Virtual Railfan Tour Bolivia - La Paz and Viacha

 
This is the former railway station designed by Gustav Eiffel of Paris tower fame. Trains no longer come down from the altiplano into La Paz and it has been turned into the central bus station

Interior of the Eiffel building

An interesting part of La Paz is the Witches market where you can find all manner of different items such as llama foetuses.  A foetus should be buried in the foundations of each new building.  The stall holders are not too keen on people taking pictures but here they called me "caballero" instead of "senor".

So now the nearest railway is at El Alto uphill on the altiplano and the main workshops of the Oriental railway network is close by at Viacha. I made a few visits while working for the government.  It was surprising when I went there to see the security people at the main gate welding up wheel flanges for them to be turned down for further use. All metal work and supplies have to be imported so they make good use of what they have.





A derelict Hunslet diesel hydraulic brought down from Guaqui

Oops


This is a medical or ambulance car of some sort.


Arch bar trucks were still in regular use here, they were outlawed in interchange service in North America around 1940

This is the station at Viacha with a track inspection car about to set out on the line towards Arica.  We will look at this line next.







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