Salta – Antofagasta railway line

Salta-Antofagasta
Route number :	Ramal C-14
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Legend 1086.2 General Güemes 1132.6 Salta 1187 m 1141.9 General Alvarado 1207 m 1149.8 Cerrillos 1260 m 1162.3 Rosario de Lerma 1332 m 1173.0 Campo Quijano 1520 m 1176.3 Virrey Toledo 1587 m 1185.8 El Alisal 1806 m 1199.1 Chorrillos 2111 m 1210.9 Ingeniero Maury 2358 m 1224.1 Gobernador Solá 2556 m 1233.3 Puerta De Tastil 2675 m Tacuara 3036 m Meseta 2844 m Primer rulo Segundo rulo with Túnel n ° 9 1263.9 Diego de Almagro 3503 m Incahuasi 3553 m 1288.7 Cachiñal 3739 m 1307.6 Muñano 3952 m Los Patos 3842 m 1328.9 San Antonio de los Cobres 3774 m 1347.9 Mina Concordia 4144 m 1350.2 La Polvorilla 4188 m Pocitos 1703.7 Socompa 3858 m 1703.9 Argentina / Chile from Copiapó Antofagasta 119 m Ferrocarril de Antofagasta a Bolivia (FCAB)

The Salta – Antofagasta railway connects the Argentine city ​​of Salta in the province of Salta with Antofagasta in the northern region of Chile on the Pacific Ocean . The tren a las nubes (sometimes also tren de las nubes ) runs on a section .

route

Alter Tren a las nubes on the Viaducto El Toro (August 2008)

New Tren a las nubes (April 2015)

Train on La Polvorilla Bridge (April 2015)

The Argentine part of the route is about 450 km long and crosses the border with Chile at Socompa (3858 m above sea level). The Chilean part of the route is about 330 km long. The official name of the Argentine route section between Güemes , Salta and Socompa is Ramal C-14 .

The railway connection was planned and built by the American engineer Ricardo Fontaine Maury . In the section traveled by tren a las nubes, the route leads through 29 bridges, 21 tunnels, 13 viaducts, 2 loops and two switchbacks . It passes 21 stations.

On the Argentine side, the route leads through several salt deserts , such as Salar de Caucharí , Salar Pocitos , Salar de Arizaro . The Chilean salt deserts are part of the Atacama Desert . On the Chilean side, the train crosses the Salar Punta Negra . The railway line has a continuation in Antofagasta to Iquique . It was built mainly to transport saltpetre . The only section with tourist passenger traffic is the section between Salta and La Polvorilla, which is used by the “train into the clouds” .

business

Until 1981, a passenger train with sleeping and sitting cars ran once a week between Salta and Antofagasta. It was sometimes called Tren Internacional , but it had no official name. After that there was only one weekly freight train with passenger transport between Salta and Socompa, which was operated until March 10, 1993 by the General Belgrano division of the then Ferrocarriles Argentinos . The province of Salta then operated the train for a few years with the participation of the municipalities. Today there is a weekly gas transport train from Argentina to Chile.

Tren a las nubes

The tourist train tren a las nubes of the Ferrocarriles Argentinos has only run when needed since the 1970s and since 1985 regularly in winter (March-November) once a week. It has been operated by the Movitren company since 1994 and also ran from March to November, about once a week. In July 2005 a train with a defective locomotive and no energy supply stopped at sub-zero temperatures on the Viaducto La Polvorilla . This led to the withdrawal of the operating license.

In the meantime, the tren a las nube on the route has been resumed under the new operating company Ecotren SA . For the safety of the passengers, the train is accompanied by off-road vehicles and an ambulance. There are oxygen devices on board for passengers suffering from altitude sickness. There is an infirmary with trained staff on board. In the rainy season from the beginning of December to the end of March, the train service is stopped.

The journey begins and ends in the city of Salta, in northern Argentina at the General Belgrano train station. The average speed is around 35 km / h. Salta is 1187 m above sea level. The train travels a distance of 217 km (434 km there and back). The highlight is crossing the Viaducto La Polvorilla at an altitude of 4188 m. It spans a length of 224 m and has a height of 63.4 m. Around 1,600 tons of steel were used here. From here the train returns to San Antonio de los Cobres at an altitude of 3774 m, where, after a short stop, the return journey continues.

Over 30,000 tourists travel annually with this train, which moves over long distances at an altitude of more than 2500 m. In some places you can see the 5716 m high Nevado de Acay with its snow and ice caps from the route between Puerta Tastil and San Antonio .

In 2009, the operating company in Switzerland bought the last remaining center entry wagons from Zentralbahn, built between 1945 and 1954, in order to create a second train set.

Web links

Commons : Salta – Antofagasta railway line  - collection of images

• Tren a las nubes
• Die Zeit, March 19, 2009, Karen Naundorf, Until your breath catches your breath
• Spiegel, March 10, 2009, Markus Leiter, Wonderland of the Incas
• A new railway line across the Andes. In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung , volume 66, issue 48 of November 27, 1948, p. 669 ( http://doi.org/10.5169/seals-56835 )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Diario Salta , June 29, 2008: El Tren a las Nubes volverá a circular el 6 de agosto  ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.