Remainders of the great days of railroading (11).... The remnants of the tren de las nubes

With the highest point of 4220 m the 941km long railway from Salta in Argentina to Antofagasta in Chile is the fifth highest in the world and the third highest in South America. The 571 km in Argentina are part of the meter gage Ferrocarril General Manuel Belgrano which links Buenos Aires with Bolivia. The Chilean track (Socompa-Antofagasta) is part of the Ferrocarril de Antofagasta a Bolivia (FCAB).

Together with the railway from Santiago to Mendoza it forms the only rail link between the two countries. Both are out of traffic.

 

The construction of the railway started in 1921 to connect the North of Argentina with Chile across the Andes and to serve the various mines of the area. The Chilean track was inaugurated in 1947 and the complete railway on 20 February 1948.

 

The highest point is the viaduct La Polvorilla. The highest of the line, it was finished in 1932.

Steam engines were put out of service on the General Belgrano line in 1980. One is preserved at the foot of the mountains in Campo Quijano. 

 

Meanwhile freight service has stopped on the Argentine side of the line and all but stopped in Chile. The only train remaining is the tren de las nubes. This tourist train used to link Salta and the highest point of the line at the viaduct La Polvorilla. 

 

Since the lower part of the line is in such a poor condition that it is unsafe for travel, the tren de las nubes now is restricted to the 18 km from San Antonio de las Cobres to the viaduct. Passengers are ferried to San Antonio by bus.

There is talk about reconstruction of the line both in Chile and Argentina, but this topic seems to pop up regularily without much being done. 

 

However, there is a new commuter service for 40 km from Salta to Quilmes. A railcar has been shipped to Salta, and it does a couple of runs daily. However, the track is so bad that it took the signal man quite a while to get the point ready at the entrance to Salta. Note that the train is far too high for the platforms. A makshift entrance platform had to be constructed for the passengers to board. However, this train is very popular since it is much cheaper than the bus on the same route.

In addition, they are busy to reconstruct the section of the General Belgrano line between Jujuy north of Salta and the Bolivian border. They have started by removing all the tracks and, strangly enough continue by rebuilding the stations first.