{"id":383,"date":"2011-09-07T02:49:19","date_gmt":"2011-09-07T02:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brucebramson.com\/2011\/09\/07\/return-to-ecuador-i-at-m-y-o-b\/"},"modified":"2011-09-07T02:49:19","modified_gmt":"2011-09-07T02:49:19","slug":"return-to-ecuador-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/?p=383","title":{"rendered":"RETURN TO ECUADOR \u2013 I"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m happy to report I still have some followers!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Statcounter<\/p>\n

In my last page, I mentioned my return to Ecuador in 1994. Referring back to my passport collection, I find it really was 1993:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I took a room at the Grand Hotel, which was air-conditioned\u2014at least when there was electricity. It was pretty intermittent, and the small room could get really hot and stuffy quickly. However, I did not plan to spend much time there, and the next day after I arrived I was across the River to Dur\u00e1n to see if there was going to be a steam train that day. The only thing going was a railbus excursion, available only to those with tickets. Bummer! So I rented a taxi and headed for Bucay. The road was in terrible shape, barely passable in spots, but the driver got me there in one piece. As soon as I set foot on the ground, I spotted a steam engine at the water tower. It was #53.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Engine 53 taking water<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sinking slowly into the ground at the tower<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Engine 53 relaxing before the climb<\/p>\n

It was mid-morning, and clearly preparations were under way for a run \u201cup the hill\u201d. Without knowing it, I had a long wait ahead of me, but ANY ride on steam is worth waiting for. I wandered around town, keeping my eye of any movement of #53. The first thing needed was to turn her around:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Engine 53’s front end as she heads for the wye<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Headed for the wye<\/p>\n

I had taken with me a number of packets of pictures I had snapped on my stay in 1979: I handed these out to any of the railway workers who seemed interested. They seemed appreciative, and enjoyed the pictures, as there seemed to be plenty<\/em> of time before anything was to happen.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Now turned around, #53 waits for her train<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

More waiting!<\/p>\n

Around noon, the \u00a0day\u2019s Mixto arrived with diesel power at the head end. These new diesel electrics looked to me to be far too large to get past Bucay, but perhaps they could. In any case, today the mixto was to be pulled onward by steam: yaaay! The mixto must have been made up after I was in Dur\u00e1n: I had seen no part of it earlier. Perhaps it had left early!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here comes the Mixto.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Typical baggage on the daily Mixto<\/p>\n

The train was spotted at the low end of town, and the Diesel disconnected: it moved into the wye to await Engine 53\u2019s arrival for connection and further movement.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Engine 53 will back down to connect to the Mixto<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Venerable engine #53 takes her place at the Mixto<\/p>\n

After taking this picture I ambled down in time to take a seat on the tender, awaiting the thrilling climb up the Andes \u00a0I had experienced so many times previously.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Pulling into the main drag, on a 3.5% gradient and curve<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The mechanista’s portion of the cab<\/p>\n

We stopped opposite the Railway Restaurant:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

However, it was closed<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

From my spot on the tender, I could see this fine construction<\/p>\n

There was the usual delay as cars were added or removed from the Mixto. Engine 53 waited patiently.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ready to go!<\/p>\n

By this time it was well past noon, and I was getting hungry, so I climbed down, took the picture above, and found some hot food. Eventually, everything seemed ready, so I clambered back to my favorite spot on the tender and waited some more. What happened next will be the subject of my next page.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

NEXT<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m happy to report I still have some followers! Courtesy of Statcounter In my last page, I mentioned my return to Ecuador in 1994. Referring back to my passport collection, I find it really was 1993: I took a room at the Grand Hotel, which was air-conditioned\u2014at least when there was electricity. It was pretty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}