The story
By 1905 the State-owned railway network was 3,490 km length, with the Ferrocarril Central Norte (FCN) being the longest with 1,385 km and the Ferrocarril Argentino del Norte (FAN) with 563 km. Five years later, FCN was 2,135 km long and FAN 1,355 km.
In 1925, the Argentine State Railway ranked 2nd among the most important companies in the country, operating a railway network of 6,617 km. By 1936 the railway network had been extended to 9,690 km.
Most of the railway lines built by the Argentine state were metre gauge because of financial reasons. In 1937 the State company began to acquire some existing companies with the purpose of competing against British railway companies. In 1948 Argentine State Company (along with British and French companies) became part of Ferrocarriles Argentinos after nationalisation of the railway network, headed by then-President Juan Domingo Perón. Therefore, the Central Northern rail lines were added to General Belgrano Railway network while the Patagonian railways became part of General Roca Railway.
From Wikipedia’s article on Argentine State Railway, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3