Reference Sources for South American Railways

THE BRITISH OVERSEAS RAILWAYS HISTORICAL TRUST

A UK Registered Educational Charity

Reference Sources for South American Railways

Compiled by Paddy Farrell

Many entries in this bibliography include brief notes on the contents of the cited paper, article or report. This is particularly useful when the item is in Spanish or Portuguese. It includes the entries in the bibliography compiled by Paul Waters for BORHT in 1999.

The bibliography far from complete. Anyone with suggestions for additional entries is invited to send them to myself at borht.org@gmail.com for inclusion, with appropriate brief notes.if possible.

What follows is only the first section of of the bibliography. It will continue with entries for the main railways in Argentina, for Argentine railways which crossed borders into adjacent countries, and for entries featuring technical aspects of the railways in Argentina (lcomotives, rolling-stock, signalling, personnel, etc). This will be followed by parts relating to the railways in other South American countries.

The second section of this bibliography (separate page) covers Specific Railways in Argentina.

The third section of this bibliography (separate page) covers Argentine Railway Engineering - locomotives and rolling stock, infrastructure, and personnel.

Ferroclub Argentino. A railway preservation yard in a northern suburb of Buenos Aires on the standard-gauge Urquiza line
[Photo by Paddy Farrell]

Argentine Railways, General Books and Articles

Plaza Constitución Station, Buenos Aires Terminus of the Roca Line, after a recent refurbishment [Photo by Paddy Farrell]

Author	Title	Date	Publisher	Remarks
AGUADO, Alejandro	Aventuras Sobre Rieles Patagonicos	1996	Duendes del Sur	Descriptions and stories of various aspects of the broad-gauge railways in the Patagonian region of Argentina, with maps, and many illustrations by the author.
AGUADO, Alejandro	Cañadón Lagarto	1996	Duendes del Sur	Descriptions and stories of various aspects of the broad-gauge railways in the Patagonian region of Argentina, with maps, and many illustrations by the author.
AUTOR DESCONOCIDO	Los Ferrocarriles Británicos en la República Argentina; circa 1941-2.			The author and publisher of this slim booklet are unknown. Most of the British-Owned railways are briefly described, together with financial, traffic and other 1940-41 statistics, and a short bibliography.
	Origen y Desarrollo de los Ferrocarriles Argentinos	1946	El Ateneo, Buenos Aires	The origin and development of the railways in Argentina.
BRADY, George S	Railways of South America , Part 1, Argentina	1926	US Department of Commerce, Trade Promotion Series No. 32, Washington	A Report on all the railways in Argentina, covering their history, development, statistics (mileage, finances, personnel, etc), motive power, rolling stock, repair shops and equipment.
BRIDGER,Gordon	Britain and the making of Argentina	2013	WIT Press	The history of the British influence and investment in the commercial, farming, railway, shipping and sporting activities of Argentina.
BUNGE, Alejandro E	Ferrocarriles Argentinos – Contribución al Estudio del Patrimonio National	1918	Imprenta Mercatali, Buenos Aires	An inventory of the railways in Argentina, embracing their capital value, development, exploitation, performance, charges, personnel and related government policies.
CASTRO, Juan José	Ferrocarriles Sud-Americanos	1893	Ministerio de Fomento, República Oriental del Uruguay, Montevideo 1893	A study submitted to the 1893 Chicago International Exhibition, describing the railways of Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia, Perú and border crossings. It contains many details of railway structures, legal documents, individual railways, etc, but surprisingly no maps. These might have been in an annex which has got separated.
COCQUETEAUX, Armand & BRALY, C. Andrés	Ferrocarril Metropolitano de la Capital Federal de la República Argentina	1887	La Nación	A document of 20 pages and a fold-out map describing a proposed railway linking most of the main railway termini in Buenos Aires, forming a circumference round the metropolitan area of the city.
COOMBS, Martin & SINCLAIR, David	Railways at the End of the World – In Patagonia and the South Atlantic Islands	2014	The Araucaria Press, Cumbria, UK	This book describes all the railways in Patagonia, south of the River Negro, in both Argentina and Chile as well as the islands in the South Atlantic Ocean.
CUCCORESE, Horacio Juan	Historia de los Ferrocarriles en La Argentina	1984	Ediciones Macchi, Buenos Aires
DAMUS, Sylvester	Argentine Railways – Seven Papers on their Economics and History	2010	DIA Agency, Inc., 2nd edition	Productivity, innovations, rates and charges, the FCCA in Cordoba province, British exports to the Argentine, estancia lands, the Mitre Law, and several appendices.
DAMUS, Sylvester	Who was Who in Argentine Railways 1860-1960	2020	DIA Agency, Inc, 3rd edition	800 short biographies of contractors, engineers, managers and other persons active in the construction and development of the railways in Argentina.
DAMUS, Sylvester	La Planeación Ferroviaria en la República Argentina	1966	Desarrollo Económico, enero-marzo, Vol. 5, No. 120, pp511-522.	A discussion of the planning (or lack thereof) for the Argentine railway network.
DAMUS, Sylvester	Acerca de la Planeación Ferroviaria – Comentario de un Artículo de Manuel A. Solanet sobre Estimación de de la Demanda de Transporte Ferroviario	1967	Desarrollo Económico, abril-junio, Vol. 7, No. 125, pp877-892.	Comments about the prediction of demand for railway transport.
DAMUS, Sylvester	Rail Transport Economics and Fallacies	September 12th, 1966	The Review of the River Plate
DAMUS, Sylvester	Railway Planning – Confused Economists	October 31st, 1966	The Review of the River Plate
DAMUS, Sylvester	Looking Realistically at Railway Economics	January 31st, 1967	The Review of the River Plate
DAMUS, Sylvester	Argentine Railways – How Inefficient Are They?	April 21st, 1967	The Review of the River Plate
DAMUS, Sylvester	An Evaluation of Alternative Transport Pricing Rules – Argentine Railways, ca. 1905	1983	Transportation Research Forum, Proceedings 25th Annual Meeting, Vol. XXIV, No. 1
DAMUS, Sylvester	Ramsey-Pricing by railways in historical and international perspective	2011	Lambert Academic Publishing	Ramsey was a Cambridge genius who wrote in 1927 about an ideal way of setting a sales tax on commodity transactions. His name crept into economist’s theories of transport prices, which are akin to a sales tax. “Ramsey-Price” became a technical term denoting a presumably optimal transport price.
Dirección General de Ferrocarriles	Estadística de los Ferrocarriles en Explotación, Tomo XXV, Año 1916 (con los resultados principales de la explotación hasta 1923)	1924	Ministerio de Obras Públicas, Buenos Aires	Annual Part 15 of a comprehensive statistical study of the operation of the railways in Argentina in 1916, together with the main results of the following years up to and including 1923.
JOHNSON, Emerson R.	Railways of South America – Part 1: Argentina	1943	U.S. Department of Commerce, Transportation Division of the Foreign and Domestic Bureau	A very detailed compilation of all aspects of railway operations in Argentina, including border-crossing lines to surrounding countries.
ETCHEGUÍA, G.	Los ferrocarriles argentinos vistos por ojos argentinos	1938	Buenos Aires	Argentine railways seen through Argentine eyes.
FERRER, Angel y FERNANDEZ PRIOTTI, Carlos Alberto	Ferrocarriles en Rosario	2001, reprinted 2003	Asociación Rosarina Amigos del Riel	History and development of the various railways in the area around Rosario, in the Province of Santa Fe.
Ferrocarriles Argentinos	Publicación Official, Año 1 No. 4	Junio 1971	Departamento Relaciones Públicas, Buenos Aires	An official publicity magazine about recent railway developments in Argentina.
Ferrocarriles Argentinos	Ferrocarriles Argentinos	Early 1970s		Tri-lingual (Spanish, Portuguese, English) tourist booklet, with information about travel by express train in Argentina and across the borders of adjacent countries (Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay).
Ferroclub Argentino & Fundación Museo Ferroviario	2007 Calendar	2006		Published to mark the 150th Anniversary of the first railway in Argentina, containing interesting photographs and the dates of seminal events in the history of the railways in Argentina.
GANCEDO (hijo), Alejandro	Ferrocarriles del Estado (Proyecto de ley orgánica)	1923	Camara de Diputados	Bill presented in the House of Deputives of the Congress on 21st September 1922, concerning all aspects of new financial arrangements for the railways in Argentina. Includes much historical information about railway financial and legal arrangements in Argentina and other countries. Extensive tables and maps.
GRAHAM-YOOLL, Andrew	The Forgotten Colony – A History of the English-Speaking Communities in Argentina	1999	L.O.L.A. (Literature of Latin America), revised edition, 1999 (first published by Hutchinson, London in 1981)	A history of British activities and influences in Argentina, including railway matters in Chapter 16. The author joined the Buenos Aires Herald newspaper in 1966, becoming Editor before leaving Argentina in 1976.
GRAHAM-YOOLL, Andrew	Goodbye Buenos Aires	2011	Eland Publishing Ltd, London	A history of Buenos Aires (and Argentina), from 1918 to 1963, written as a biography of his Scottish father. First published in Spanish by Ediciones de la Flor, Buenos Aires, 1997. The first English edition was published by Shoestring Press, Nottingham, England, 1999. Chapter 30 is on the nationalisation of all the Argentine railways in 1948.
KILLIK, Stephen H.M. (later Sir Stephen)(Compiler)	Manual of Argentine Railways for 1908, 1912, 1921, 1928, 1929	1908-1929	London, Effingham Wilson	Reviews, brief histories, statistics and maps.
LAMAS, Dr Carlos Saavedra	Los Ferrocarriles ante la Legislación Positiva Argentina	1918	Buenos Aires	An ex-Minister of Justice and Professor at the Universities of Buenos Aires and La Plata presents the text of several laws and regulations of the time, relating to the fixing of the capital and tariffs for the Western, Transandine and other railways.
LEWIS, Colin M.	Percival Farquhar and the Argentine Railways 1912-1914	1968	Transport History Vol. No.3
LEWIS, Colin M.	British Railway Companies and the Argentine Government	1977	In D.C.M. Platt (Ed.), Business Imperialism 1840-1930 – An Inquiry Based on British Experience in Latin America, Oxford University Press	Livinstone, Zambia
LEWIS, Colin M.	British Railways in Argentina 1857-1914	1983	Athlone	The development and contribution of the British-owned railways to the formation of the modern Republic of Argentina, featuring the interactions between Argentine and British interventions.
LEWIS, Colin M.	150th Anniversary of Railways in Argentina, “Anglo-Criollo” rather than British: Early Investments in Argentinian Railways and Utilities	2007	London School of Economics and Political Science	Paper presented to the Anglo-Argentine Society at Canning on 19th June, 2007.
LOPEZ, Mario Justo	Historia de los Ferrocarriles de la Provincia de Buenos Aires 1857-1886	1991	Lumiere	Early history of the railways in the province of Buenos Aires.
LÓPEZ, Mario Justo	Historia de los Ferrocarriles Nacionales 1866 – 1886	1994	Lumiere	Continuation of his previous book, covering the rest of the country.
LÓPEZ, Mario Justo	Ferrocarriles Deuda y Crisis – Historia de los Ferrocarriles en la Argentina de 1887 a 1896	2000	Editorial de Belgrano	A further continuation of his two previous books, extending the history of the railways through a difficult political and economic period in Argentina.
LÓPEZ, Mario Justo and WADDELL, Jorge E. (Compiler Editors)	Nueva Historia del Ferrocarril en la Argentina – 150 Años de Política Ferroviaria	2007	Lumiere	A two-part volume celebrating 150 years of the railways in Argentina. The five chapters in the first part cover the history of the railways up to 2006; the six contributions in the second part cover a selection of specific Argentine railway topics.
LÓPEZ, Mario Justo	La llegada del tren – el progreso sobre ruedas	Diciembre, 2009	Paper in “Todo es Historia”, Año XLII, No. 509,	Describes the history of the private railway companies in Argentina and their relationship to the State. See also Fernandez 2009 and Waddell 2009.
LÓPEZ, Mario Justo	Yrigoyen, Alvear y los ferrocarriles Británicos	2012	Lumiere	A more detailed study of the government’s railway policy in Argentina between 1916 and 1930.
LÓPEZ, Mario Justo, Jorge E. WADDELL, Jorge E. y MARTINEZ, Juan Pablo	Historia del Ferrocarril en Argentina	2016	Lenguaje Claro Editora	Government railway policy between 1857 and 2015. A revised and updated version of their previous book, omitting the topics covered in the second part of that book. This was the first book to present a comprehensive history of all the railways in Argentina, emphasising their formation and development in terms of the railway policies of the Argentine Government.
LÓPEZ, Mario Justo	Trenes Ingleses en Argentina – Monopolio y control estatal (1897-1916)	2020	Lenguaje Claro Editora	A revised and amplified version of the history of the Argentine railways over the period, dealing in particular with the Mitre Law and its effects on railway policies.
LÓPEZ, Mario Justo, Jorge E. WADDELL, Jorge E. y MARTINEZ, Juan Pablo	A History of the Railways in Argentina – Railway Policies between 1857 and 2015	2023	Lenguaje Claro Editora	This is a translation, by Paddy Farrell, of their book published in 2016. The new translated edition provided an opportunity to revise and enhance its contents.
MÜLLER, Alberto E. G.	La cuestión ferroviaria en la Argentina	2018	Editorial Biblios	A discussion of the lengthy and continuing debate about the role of the railways in Argentina since their nationalization in 1948. Aside from the reasonably effective passenger services in Greater Buenos Aires, the author shows that survival of railway servicies in the country depends on them capturing significantly more of the freight transport market than they have been able to gain up to 2015.
ORTIZ, Ricardo M.	El Ferrocarril en la Economía Argentina	1958	Catedra Lisandro de la Torre, 2a Edición actualizada	The role of the railways, and of government railway policies, in the development of the Argentine economy.
PENDLE, George	History Today – Railways in Argentina	1958	London
PROTHEROE, Ernest	The Railways of the World	1910	Routledge	An introduction to railways and their technology; British, Irish, foreign and colonial railways, including Argentine railways in general and the Transandine.
RAILWAY GAZETTE	Special numbers on South American Railways	1926 and 1949		Reviews of the present position and development programmes of the railways in Argentina and other countries in South America, with several maps and many photographs.
ROCCATAGLIATA, Juan Alberto	Los Ferrocarriles en la Argentina – Un Enfoque Geográfico	1987	Editorial Universitaria de Buenos Aires	A study of the railways in Argentina from the point of view of its geographical features and population of the country.
ROCCATAGLIATA, Juan Alberto	Los Ferrocarriles Ante el Siglo XXI	1998	Editorial de Belgrano	This book explores the ways in which modern developments in transport systems will lead to changes in the role of railway networks, with particular reference to the railways in Argentina.
ROWE, D. Trevor	The railways of South America	2000	Paul Catchpole Ltd (Locomotives International)	The first comprehensive book on the development and operation of all the main railways in South America in the Twentieth Century.
SCALABRINI ORTIZ, Raúl	Los Ferrocarriles deben ser Argentinos	1965	APL	Written between 1935 and 1946 and published posthumously. Tendentiously argues that the railways in Argentina should belong to the Argentines.
SCALABRINI ORTIZ, Raúl	Historia de los Ferrocarriles Argentinos	1995	Editorial Plus Ultra, 10th Edition	First published in 1935, now posthumously revised and including an appendix on the Mitre Law. Remains a tendentious and combative book.
SCHICKENDANTZ, Emilio y REBUELTO, Emilio	Los Ferrocarriles en la Argentina 1857 – 1910	1994	Fundación Museo Ferroviario	Makes available these early texts by two distinct authors, the first originally published in 1910 and the second in 1911. Also included is a set of previously unpublished photographs taken at the turn of the 19th century.
SCHVARZER, Jorge, REGALSKY, Andrés y GÓMEZ, Teresita (compiladores)	Estudios sobre la Historia de los Ferrocarriles Argentinos(1857-1940)	2007	Universidad de Buenos Aires	A set of papers on various economic and social science aspects of the railways, in celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the first railway in Argentina.
SOARES, E. E.	Ferrocarriles Argentinos	1937	Buenos Aires
STONES, Henry Richard	British Railways in Argentina 1860 – 1948	1993	Published by P.E. Waters & Associates	One of the few books which concentrates on the equipment and operation of the railways, together with brief historical details. Henry Stones was a senior manager on the Central Argentine Railway. Contains many photographs from the archive of the British Overseas Railways Historical Trust (BORHT).
STONES, Henry Richard	International Railways over the Andes	1999	P.E. Waters & Associates and Fundación Museo Ferroviario	Briefly describes the various railway routes over the Andes from Argentina, Bolivia and Peru, and then concentrates more fully on the lines between Bolivia-Argentina, Buenos Aires-Bolivia, Northern Transandine and Argentine-Chile via the Southern Lakes. Contains many photographs provided by BORHT and FMF.
THOMSON-NEWMAN, Ian	Railways of Yesteryear – South America	2019	Mainline & Maritime, Locomotives International Imprint	Describes his experiences of railway travel for business and pleasure in South America and how it has changed over the years.
Various	Tren Rodante	1987-current, approximately monthly	trenrodante.com.ar; Contact: trenrodante@gmail.com	Magazine covering Argentine, South American, and international railway topics. Recent editions available online.
WADDELL, Jorge E.	La Red Ferroviaria Argentina en la Actualidad	2019	GEA Magazine, Issue 127	The current state of the Argentine railway network.
WADDELL, Jorge E.	FerrocarrilesArgentinos – 60 Años de Decadencia	Diciembre, 2009	Paper in “Todo es Historia”, Año XLII, No. 509 University, Halifax.	Describes the decay of the system over the previous 60 years, owing to erratic and contradictory policies, lack of investment, and inability to modernize the service. See also López 2009, above.
WRIGHT, Winthrop R	British-Owned Railways in Argentina -- Their Effect on Economic Nationalism, 1854-1948	1974	Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas Press	A study of the relations between the government and the mostly British railways in Argentina and the effect of the rise of economic nationalism in the country.
WRIGHT, Winthrop R.	Los Ferrocarriles Ingleses en la Argentina – Su Influencia en el Nacionalismo Economico	1986	EMECÉ Editores	A Spanish translation of the previous book.

La Plata Station (terminus) on the broad-gauge Roca line, with an electric train arriving from Buenos Aires, and a wonderful set of aged but still in use semaphore signals manufactured in Britain. La Plata is the capital of the Province of Buenos Aires, about 50km south of Buenos Aires. [Photo by Paddy Farrell]

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