MAR DEL PLATA
Municipalidad del Partido de General Pueyrredón
Agrupación Amigos del Tranvía Marplatense
Tranvía Turístico - Tourist Tramway

WEBSITE BY ALLEN MORRISON

In 1995 the newspaper La Capital, a radio announcer named Eduardo Zanoli, and a group of tramway enthusiasts in Mar del Plata, Argentina, the beach resort on the Atlantic Ocean 400 km south of Buenos Aires, imported 4-axle tram 342 from Lisbon, Portugal. The car had been built by J. G. Brill in Philadelphia in 1906 and carried passengers in Lisbon for 89 years. A kilometer-and-a-half of 900 mm gauge track was laid in the grassy strip of the boulevard along La Perla beach, starting from "Asilo Unzué" at Calle Río Negro, 2 km north of Plaza San Martín, and the tram began carrying passengers on 21 December 1997. Another Lisbon car arrived in August 1998 - number 343 built in 1907 by John Stephenson in New Jersey - and in 1999 construction began on two extensions: an additional 4 km along the beach to Parque Camet, and a 3 km circuit, with garage for the trams, inside that park. In March 2000 both streetcars were transferred from the beach line to Parque Camet, where they ran for two years. After the line closed for the Argentine winter in May 2002, part of the overhead wire was stolen and the line was closed for a year. But in May 2003 limited service resumed on Sunday afternoons.

The 17 photographs on the following pages were taken between 1997 and 2001 by Aquilino González Podestá and Marcelo Cáceres Miranda of Buenos Aires, and by Lucio Peñaloza of Córdoba, Argentina.

MAP & PHOTOGRAPH DIRECTORY

For more information about the tramways of Argentina visit the websites of the Asociación Amigos del Tranvía of Buenos Aires, the Asociación Amigos del Tranvía de Córdoba and the Asociación Rosarina Amigos del Riel.

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