Ferrominera Orinoco Venezuelan Iron Ore


In the mid 1990's Venezuela was a top destination for gold exploration and I worked in the El Callao region of Estado Bolivar on and off from 1994 until 1999 when I last visited the country.  Generally I was busy crashing around the jungle trying to avoid snakes, killer bees and tropical diseases.  

The airport in Ciudad Guyana (we called it Puerto Ordaz) was our flight destination after first flying from Miami to Caracas and then onto Puerto Ordaz, generally flying on a wing and a prayer with Aeropostale (it was an airline before it was a clothing line) or one of the other more dodgy airlines.  

The more dangerous part of the trip was from Puerto Ordaz to Guasipati and El Callao where our housing and work sites were.  Venezuela at the time was (and likely still is) where old cars went to die.  It was amazing to see the ancient gas guzzlers still running there (fuel was around $0.05 per liter at the time, heavily subsidized by the government), seemingly held together by wire, twine and whatever patron saint was perched on the dash of the car.  It seemed as long as the engine ran and the car had whatever stickers that were required in the window to get through the Guardia Nacional checkpoints it ran on the road.  

A "favourite" memory was riding in a taxi that seemed to have every body panel rattling loosely like it was about to fly off, crabbing down the road due to a bent frame with rebar handles to crank the windows down.  Another car I saw had flashlights taped to the hood for driving at night.  Accidents were rampant as no one seemed to really care about rules or common sense.  The expats always said that we didn't want to end up on the back page of the local paper as it always had graphic photos of the road carnage and seemingly frequent shootings on the back page.  Fortunately we never made the paper.  

But I digress from the main subject of this post:  the CVG Ferrominera Orinoco railway operations out of Puerto Ordaz.  Ferrominera is a large iron ore mining operation in Estado Bolivar, Venezuela.  Originally US Steel built and operated the mines and railway starting in the 1940's. but the operations were nationalized in the 1975 by the Venezuelan government. 

Originally the railway had Baldwin switchers, SD9 road engines and other oddities.  Later on SD38 and SD38-2 took over road trains with the SD9 relegated to switching duties.  After I left GE Dash 8 and Dash 9 units and SD70ACE units showed up, some appearing to be former Union Pacific locomotives.  Some historic photos are seen here.  A search on YouTube will find a few videos of the SD70ACE units in action, most looking worse for wear given the sanctions on Venezuela and the ever present corruption there. 

Over the years I was there I did manage to catch a few trains around Puerto Ordaz, and I made it to Ciudad Piar as well.  I never was able to talk my way into the mines or locomotive shops so had to be satisfied with whatever I could get from outside the fences.  A few photos from my time there are seen below with comments on specific photos.  

SD9 1017 with rebuilt cab running light

I always seemed to have the tropical sun working against me... and you do not want to try running across a 3 lane highway in Venezuela.

One way to beat traffic is to drive an SD38





Ciudad Piar

Shop switcher (Talleres) 1094, an SW1200 with flexicoil trucks and dynamic brakes.  Dynamic brakes on these units was rare.

If I stumble across other photos from my time in Venezuela I'll add them to this post.  


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Something a little closer to home (literally) - Canadian Pacific's Arbutus Spur

Image
From early 1998 through 2002 I lived near the Granville Island area of Vancouver.  Vestiges of the former industrial nature of the area still survive the encroaching condominiums, townhouses and tourist traps in the area.  The condo building that I lived in was built on the site of an old sawmill.  One benefit of this location was that I was literally 2 blocks from the Molson brewery which was served by CP several times per week.  As well the Downtown Historic Railway operated former BC Electric interurban cars during the summer from a station across the street from my apartment. My apartment was just behind the CIBC sign, although it hadn't been built yet when this photo of BCH switching Granville Island was taken in 1974.  The tracks in the foreground are still there as a reminder of the historic industrial nature of what is now a prime tourist destination BC Hydro 904 has just come off the False Creek Bridge and is likely heading to the BN/CN interchange on t...
Read more

Buenos Aires Al Pacifico Railway

Image
The Buenos Aires Al Pacifico (BAP) was one of my favourite railways in Argentina.  This was mostly because it rostered an almost exclusively Alco/MLW fleet of locomotives, with one of the major shops located in Mendoza where my company's exploration office was located.  The BAP was a broad gauge railway running between Buenos Aires to the interior of Argentina; to my knowledge it never made it to the Pacific but only as far as Mendoza.  A narrow gauge railway ran into Chile from Mendoza but it was out of service while I was there.   I was working in Argentina during 1995/96 in gold and copper/gold exploration between Uspallata in Mendoza State and Rodeo in San Juan State.  Uspallata is somewhat well known as many of the scenes in " Seven Years in Tibet " were filmed in the valley north of the town.  I wasn't in the area when Brad Pitt was there, but apparently he caused quite a stir in the small Argentinian town while he was filming.   I met ...
Read more

Shuffling Grain Elevators Around

Image
Back in my youth I lived in the small Prairie town of Roblin.  We had the usual row of elevators along the railway, and I spent many hours in them with my dad when he delivered grain there.  Among these was Manitoba Pool Elevator #1, the first Manitoba Pool elevator built in 1925.  An annex was added in 1968.   Manitoba Pool Elevator #1 in Roblin was rebuilt in 1986.  This sequence of photos shows the before, during and after of the replacement.  The original #1 was replaced by Pool "C" which was on the northern end of elevator row in town.  It was a newer elevator than #1 so was selected to replace it instead of having a completely new elevator constructed. National and Pool #1. The National elevator was only used when the main Cargill elevator was at capacity. This shot has a boxcar loading. Circa 1985/86. Pool #1 was still the original elevator here.  The National elevator came down not long after this was taken. Pool "C" loading Manitoba ...
Read more