[Bigdog]

I don't know much about South American railways... However last year I attended a conference in Buenos Aires and to my surprise found a model train shop near the venue. Whenever I visit a country I always like to try and buy an example of the local locomotives (if there are any). Some people buy spoons or fridge magnets... I buy trains! Then I like to find out about them... however in this case my Spanish isn't that good.

Buenos Aires has a number of really interesting model shops, some totally dedicated to model railways. I picked up a Brazilian made (Frateschi Company) model of a 'Ferroc Arriles Argentinos' Diesel G 22. Unfortunately the model shop owner (the expert) was out of town and his mother didn't know much other than the prices and answered every question with Ci !!!

Anyway, here is a photo of it...

Does anyone know anything about this loco... I'm off to BA again next week (another conference) and hope to find out more.

Brian in Phuket and its dark outside

 

[Doug]

Looks interesting.

General Motors G-22

Some info: http://pampatren.tripod.com/G22.htm

 

[upnick]

Hi Brian,

A search on ebay in the U.S. many a time it will show a model, the seller here claims to be the Frateschi importer/retailer in this listing .........
http://cgi.ebay.com/Frateschi-3505-HO-GM-E...id=p3286.c0.m14
Three locos and two lots of rolling stock are on his listings a message to him may be fruitful.

http://www.frateschi.com.br/produtos/g22_eng.php

Possibly the loco is out of production now as the livery doesnt appear there .......... or from a set .

 

[Bigdog]

Thanks for the replies,

I'm really hoping to get time to talk to someone about this loco in BA next week ... on the Frateschi site they suggest it was used for goods traffic but they are selling it in the shop with coaches. It may just be a question of supply.

The model itself runs ok... a little sluggish not reallly up to US or European standards, but it does have lighting. It will be interesting to see if the locomotive is still being used.

I am hoping that on one of my trips here I can take time to go on a train journey into the Andes. There is one that takes a couple of days that goes from sea level up into the mountains... promising spectacular scenery and obviously very interesting engineering. One of the things I noticed last year was the use of semaphore signals even in the capital ciity.

Brian in Sunny Phuket