Qualla: Tragedy of Alpatacal https://qualla.com/tragedy-of-alpatacal en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:39:57 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Tragedy of Alpatacal https://qualla.com/tragedy-of-alpatacal Tragedy of Alpatacal: Introduction https://qualla.com/tragedy-of-alpatacal/ They were boys, most of them, cadets between twelve and fifteen years old, asleep in their wagons as the train crossed the dark Mendoza desert. In the early hours of 7 July 1927, their convoy reached a small station called Alpatacal, pulled at speed by two locomotives, and ran headlong into another train waiting to depart. The cars buckled and crushed together, and then fire took hold. Thirty people died at that lonely siding, and a journey meant for celebration became one of the worst peacetime disasters in Chilean military history.

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/d/0/1/tragedy-of-alpatacal-wp/6d01-tragedy-of-alpatacal-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Tragedy of Alpatacal: A Journey of Friendship https://qualla.com/tragedy-of-alpatacal/ The cadets came from the Military School of Chile, traveling to Buenos Aires to take part in Argentine festivities marking the country's independence and the birthday of former president Bartolomé Mitre. It was a gesture of goodwill between neighbors who had not always been at pe...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/d/0/1/tragedy-of-alpatacal-wp/6d01-tragedy-of-alpatacal-a-journey-of-friendship.mp3 0:06 2 full Tragedy of Alpatacal: The Collision https://qualla.com/tragedy-of-alpatacal/ Accounts describe the convoy passing at high speed, hauled by its pair of locomotives, when it met the waiting train head-on at the small Alpatacal station. The impact threw the wagons together and overturned them, splintering the wooden carriages where the cadets lay sleeping. A...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/d/0/1/tragedy-of-alpatacal-wp/6d01-tragedy-of-alpatacal-the-collision.mp3 0:06 3 full Tragedy of Alpatacal: Carrying On https://qualla.com/tragedy-of-alpatacal/ What happened next is strange and, in its way, deeply human. Despite the catastrophe, the surviving cadets continued to Buenos Aires and took part in the celebrations anyway. The order came from General Bartolomé Guillermo Blanche Espejo, who directed them to honor the Argentine ...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/d/0/1/tragedy-of-alpatacal-wp/6d01-tragedy-of-alpatacal-carrying-on.mp3 0:06 4 full Tragedy of Alpatacal: What Remains https://qualla.com/tragedy-of-alpatacal/ The dead were honored on both sides of the cordillera. A street in the Liniers neighborhood of Buenos Aires was named Alpatacal, and at the military school in Santiago a memorial stands to the fallen cadets, a place still used in ceremonies to honor cadets for outstanding service...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/d/0/1/tragedy-of-alpatacal-wp/6d01-tragedy-of-alpatacal-what-remains.mp3 0:06 5 full