Bahía Blanca and North Western Railway

Bahía Blanca and North Western Railway
Terminus Bahía Blanca station in 1930.
Overview
Native name	Ferrocarril de Bahía Blanca al Noroeste
System	Inter-city
Status	Defunct company; rail lines active
Locale	Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Córdoba
Termini	Bahía Blanca Toay Huinca Renancó
Operation
Opened	1891
Closed	1904 (acquired by the BA & Pacific)
Technical
Track gauge	1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in)

The Bahía Blanca and North Western Railway (in Spanish: Ferrocarril Bahía Blanca al Noroeste) was a British-owned railway company that operated in Argentina. The original project was the rail line to run through the provinces of Buenos Aires, Córdoba and San Luis, tracks were only extended to Toay in La Pampa and Huinca Renancó in Córdoba. The BB&NWR was also the first railway line to reach La Pampa.

Portuguese trader Luis D'Abreu had made successive arrangements to build a railway. After many of his requests were repeatedly rejected by the Engineers Office of Argentina (then directed by Guillermo White), finally the Government granted D'Abreu's company, "Abreu, Torres y Cía", a concession to build and operate a railway by Law N° 2097 on September 29, 1887. Once the concession was given, Abreu transferred it to British company John Meiggs & Co., which finally transferred the permission to "Bahía Blanca & North Western Railway Corporation".

The company was registered in May 1889 and assumed concessions for lines from the port of Bahía Blanca in the south of Buenos Aires Province to Río Cuarto in the joint with Andean Railway and Villa Mercedes in the joint with BA & Pacific, via cities of General Acha, La Verde, Toay and Victorica, all of them in La Pampa Province. The plan was for this route to form the basis of a regional broad gauge, 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm), network complete with branch lines eastwards towards the radial trunk routes spreading out from the federal capital, and feeder lines westwards.