WorldWide Drilling Resource

46 SEPTEMBER 2015 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Nearly 4000 feet above sea level on the world’s largest and highest salt flats, yesterday’s abandoned mining trains stand forgotten by time. This is the place where former steam engines, locomotives, and railcars of the Antofagasta and Bolivia Railway Companies lie deserted on their original tracks baking in the heat of the Atacama Desert, one of the driest deserts on earth. As far as train cemeteries go, this locomotive boneyard, located roughly two miles outside the town of Uyuni in southwestern Bolivia, is arguably one of the most spectacular on the planet. Uyuni, a small trading region high in the Andean plain, has been an important transportation hub for many years, as it connects several major cities across South America. In the early 19th century, ambitious plans were made to make it an even larger hub with a great network of trains going to and from the city. At the time, Bolivian President Aniceto Arce believed an integrated transport network was the key to the country’s future prosperity. He invited a group of British en- gineers to construct railway infrastructure which can be seen in Bolivia to this day. Construction began in 1888 and ended in 1892. Over the following decades, trains imported from Britain were used to haul minerals from the Andes mountains to ports along the Pacific Coast. The line continued transporting freight traffic for mining companies until the region’s mining collapse and other factors led to the rail line’s closure in the 1940s. Since then, the antique trains have been parked in the middle of the sand as if a giant child stopped playing with them years ago, leaving them scattered where they were. The Cementerio de Trenes (train graveyard) is marked only by a small sign explaining very little about the site. Even so, it has become a minor attraction for tourists visiting the nearby Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat in the world. Over the decades, Bolivia’s salty winds have taken their toll on the mining trains. They’re rusted out and were stripped of useful parts long ago . Cove r ed i n graffiti, the trains have been described as oddly beautiful rel ics of a bygone industry. Accord i ng to legend, the first lo- comotive to enter Bolivia, brought to replace mules as transport, is among the ruins of the train cemetery, along with an- other locomotive allegedly robbed by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Plans to construct a museum around the train graveyard are reportedly being considered. The Mining Train Cemetery Compiled by Amy White, Associate Editor WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Photo by Iwan at Wikivoyage Photo by Jacopo Werther 2",/ # / 4%,/#03())$ ',+$ 5 ),4"$+1$/ ),,- -2*- *,#2)$0 /$ 3 () !)$ %,/ !,1' /$0(#$+1( ) +# ",**$/"( ) &/,2+# ),,- '$ 1(+& +# ",,)(+& 0601$*0 ,*- 1(!)$ 4(1' 1'$0$ -2*-0 ),4"$+1$/0 " + !$ ",+ %(&2/$# 4(1' ,/ -2*- 2+(10 1, * 1"' #(% %$/$+1 ), # /$.2(/$*$+10 /,#2"10 (+")2#$ ),4"$+1$/0 7 $,1'$/* ) ),0$# ,,- (11(+&0 7 $-) "$*$+1 2*-0 7 ,0$ (10 +# ""$00,/($0 7 /( !)$ -$$# 2*-0