powered wheels. It was 100% down to the pistons to stop it. At least if the locomotive here has some reliable brakes? When the hunk of metal stops and is hold by the locomotive you would simply block the wheels on a few of the wagons. They are called shoes or something? Rocks works too. Simply not very safe to do it like that... Really when taking about anything flying or big enough to require more then a group of drunks friends to handle? You simply have to respect the forces your dealing with. A small city car you can pick up and move around if your decently strong. 4 people should be able to nudge such a car sideways if they want to. A container ship?? A Train? Na that is not going to budge by some dunkers on there way from the pub. And aircrafts are designed to crash back down to earth or possibly water. So really safety and that is out of the window when it comes to emergency braking. They are going to come down and land. It is a matter of how well they will land. A train like this should at some point stop when not under own power. Hopefully it is going to stop on the track still. Like really. Like really, really. I do not give a singe care of interest if a train has brakes. (ofc I do not want to see trains lose control down a hill or take a turn to fast.) If a TRAIN IS A-COMIN ? There is no brakes that will stop it in time. You give trains 100% every day of the calendar year the right of way. It dose not matter if your on foot or a lorry/buss/18 wheeler truck. Train go first. Even military tanks and such are no match agents a train. The forces involved are insane. Your best bet going head to head with a train on their tracks? Run. Or possibly take a container ship into battle? Maybe you have a chance to inflict enough explosion or connective force to derail a train to save you? Anyways. Brakes on trains are at most useful to avoid it from running away. And the locomotive alone should be enough. If it really do not go down or up grades that out do it. Or your playing around with death that is. It is a horrible scenario being a locomotive drive. You are completely powerless to stop danger out of your control. It should be the first driver jobs to go out of existence. Since some 'AI' or whatever do not have any feelings when something walks out on the track and get hurt. Yet for some reason we believe making cars or whatever else driverless? The one thing actually controllable and avoidable? With stop distance of meters. Not kilometers. But not the trains stuck on rails and???? Okay. That sounds very logical everyone. This slow speeds are far safer then the actual trains used on modern tracks. When we are talking about brake distance. It is not the trains fault if anyone challenge it's way on the track. Respect trains. And question why we are sending things into the air. Even spaceships and such makes more sense then flying iPhone or whatever else around as cargo. Airfreight expensive luxury items. Sounds extremely wasteful. Since it is. Even air mail seems quite ridicules. Let alone Amazon etc etc etc.

The maximum speed is NOT 25 mph (miles per hour), but 25 km/h (kilometers per hour) which gives 15 mph. Though the overall average speed was more like 20 km/h or 12 mph.

and the Mercedes W114 in the same street. A little bit like New Zealand in the 1970's.

Hola Kevin, la trocha es de 1.43 metro. Cuando cruza hacia argentina lo hace hacia en una vía de este ancho. En argentina hay varias trochas. Un saludo!

Kevin, you may have looked it up but I fear you may only have looked at the first line or two of your source. It was indeed broad 1676mm gauge when first opened as far as Sapucay back in 1861. The loco on display in Asuncion is of this gauge. But war with neighbour states crashed the economy shortly afterwards and the railway failed to recover. It wasn't until 1910 that a new company in Britain switched the gauge to standard 1435mm for compatibility with Argentina's Noroeste neighbour and completed the project to Asuncion. Hence the British locomotives in my film dating from 1910.

​@@NicholasLera-kd5tjasí es Nicolas, no escribí mucho, por si no traduce bien el Google. Un saludo desde Argentina.

1435 mm, not 1676.

@@camucamu1332 I'm glad you liked my brief account of the Paraguay gauge question. As I see you are from Argentina, look out for my film Patagonia Express which will be posted to Utube quite soon. Also filmed in 1991 when it was still a public railway and not a touristic Trochita, when people used the railway to travel, instead of travelling to the railway just for the ride. But I had to reserve a place on a tourist train as a precaution against the weekly public train being cancelled and having nothing to film!

Estaría buenísimo que recibe en un tren de pasajeros desde la estación chacarita Federico lacroze hasta POSADAS MISIONES.... EN PERFECTAS CONDICIONES CÓMO FUNCIONABA ANTES DE 1993. MARAVILLOSOS RECUERDOS CRUZAR EN BALSA ENCARNACIÓN LA MARAVILLOSA Y AMABILIDAD DE LA GENTE. HOY CON 46 AÑOS NUNCA ME OLVIDÉ NI LO VOY A OLVIDAR ABRAZOS SALUDOS CORDIALES 🌴🌻🌾🧉🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻.

As long as enough air is mixed into the fuel while burning almost any fuel should burn clean in an engine. Seeing smoke is usually either drivers purposefully making a scene for cameras or the driver making a mistake

Paraguay's Department of Transportation has announced that it will reinstate the weekend heritage excursion train out of Asuncion. I don't know the destination or the distance. It is for city dwellers to enjoy a fun ride for a picnic in the countryside. It will have no place in the economy or infrastructure of the nation. In Patagonia they have a train for a similar purpose, but the government gave it to the province, which does not maintain the line properly. Last December there was a serious derailment when the whole train overturned and a foreign tourist later died of his injuries. Trains are not toys.

There is some useful 8mm film material of train in movement I can send you. But first I must find out how to send it by email. If it's a problem I'll send you a DVD disc in the post. Is personal contact info allowed in this forum?

Hi Nick, i dowloaded your video. The image is great. FHD Can i use some parts.? 1 minute. I wait for your answer. Have a good day. Give me your mail, i wiil send you some videos in Sapucay.1991.

The racket these are making is pretty similar to the Indian ones

Technical details of Paraguay's locos are not to hand, but as a lay observer who has visited railways elsewhere I'd say approximately 30mph/50kph would be their optimum speed. Above that the loco crew would have a job getting the logs into the grate fast enough! Apart from which more expensive high grade metals would be needed in the manufacture of bearings, motion, etc. not to mention provision of a superior braking system. These engines were built down to a price. From their appearance the locos acquired from Argentina's Urquiza system seem to have been manufactured to a higher spec.

Uh? This line is closed, only the small trackage between the international bridge and a new yard survives. All the other trackage was lifted with exception of some yards at Asunción botánico and Sapucai workshops.

Si todavía existe también arranca

1991. As clearly stated in the summary at the top of this page, and in the closing credit.

I meant of course public railways. Mea culpa. But even without that qualification, 'one of the last' does not say they were the last. After all the effort and expense that goes into making these documentaries it is hardly constructive to adopt hostile vocabulary such as 'load of rubbish'. I do not deserve to be insulted. In so doing you demean yourself.

With the greatest respect, it was a fascinating documentary and I enjoyed learning about a system I knew nothing about. My aim wasn't to cause offense, my apologies., However I will stand that I think there were quite a few non-superheated locomotives built after that date, even owned by state railways, some into the 60s. All the best.

@@svemeraldspirit681 Thank you for your broader view of my film. I'm always glad to be corrected on any aspect of steam railways on which I make no claim to be an expert, merely an aficianado. It was the 'rubbish' word that jarred. Hence my initial response to your comments. I have only recently discovered for instance that the 9400 class of WR panniers on B.R. were also saturated. We live and learn. This film sold well on DVD back in the day and nobody ever queried or complained of any aspect of it before. I should like to know more of your 1959 Polish locomotive - does it steam anywhere?

@@NicholasLera-kd5tj almost. It’s not quite finished yet - it’s based at the `Plym Valley Railway. I’ve owned it for 8 years and we’ve been working on it ever since. Hopefully this will be the year. It is great that these documentaries have been made available on KZfaq. I didn’t know the 94xx were saturated either - a fine class of locomotive!