Hail, lads! Just to let you know we have a new open Facebook forum: Ferromodelismo inglés en el Río de la Plata / British Railway Modelling in the Pampas. We already have our token Brit. Most of the exchanges are, of course, in Spanish, but we indulge in some English as well. What might interest you, though, are the pictures of English locos and rolling stock of yore in Chile, Uruguay and Argentina (the forum allows for anything connected with British railways, railway industry and, of course, modelling). Our power-that-be is the other token Argie in this forum, José Mallo.
See you there, I hope!

G'day from Australia Sergio, I hope that your Forum is a great success, I do not speak Spanish but if I can be of service about anything Australian for your members, please do not hesitate to contact me. Regards Jeff.

Hi, Jeff! It´ll be an honour and a pleasuer if you visit us. You can safely write in English. There are quite a few interesting photos,
Cheers!

I must have a look too. Sergio has already posted some pics in these forums of British a layout in Argentina and that looked very good. 

Maybe you can encourage a few more people over there to model British practice.

I must say that I know about three words in Spanish! My French is a little better - sufficient that I was able to use a French teacher's laptop with Windows in the French language. That may not help on Facebook though!!

    

Good luck with it in any case, Sergio.

The forum boasts 100 members, many (I dare not venture most) of them do British modelling, and a few of those (my humble self included), nothing but.
Do peek at least!
sergio

I'll certainly have a look at it Sergio but, other than "manana" and "cervesa", my Spanish is worse than my Russian ………..

I remember you posted some very interesting museum photos a while back of some restored rolling stock originally built in UK. :thumbs

just been in there Svergio, very interesting forum,need to find my page translater,
:thumbs;-):cool:

A very good mix of photos there Sergio,unfortunately i suffer that English disease of only speaking my own language.

You can post in English! I´ll translate it for you, as well as all relevant replies. Besides, a few of us do understand, speak and even scribble English!

We are up to more than 150 dumbheads now. May I encourage you to check this beautiful picture of one of the first diesels come  from Britain in 1930: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10203076861036849&set=gm.502302806537936&type=1&relevant_count=1

Great picture Sergio.  Had me shivering!.:)

You may notice the US-length of our coaches: Bereft of natural obstacles for hundreds of miles on end, there was no need for sharp curves or steep gradients (as a matter of fact, for most of the Pampas there is actually no way you can even invent a gradient!). Also, service was sparse, so packing as many people in one train as possible was a must.

Great photo Sergio. :thumbs

Diesels haven't changed a great deal in appearance since 1930 so the initial design must have been about right. :roll:

I can imagine trains in Argentina are a bit like trains in Australia or the States - plenty of land to build your layout on therefore no need to "squash" things in although I'm not too sure I'd like to live on such a huge flat plain …………..presumably there are trees to break up the landscape …….. :roll:


I rather liked the following comment which probably says a lot about the decline of influence the British had on the World's railways following World War 2 :

"Pablo Marzilio El  trabajo termina con este párrafo: "During World War Two and the  following post-war years found Argentina under the sphere of influence  of USA financial happenings, leading to the majority of locomotive  purchases during the 1950's to come from a variety of American builders,  orders received by Europe were very few."

The Pampas are indeed endelssly (literally!) boring. As a matter of fact, there are no native trees: every single one has been planted, and planted around country houses or bordering alleys. Outside the nicely forested towns and villages, it is like looking on to a vast green ocean. Luckily, there´s more to Argentina than beefland: We have the tallest mountains outside the Himalayas all five thousand kilometres from north to south on the west. Beautiful hills in the centre. Marshes and tropical jungle in the North East (with magnificent Igauzu falls in the middle), lunar landscapes slightly East of the Andes near the Nort West… What with a territory stretching from Capricorn to the Antarcica and from 21.000 ft heights to the Atlantic, you are bound to find every climate on the planet. Think of it. Argentina comes next (if very distantly so) after the six giants: Russia, China, the US, Canada, Brazil and Australia. Except that those Behmots are too large to be standing and lie, all of them, sideways on the map. India (roughly our size) is tropical from head to toes. We are the only ones proudly standing North to South (Chile does not count, ´cause it is so thin Chleans must sky in ther bathing suits).

[user=161]sviaggio[/user] wrote:

…………………………………………..Chile does not count, ´cause it is so thin Chleans must sky in ther bathing suits)……………….

I'll bet that's a sight to behold ……………..:shock::shock::hmm


I reckon your mountain range alone is about 4 times the length of Great Britain but your population is only about 60% of UK - no wonder you have your wide open empty plains ………………….:roll::roll::roll:  France is 4 times the size of UK and has a marginally larger population so, when you consider how much of Scotland, Wales and northern England is sparsely populated,  no wonder UK seems so crowded.

Lads, do check the shots of Diego Garrido´s 00 layout in La Plata (40 miles south of BA) at https://www.facebook.com/groups/ferromodelismoingles/
I wanted to post them here, but it is too complicated.
Cheers!

Ola Sergio, 
your facebook forum looks pretty good.  Muy Bueno!  
Unfortunately I didn't make it to Argentina when I was in South America but I did explore the Railways in the other South American countries I traveled through.  Hopefully I'll be able to make it to Argentina one day.  Nice to see you have a big group who are modelling UK railways in Argentina.  
Buena suerte con su forum.Hasta luego amigo
Neil  

Not only did you miss Argentina, Neil, but the halcyon days! Well nigh nothing remains thereof. A real shame! By the way, lads, if anyone of you wishes to make it down here, the layout den doubles as guest room and has its own bathroom, and you are welcome to stay with us. This is no idle offer: our home has always been a hotel of sorts. All you have to do is book in advance!
sergio

That's very generous of you, Sergio. I hope one day to get to Argentina, but it won't be for a while yet.

:)

Agnes and I tend to do the same thing too, although we can only offer a fold-out double sofa bed. We do get a fair few visitors from interstate and overseas.

Whenever you wish, mate; but I cannot call you SRman. What´s your middle name;-))?