Colin Churcher 2020

  Cusco Before leaving Cusco we visited the Inca site at Sacsayhuaman where the stones were placed together with incredible accuracy The line from Cusco to Puno is standard gauge.  In 1997 we took the service train and I didn't get many train pictures. Cusco A Paycar There was some intermediate switching Although the grades were easier the scenery was still impressive Lake Titicaca S.S. Yavari at Puno From Wikipedia In 1862  Thames Ironworks  in  West Ham  built the iron-hulled  Yavari  and  Yapura  under contract to the  James Watt  Foundry of  Birmingham . The ships were designed as combined cargo, passenger and  gunboats  for the  Peruvian Navy . The ships were built in "knock down" form; that is, they were assembled with bolts and nuts at the shipyard, dismantled into thousands of parts small enough to transport, and shipped to their final destination to be assembled with rivets and launched on the lake. The kits for the two ships consisted of a total 2,766 pieces bet

  I made a second trip to Peru in 1997 on a Trains Unlimited tour. This time we had our own train, headed here by No. 356 and were entertained by the exit through the switchbacks out of Cusco.  Here we were overtaken partway up by a service train. The climb out of Cusco was tortuous An excellent runpast. This is the tourist train for Agua Caliente and Machu Picchu It took a long time to reach the summit but the frequent stops provided plenty of railfan interest. We had several meets in the Sacred Valley of the Incas and there was a brief stop at Agua Caliente to visit Machu Picchu But the real treat on this trip was the run beyond Agua Caliente to the end of the line at Quillabamba in the Amazon basin. This section of line was only opened in 1978 and has since been abandoned because of water problems. Because of our schedule we had a very short overnight stay at Quillabamba. I was intrigued with this portable alter.  It was presumably used as the end of steel was extended. Our return t

  Much of the Sacred Valley of the Incas is through pleasant farmland Agua Caliente is below Cusco and well below Machu Picchu which is reached by a minibus along a road full of hairpin turns. Notice the tourist with a plastic poncho.  On the return journey raingear was pretty important. Picture by Robin Allardyce The river here looks unthreatening. Picture by Robin Allardyce. Machu Picchu was misty The llamas knew about this place well before humans rediscovered it. The railway can just be made out in the valley below. This is a view of the line beyond.  In 1997, I travelled to the end of the line in the Amazon basin (stay tuned) Back at the rail terminus is was possible to buy supplies.  My journey back to Cusco took considerably longer than advertised. It now began to rain in earnest and the river became a raging torrent.  On my trip it was now dark.  Robin Allardyce had a similar experience in early 2020. The two pictures above are from Robin. My journey alongside the raging river

On my way back to Canada from Argentina in 1984 I stopped off at Lima, Peru and flew to Cusco, an interesting Inca city that had been taken over by the Spanish.  To get to Machu Picchu there was a train service from the center of Cusco There were a number of steam locomotives stored but unused on this narrow gauge (3' 0") system There were two trains going to Machu Picchu that morning Leaving Cusco the two trains then had to negotiate a number of switch backs to climb out of town. Notice the dual gauge track work.  There is also a standard gauge railway running into Cusco although it has its own passenger station on the other side of town This map illustrates the tortuous route climb to the summit We ran backwards and forwards seemingly endlessly getting higher but no further away from Cusco. We finally reached the summit and ran into the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Tourists are now bussed up to the summit where they join the train and save several hours on the journey. There