Rosario and Puerto Belgrano Railway Región Buenos Aires y Santa Fe, Argentina Argentina Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
.	Rosario Rosario Rosario is the largest city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the western shore of the Paraná River and has 1,159,004 residents as of the ....  - San Gregorio, 213 km KM KM, Km, or km may stand for:*Kilometre *Kernel methods*Kettle Moraine High School*Khmer language *Kuomintang , a centre-right political party in the Republic of China on Taiwan...  01/03/1909
Built	Coronel Suárez Coronel Suárez Coronel Suárez is a town in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is also the capital of Coronel Suárez Partido.The partido was created in 1882 by the government of Buenos Aires Province in Argentina who divided the territory of Tres Arroyos into the partidos of Tres Arroyos, Coronel Pringles and...  - Puerto Belgrano Puerto Belgrano Base Naval Puerto Belgrano is the largest naval base of the Argentine Navy, situated next to Punta Alta, near Bahía Blanca, about south of Buenos Aires... , 224 km 01/01/1910
.	San Gregorio - Coronel Suárez Coronel Suárez Coronel Suárez is a town in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is also the capital of Coronel Suárez Partido.The partido was created in 1882 by the government of Buenos Aires Province in Argentina who divided the territory of Tres Arroyos into the partidos of Tres Arroyos, Coronel Pringles and... , 360 km 15/12/1910
Owned	French
Rail gauge Rail gauge Track gauge or rail gauge is the distance between the inner sides of the heads of the two load bearing rails that make up a single railway line. Sixty percent of the world's railways use a standard gauge of . Wider gauges are called broad gauge; smaller gauges, narrow gauge. Break-of-gauge refers... :	1676 mm Millimetre The millimetre is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one thousandth of a metre, which is the SI base unit of length....
Map of the Provincia de Buenos Aires

The Ferrocarril Rosario y Puerto Belgrano (FCRPB) (in English: Rosario and Puerto Belgrano Railway, and in French: Compagnie de Chemins de Fer Rosario-Puerto Belgrano) was a French-owned railway company which operated a broad gauge

Indian gauge

Indian gauge is a track gauge commonly used in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Argentina and Chile. It is also the gauge that is used on BART , in northern California.- Scotland :...

, , single track

Single track (rail)

A single track railway is where trains in both directions share the same track. Single track is normally used on lesser used rail lines, often branch lines, where the traffic density is not high enough to justify the cost of building double tracks....

 line between the cities of Rosario

Rosario

Rosario is the largest city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the western shore of the Paraná River and has 1,159,004 residents as of the ....

 and Puerto Belgrano

Puerto Belgrano

Base Naval Puerto Belgrano is the largest naval base of the Argentine Navy, situated next to Punta Alta, near Bahía Blanca, about south of Buenos Aires...

 in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

. Puerto Belgrano, near the city of Bahía Blanca

Bahía Blanca

Bahía Blanca is a city located in the south-west of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, by the Atlantic Ocean, and seat of government of Bahía Blanca Partido. It has a population of 274,509 inhabitants according to the...

 in Buenos Aires Province

Buenos Aires Province

The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...

, is the main naval base in Argentina. The original idea behind the building of the railway was to link points that were closer to either Rosario or Bahía Blanca than they were to Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

, thereby taking traffic from the British-owned companies Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway

Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway

The Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway was one of the Big Four broad gauge, , British-owned companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina...

 and Buenos Aires Western Railway

Buenos Aires Western Railway

The Buenos Aires Western Railway was one of the Big Four broad gauge British-owned companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina...

.

Since the line was constructed after many other east to west lines had already been laid these were crossed by constructing a large number of bridges. The otherwise near level course of the line was broken, at intervals, by short sharp gradients and this had an effect on the type of locomotives that could be used. In spite of this a considerable volume of goods and livestock traffic was carried by the line.

In the nationalisation

Railway Nationalisation in Argentina

In 1948, during President Juan Perón’s first term of office, the seven British-owned and three French-owned railway companies then operating in Argentina, were purchased by the state...

 of the entire Argentina railway network in 1948, during Juan Peron

Juan Perón

Juan Domingo Perón was an Argentine military officer, and politician. Perón was three times elected as President of Argentina though he only managed to serve one full term, after serving in several government positions, including the Secretary of Labor and the Vice Presidency...

's presidency, the southern and northern sections of the line were absorbed by Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway

Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway

The Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway was one of the Big Four broad gauge, , British-owned companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina...

 and Central Argentine Railway

Central Argentine Railway

The Central Argentine Railway was one of the Big Four broad gauge, , British-owned companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina...

, respectively. These two companies then in turn became part of the state-owned companies Ferrocarril General Roca

Ferrocarril General Roca

Ferrocarril General Roca , named after the former Argentine president Julio Argentino Roca, was one of the six state-owned Argentine railway companies formed after President Juan Perón's nationalisation of the railway network in 1948...

 and Ferrocarril General Bartolomé Mitre

Ferrocarril General Bartolomé Mitre

Ferrocarril General Bartolomé Mitre , named after the former Argentine president Bartolomé Mitre, was one of the six state-owned Argentine railway companies formed after President Juan Perón's nationalisation of the railway network in 1948...

, respectively.