"Abandoned steam train graveyard in Bolivia, in pictures"

[Victrola1]

Haunting images of vintage equipment morphing to iron oxide.

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/04/abandoned-steam-train-graveyard-in-bolivia-in-pictures/

 

[Overmod]

You went there looking for GELSAs, didn't you?

[54light15]

GELSAS? What's that?

[Firelock76]

Interesting, reminds me of Colin Garratt's work.

And what the heck are GELSAS?

[Overmod]

Firelock76

And what the heck are GELSAS?

Look them up.  Easily the most sophisticated steam locomotives ever built for metre gauge -- among the most sophisticated steam locomotives built anywhere at any time.

I hadn't realized until this morning that some went to Bolivia and might be preserved, after a manner of speaking, in their 'dumps'.  I doubt the photographer understands much about steam technology, so he concentrated on "old British stuff" as being more attractive to his expected home audience or whatever.  Doug Bailey's site shows two (555 and 556) as 'derelict' in Robore.

This will give you a general idea:

http://thierry.stora.free.fr/english/techdat3.htm#Brazil

 

 

 

[Firelock76]

Ok, went lookin' for GELSAS...

Let's see here, found Gelsa, a town in the province of Zaragosa in Spain, a Gelsa lighting company, a Gelsa call center in Monterey Mexico, a Gelsamina "Gelsa" Malanga, a real estate agent in Chester NJ, (maybe I'll keep her in mind if I ever want to move back), and a selfie website by some young lady named Gelsa.

Spreading the net further by specifying "GELSA Locomotives" I hit pay dirt.  AHA!  A French locomotive sales consortium that sold that genius Monsieur Chapelon's locomotive's to South American countries.

Groupement D'Exportation de Locomotives en Sud-Amerique

Whew!  Try saying THAT three times fast!

And I thought Societie Pour Aviation Derives was a mouthful.

'Scuse me, gotta get some aspirin...

And if there's any Chapelon's in that graveyard some French steam freaks should make a trip there and beat the hell out of someone!

[kgbw49]

http://www.steamlocomotive.info/vlocomotive.cfm?Display=13042

 

[Firelock76]

kgbw49

http://www.steamlocomotive.info/vlocomotive.cfm?Display=13042

 

 

Looks like some ALCO fans should get down there on a rescue mission.  Or beat the hell out of somebody!

[Overmod]

Firelock76

And if there's any Chapelon's in that graveyard some French steam freaks should make a trip there and beat the hell out of someone!

I submit that more than just the French might take an interest in these.

And the "D" in SPAD is really Deperdussin; Bleriot 'engineered' the name out when he took over the company in 1913.  That's why 'et ses derives' seems so contrived.  Because it is.

As early as 1912, less than three years after Bleriot flew the channel in a bunch of coathangers and sticks, Deperdussin was flying this

And what does Bleriot's company do with the fighter design after the War?  You guessed it ... convert it into an airliner!

 

[Firelock76]

Ah, I was hoping someone would recognize SPAD when he saw it!  Well done!

And doesn't that Deperdussin look sleek and positively lethal for a 1912 airplane?  I wonder what kind of fighter it would have made?  As far as I know none were ever adapted to that role.

I'm not sure, but I believe that Deperdussin replica's owned by the Salis Collection in La Ferte Alais in France.  The original airplane in 1913, powered by a 160HP Gnome rotary engine set a speed record of 126.66 mph, incredible for that era.

Can't say I'm too suprised at seeing a SPAD 13 "chopped and channeled" into a passenger carrying aircraft.  After the First World War ended and all those government contracts stopped a lot of aircraft companys were scrambling for income ideas. 

"Mon Dieu! NOW what do we do?"