Thousands and thousands of kilometers are traveled every year by the locomotives of this unit, with the determination not to be defeated by time, difficulties and breakages that appear due to the aging of engines and systems, some with 44 years of operation, such as that of the TGM4 37025, which was recently decommissioned, or the cane transporting cars that are over ¡100 years old! and there they are, with thousands of ailments, but transporting cane in the current harvest.
"When a team leaves us, for whatever reason, we are very sorry, because when this happens it is because we exhausted all the possibilities for it to continue in the fight," Juan Luis Mora Tamayo, director of the Base Business Unit ( UEB) Ferroazuc Ciro Redondo, says the best in the country among the 14 of its kind.
Juan Luis, a director who is capable of knowing, without being present, what moves in the unit, not by some divine power or by spiritual flashes; rather, for remaining 38 years in the same place and for being a man, in every sense of the word, listening to his people, always with his hand outstretched to solve any problem.
In the workshop one finds people of such simple pride that what they like the most is to keep their technique up to date or that when they see a clean and painted locomotive in any part of the country they say: "That locomotive is from the Ciro Redondo workshops." They are also famous nationally for the quality of their work.
Iván Delgado Martínez, machinist of an 800-horsepower TGM8-K, remains turnkey in the workshop, next to his rolling monster, a 75-tonne jumble of iron, capable of hauling 1,200 tons.
“Engine and transmission are in good shape, but I'm here because a transmission sprocket broke. It was due to metal fatigue”, he clarifies, to save the honor of an experienced machinist, with more than 20 years in the trade.
Juan Luis affirms that in addition to the harvest work —transporting cane and sugar—, they also move aggregates, plaster, clinker, cereals, and at some point they supported the transfer of sugar in Villa Clara and Las Tunas and incorporated the transportation of materials destined for investments in Varadero and, more recently, they traveled to Pinar del Río with materials for the victims of Hurricane Ian.
Moreover, to avoid any derailment on the path of efficiency, in the workshops they "do magic" to maintain the equipment. If you don't believe it, read: Adapting the old friction bearing trucks to a more modern and durable bearing system, which allows for better displacement; modification of the carriages-cages so that they unload from the side, a task that is not easy because they need others and of various models that are already out of work in the workshops of the railway sector itself, to select parts and pieces and almost build it again.
In the same way, the mechanics work on innovations in the cylinder liners, evacuation pumps, reducers, transmission sprockets and cylinder heads; they also manufacture the counter-march sprockets used by the KTP combines, and harrows and motor grader axles for land plowing, with the aim of covering the deficit in construction, agricultural and cooperative companies.
Since there is no unfulfillable task there, no alternative that escapes when it comes to economic survival, José Antonio Rodríguez Fernández, deputy technical director in the workshops, adds solutions to the problems of others, "service to third parties", as they say.
«We rebuilt bus floors and truck beds, we made cranes for the wheels of Girón buses, axle boxes and seals for the mincing stands, we hauled stones to improve the railways, bagasse to the Matanzas board factory and other loads; At the same time, we repair gondolas, tanks, silos and plates, mainly for the Cargo Company by Railroad (CARFER) and the nickel industry in Holguín. We have dedicated ourselves to all this so as not to fall into the trunk of inefficient units.
José Antonio, who weighs more than 200 pounds and has a prodigious memory, lists the equipment that belongs to the unit and travels the country: «We have an inventory of 24 locomotives, 404 wagons for transporting sugarcane; of those, the demand was for 230 and we enlisted 100 more; we have 96 hoppers for the transfer of sugar. As an incentive, they gave us 96 new dump trucks for the transportation of gypsum, to which are added 32 sugar tanks and 14 trucks. As you can see, we have to not rest in the workshops ».
In addition, among those who do not rest is Felipe Díaz Denis, a specialist in unified hydraulic transmissions (TIU) of locomotives.
After retirement he returned to the workshops. «They are 46 years in the same place. I became a mechanic in the former Soviet Union and will continue fixing hydraulic transmissions until I have the strength. I'll fix them in 15 days, if the electricity doesn't go out. I like what I do".
—Fifteen days! Is not that much time?
—To be more exact, because one always leaves a margin in case something goes wrong, I have repaired them in up to eight days, but it is not easy. And if the break is in the main tree, everything gets complicated. They are pieces that need to be heated and the box weighs four tons. Everything has to be done with traveling cranes.
"A long time ago, when the new locomotives arrived, the Russian specialists were here and they were cold when they saw how well cared for ours were, despite the years they have been giving sansara."
There is a sense of belonging in the workshop and job stability in the unit. Miguel Acosta Hernández, the diesel engine repairman, is another who has just retired and remains in the workshop. "I will continue until I have the strength," he asserts.
With 42 years of work, Armando Martínez Rabí began as an assistant in 1981 and love and wisdom led him to become a turner, to shape the pieces. «You have to become a magician. Parts no longer come in, practically, we make almost all of them here. Even on the TGM8KM, the new machines, we have had to make the grooves on the pumps and, on the older ones, we have filled the cylinder heads. We have also made the wheels of the turbines, the pinions ».
Oneida Leyva Martínez has been a machine shop manager for 21 years, with nine men under her command. “They are all excellent workers. We are a great family. We plan the work to be done the day before, so that when they arrive everyone knows what they have to do. So we don't waste time."
MILLIONS PER TONS
If machines 17, 19 and 50 are famous for their power and difficult tasks are assigned to them and their crews, such as transporting plaster to the Cienfuegos cement factory, or taking products to Pinar del Río, no less famous are the men and women from a group that, with everyone's efforts, dragged 661,106 physical tons last year and if they did not exceed one million it was due to the stoppage of the Ciro Redondo sugar mill, a large sugar producer.
In the same period, income exceeded 35 million pesos and at the end of March of this year they maintain the cost per peso of mercantile production at 62 cents, spend 35.96 pesos to transport a ton and enter 47.55, in addition to moving 281,700 metric tons. , are just some numbers that guarantee the efficiency.
«The only prohibition we have in the unit is not to travel empty. My machines do not roll an inch without a load”, says Juan Luis.
Thanks to the sense of belonging, to the responsibility and shame of the 269 workers, the Ferroazuc Ciro Redondo Base Business Unit is destined to continue succeeding.