La Trochita

As if we were inside a movie, the steam train is started with a low-speed rattle, through a boiler mechanism where the steam is generated and accumulated which will then do the mechanical work. This particularity is a technological and industrial architecture heritage that is kept alive in the railway workshops of El Maitén.

A relic that rolls through Patagonia

The promotion and promotion of the National Territories allowed the creation of the railway lines that would integrate the different areas of Patagonia with the national network. The Jacobacci-Esquel Engineer branch began to be built in 1921, in parallel with the purchase of the Baldwin and Henschel locomotives. The care of the “train artisans”, as the qualified operators of the workshops are called, makes the current locomotives the same that gave birth to La Trochita. At the time of greatest boom, the famous train performed two passenger services per week and cargo services almost every day. The advances in the routes, the technology of the transport and the economic crises caused the use of the trains to decline and in 1993 the branch was closed. Fortunately, we can say that the rediscovery of Patagonia and its cultural values ??put in focus the rebirth of La Trochita, which continues to roll along the Patagonian plateau with a tourist stamp. In the workshops, comprehensive and general repairs of the locomotives are carried out and the original state is preserved. Parts are also created, from the factory drawings. At present, a repair can take up to two years of time due to the traditional way of its process. The pieces are not available in the market and it is necessary to work them in situ. The interior of passenger cars maintains its original structure. The salamanders that give the heat for the winter and the transit through its crunchy floors delight fans of the train and not so much. It is undoubtedly a cut in time, a hint of the history of the great engineering of the past that are preserved as relics in the middle of a fascinating landscape. We want to be partakers of that film and, fortunately, it is still possible thanks to the history of the people who see the narrow gauge train pass with the background of the steppe geographies and the idiosyncrasy of the people who witness the socio-value -cultural of the Old Patagonian Express. La Trochita has several possibilities for enjoyment. The most common options are the scheduled departures Esquel-Nahuel Pan and El Maitén-Bypass Bruno Thomae. A third option allows you to hire private trips. In summer the outings are more frequent, but the walk can be done all year round, and there is no shortage of anecdotes and stories of a glorious past.