Equipo Williams

For most of the drive through Argentina and Chile, we’ve been coming across mostly abandoned or lightly used rail lines.  In Argentina we saw a few railcars on the line to Pinamar, and then throughout Patagonia it was mostly abandoned lines with the exception of a preserved museum train in Esquel.  Abandoned rail lines make me sad, not just because I love trains but because it represents a lot of work that just ends up being forgotten.  Putting in a railway requires planning, financing, surveying the line, obtaining the land, grading the line, putting down tracks, getting and maintaining rolling stock, and actually running the trains.  When railways get abandoned, it frequently also means that industries and the towns and people they support have folded as well.

In Northern Chile, there still are railways serving the mining industry.  We first came across this when we were looking at the old railway station in Antofagasta.  I had thought the line was closed, but then a shunting locomotive came rolling through town.  Whoohoo!  An EMD GA8!  The next day, as we were leaving town, we came across another pair of GA8s coming through town.  It looks like the Ferrocarril de Antofagasta a Bolivia is still running strong!

The drive from Antofagasta to Calama follows the railway line, and at Baquedano there is a railway museum.  Railway museum is a bit of an overstatement: at some point the stopped using steam locomotives and just sort of left the yard as it was.  There are no signs, or guides, or anything that you would associate with a museum.  Access is via crossing 4-5 lines in an active railway yard.  It’s a great place.

The centerpiece is a roundhouse with maybe six old steam engines around it, plus associated railway “stuff” that wasn’t economical to move or scrap, I guess.

The museum, as I mentioned, is adjacent to an active rail line, so out front there was a freight train coming through and maybe 80 tank cars for hauling sulfuric acid.

After the museum, we had a picnic next to the highway when two special transporters carrying Komatsu 930e dump trucks came past.  They were being carried on special trailers and it looked like the truck in the back could steer the rear wheels of the trailer.  The trailers themselves had ten axles, and I think each axle might have been 8 tires.

Finally, as we were leaving Chile for Bolivia, we passed a train waiting at the border. I didn’t want to get out my camera at the border, so I snapped this picture as we drove past. I’m not sure, but I think those containers hold lithium brine. From the deserts of Bolivia to your iPhone, I guess.

OH! Bonus cool Chilean thing! We happened to be driving through an area that is home to one of the largest telescopes on the planet, the aptly named Very Large Telescope (actually 4 telescopes). We didn’t have anywhere to be, and the road wasn’t blocked, so we drove up a very steep road and saw the telescopes perched on the mountain. Each of those buildings houses a mirror that is nearly 27 feet across. Apparently they do tours on Saturday afternoons, but we were there on a Monday and didn’t want to wait a week. Next time…