The Buenos Aires Western Railway (BAWR; Spanish: Ferrocarril Oeste de Buenos Aires), inaugurated in the city of Buenos Aires on 29 August 1857, was the first railway built in Argentina and the start of the extensive rail network that was developed over the following years. The locomotive La Porteña, built by the British firm EB Wilson & Company in Leeds,"A Brief History of the Railway Foundry", Leeds Engine website hauled the first train to travel on this line.
The BAWR was one of the Big Four broad gauge, British companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina.
The route initially measured , stretching from Del Parque station (now the site of the Teatro Colón) to Floresta station, which at that time was located in San José de Flores village, but is now within Buenos Aires city limits. The rails were laid along what are now Lavalle, Enrique S. Discépolo, Avenida Corrientes, and Avenida Pueyrredón, and then followed the route of the current Domingo Sarmiento Railway line towards Floresta.
Although the construction of this line was proposed by a group of private individuals known as the "Sociedad del Camino-Ferrocarril al Oeste" (in English: "Western Railway Society"), it was financed by the province of Buenos Aires, which was at that time an independent state of the Argentine Confederation. In 1863 the province became the sole owner of the railway line.
The Western Railway was one of the greatest triumphs of Buenos Aires state, which justified its 27 years of ownership of the railway based on the wealth it brought to the city, its efficiency, and its lower fares than those of the British-owned railway companies operating in the country. Pressure from British capital and the debts owed by the state of Argentina led to its sale in 1890 to the British company "Buenos Aires Western Railway".
The BAWR network is currently part of the Domingo Sarmiento Railway network.
History
Background
In 1854, while Buenos Aires was an independent state of the Argentine Confederation, governor Pastor Obligado awarded the Buenos Aires Western Railroad Society a grant to construct a railway, from the city of Buenos Aires westward. This grant was fulfilled by a bill presented on 9 January by a financing committee consisting of Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield, Bartolomé Mitre and Mariano Billinghurst.
The railway's importance had already been pointed out by Juan Bautista Alberdi, who wrote in his work Basis and starting point for the Political Organization of the Argentina Republic that "the railway is the means of turning around what the colonizing Spaniards did on this continent".Juan B. Alberdi, Bases y puntos de partida para la organización política de la República Argentina, Ed. Losada (2003). Domingo Faustino Sarmiento and Justo José de Urquiza had also defended the idea. On 17 September 1853, the Railway Society — formed by a group of traders aware of the progress in communications and the demonstration of power the railway would bring — requested a grant to build a railway for both passengers and cargo, with cars pulled by a steam engine. However, in 1854, just before construction began, the Society requested an exemption from using steam engines, arguing that it would be more convenient 'to use horses, which are cheap in this country, instead of coal, which is expensive.' This method had already been used in Europe. The motive behind this request remains unclear; it may have been because most of the population had never seen a locomotive and believed that this would be dangerous for the surrounding buildings because of the resulting vibration, or perhaps the company considered locomotives to be too costly and the expected number of passengers was low. It must be taken into account that the western railway had no guarantee of minimum earnings, as the soon-established British railways would have (among other benefits). They would only earn what they obtained from their own activities. In any case, steam engines were finally purchased.
A law sanctioned by Buenos Aires province's Chamber of Representatives established the donation of public land, free import of supplies and tax exemptions.
Among the engineers who worked on the project were Verger (who created the original plans), Mouillard (a French engineer responsible for leveling the route) and, later, William Bragge, who had already built the first railway in Rio de Janeiro. 150 workers were also hired.
Locomotive and carriages A steam engine named La Porteña arrived on 25 December 1856. Built by the firm E. B. Wilson and Company at The Railway Foundry in Leeds, England, it was purchased by the first administrator of the Railroad Company, the engineer Luis Elordi. Its mechanics, the brothers John and Tomas Allan, came with it.
A now-discounted popular legend says the locomotive came via Crimea; for example, Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz wrote in Historia de los Ferrocarriles Argentinos (History of the Argentinian railways) (1940), that "it was built for India and used in the siege of Sevastopol, during the Crimean War. The diffusion of wide gauge railway lines here (unusual within the world) is due to this fortuitous circumstance."Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz, Historia de los Ferrocarriles Argentinos - Ed. Lancelot (2006) - However, some historians deny this, and research in the 1950s showed that this story is untenable; for example, Julio A. Luqui Lagleyze does not believe this could be the case, "since it uses a different gauge, and the dates of its construction and entrance into the country leave a gap which would not have allowed this".Buenos Aires: Sencilla Historia (La Trinidad) by Julio A. Luqui Lagleyze - Ed. Librerías Turísticas (1968) - Others have been of the same opinion, including Vicente O. Cutolo.Buenos Aires: Historia de las Calles y sus Nombres (1750-1930) by Vicente Cutolo - Editorial Elche (1994) - The works number shows the locomotive left Leeds in 1856, after the demolition of the Crimea railway had already begun. Its dimensions and characteristics would have been unsuitable for the steep gradients in Balaclava, and technical considerations would have prevented conversion from standard to broad gauge.
Contrarily, contemporary reports claim that engines from the GCCR went to Argentina; see for instance Richard Francis Burton who mentions in his "Letters From the Battlefields of Paraguay" (1870) that the train he travelled in was pulled by an "asthmatic little engine—which, after serving its time upon the Balaklava line, and being condemned as useless at Buenos Aires, had been shipped off to Paraguay"
A carriage pulled by 30 oxen brought the locomotive from the port to the station. The vehicle was a 0-4-0 saddle tank engine, capable of running and weighing . It remained in use until August 1889, after which it was only used for shunting for ten years. It is currently on exhibit in the Provincial Transport Museum which forms part of the Enrique Udaondo Provincial Museographic Complex in Luján, together with one of the wooden carriages.
The first of the company's mechanics was the Italian Alfonso Covassi,Also known as Alonso Corazzi. The name Alfonso Covassi is used in the journal Caras y Caretas in an article dated 6 July 1901. who had one year's experience in the position after having been employed by the company Strada Ferrata Leopoldina, from Tuscany, Italy.
The second engine which worked together with La Porteña was called La Argentina. It was transferred to Paraguay in 1869 by Domingo Sarmiento, together with four other locomotives. The engines were given names such as Rauch, Libertad, Indio amigo and Voy a Chile, the latter named because of a decree in December 1868 which ordered the line to be extended up to the Andes. However, it never reached Chile.
The train initially consisted of four carriages each carrying 30 passengers, with a central entrance on one side. The carriages were wooden and had four axles, lit by oil lamps and very luxurious. There were 12 cargo wagons which could each carry up to 5 tons.
Opening and first public trip Rain prevented the train's inauguration planned for January 1857. However, a successful trial was carried out during that month. On 7 April the train derailed during another test, but at a low speed and with no fatalities. In June another test was carried out, and in August a test journey, with one carriage of packages and another of passengers pulled by La Porteña, carried Bartolomé Mitre, Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield, Valentín Alsina, and some members of the Society. The outward journey presented no difficulties, but on the way back the overenthuiastic passengers persuaded British mechanic, John Allan, to ask for more speed, which led to a derailment adjacent to Almagro station breaking several metres of the track. Some of the passengers suffered light injuries. One of the witnesses commented as follows:
Raquel Fusoni Elordi, granddaughter of Luis Elordi (the above-mentioned company administrator), in a letter to the readers of the newspaper La Prensa dated 10 October 1957, refers to the pre-opening tests thus:
While most of the population did not find out, those interested in the business did everything possible to stop the accident from becoming known, and it became clear that it was necessary to make some more adjustments before the inauguration.
Another story of a test journey makes it clear that vandalism was another serious problem in carrying out the project. In Los Debates, 7 August 1857, it says:
On 27 August a new and successful test was carried out. On that day the country's first telegraph network was also started up, laid out by the company with the aim of helping the rail service.
Finally, on 29 August 1857 (a sunny Saturday) the opening ceremony took place, presided over by the governor of Buenos Aires, Valentín Alsina. On the inaugural journey he was accompanied by, among others, Bartolomé Mitre, Domingo F. Sarmiento, Dalmacio Vélez Sárfield, Estanislao del Campo, members of the Railroad Society and special guests such as local political boss José María Yanquetruz, in military dress.
That morning a mass was celebrated and the engines La Porteña and La Argentina were blessed. La Porteña and its carriages, driven by Alfonso Corazzi (also acting as stoker), was waved off from the decorated station by a crowd, and reached San José de Flores village, where a band played the Marcha a Lavalle. Finally it reached the terminal station, La Floresta, where it was welcomed by a crowd and the company gave a refreshment service to the passengers in the local Café Restaurant.
From 30 August 1857 a regular public service was offered twice a day in each direction. A new night service was apparently soon authorised. A first class ticket was $10, and second or open-carriage tickets were $5. From the first trip until 31 December of that year, 56,190 passengers and 2,257 tons of cargo were transported. In Buenos Aires the population at the time was approximately 170,000 inhabitants. In 1858 the line transported 185,566 passengers and 6,747 tons of cargo.
The original route Real-estate interests came into play when determining the location of the starting station. As a result meetings, which took place in the home of antiques dealer Manuel José Guerrico, were kept secret. The place finally chosen for the station was opposite the "Plaza del Parque" (known as Plaza General Lavalle since 1878), so named because since 1822 the park's artillery building was located opposite. The site of the station, named after the park, was approximately the same as the current location of the Teatro Colón, between "Cerrito" (previously "Del Cerrito"), "Tucumán", "Libertad" and "Viamonte" (previously "Temple") streets. The Plaza was merely a gap in the city which, precisely because of the station, began to quickly urbanise and its surroundings' appearance were improved with plants and trees.