Ferronor

Ferrocarril de Potrerillos
Barquito Chañaral Empalme Salado (Ferronor - Longitudinal Norte) Diego de Almagro (Ferronor - Longitudinal Norte) Diego de Almagro (FCP) Llanta Río de la Sal Encanche Montandon Potrerillos Mina Potrerillos

The Diego de Almagro division connects Potrerillos (a now abandoned town and mine in the Andes at 2,800 metres (9,200 ft), only the smelter is still in use) with Llanta (filtration plant and workshops) and Diego de Almagro, where the line connects to the Longitudinal Norte, and continues to Chañaral and the harbor at Barquito. The Longitudinal Norte is still used from Diego de Almagro northward to connect Mina Franke.

The line was built starting 1916 by the Andes Copper Mining Company to connect the Potrerillos copper mine and smelter with Pueblo Hundido[3] (now called Diego de Almagro), where it connected to the state railway network, which continued to Chañaral. At Chañaral, a branch was built to connect the harbor at Barquito with the state railway network. Production at the mine started 10 years later.[4] The railway was subsequently used to transport supplies to Potrerillos and refined copper to the harbor at Barquito.

In 1959, the El Salvador mine opened and the mine at Potrerillos subsequently shut down,[5] however the smelter remained in operation. Since then, the liquified ore is transported by pipeline from El Salvador to a filtration plant near Llanta, from where the dried ore concentrate is transported by railway to the Potrerillos plant.

The copper refining process requires large quantities of sulfuric acid, which is produced on-site at Potrerillos.[6] Potrerillos also supplies other plants with sulfuric acid, both by truck and railway. Facilities to transfer sulfuric acid from train to truck exist at Llanta and El Salado.

The Vallenar division connects the Los Colorados iron ore mine with the harbor at Huasco.[7] It consists of a branch which connects the mine with the Longitudinal Norte north of Vallenar, which is then used southward to Vallenar. A further branch line then provides the link from Vallenar to Huasco.

The Baquedano division used to transport natural gas via Palestina and the Socompa pass to Argentina. This traffic ceased in 2006, after two Ferronor locomotives (408 and 412) were damaged in an accident in Argentina and the Argentinian operator Belgrano Cargas initially refused to repair and return the locomotives.[8] The locomotives have since been repaired and returned to service for Ferronor, but traffic over the Socompa pass has not been resumed to date.

Ferronor also owns various steam locomotives and other historic rolling stock, which is on display in an open-air "museum" at Baquedano.[9] However, most of the locomotives are stored outside without any protection and are in very bad condition.

This is an incomplete list of locomotives used by Ferronor.

Ferronor no.	Type	Order no.	Year built	Previous owners	Comments	Pictures
71 - 72	EMD G18U	710938, 710939	1968	Andes Copper Mining Co.	[10]
73	EMD SW1200			Codelco	[11]
81 - 82	EMD G12	701651, 701652	1957	Andes Copper Mining Co., Codelco	[10]
83	EMD G12	701954	1959	Andes Copper Mining Co.	[10]
91 - 93	EMD GR12U	710341 - 710353	1965	Codelco	[12][13]
94	EMD G22CU		1971	Codelco	Ordered by FCAB for Codelco to circumvent US export restrictions
401 - 419	EMD GR12U	700190 - 700208	1961 - 1962	EFE Dt 13001 - 13019	[14][15][16]
420	EMD GR12U				[14]
421 - 423	EMD GR12U	700209 - 700211		CAP	[17]
424 - 426	EMD GR12U	710550 - 710552		CAP	[10][18][19]
601	EMD GT26CU			FCCA	[7]
4601 - 4606	EMD GT46AC		2013		[20]

• 
  GR12U 412 (one of the engines involved in the 2006 Socompa pass accident) between Montadon and Potrerillos
• 
  GR12U climbing the grade to Potrerillos (in the background)
• 
  Two GR12U shunting at the filtration plant near Llanta. The pipeline from El Salvador mine is visible on the right.
• 
  Roundhouse at Baquedano

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ferronor.

• Official website (in Spanish)