Colin Churcher 2020

  The Nazca Lines In 2000 the Peruvian government had started to privatize its railways and needed some advice on how to ensure that privatized lines ran safely.  I went to Lima as a volunteer for three weeks in March. I wrote a full diary account of this time which you can find at: https://churcher.crcml.org/Diary/Diary_2000-03.html During this time I did not see any train or railway.  I was kept pretty busy in the office but, in any case I had the impression that government did not want the railways to know too much about what I was doing. Although there may not have been any trains, I had previously covered the country's railways in earlier visits, it was an amazing period and the last weekend was exceptional. I rented a taxi for a couple of days and went south, with another volunteer, to look at the Nazca lines.  I insisted that the taxi have a good serviceable spare tire which the driver proudly demonstrated before we left.  The Nazca lines are lines drawn ...

  Our train at Rumichaka Again we were allowed to ride in the cab Rumichaka Near Ticlio Ticlio Near Galera Galera summit was busy Galera The Zig Zags provided plenty of opportunity for photography The bridges also provided good opportunities Puente Carion At San Bartolome we reached the only location where it was necessary to turn the locomotive.  San Bartolome San Bartolome Putting a railway through this mountainous terrain with numerous curves and switchbacks it was quite a feat for the engineers to build with only one location where the locomotive had to be turned. From San Bartolome it was a straightforward run to Lima and the end of our trip

  This was the first day of a two-day journey to return to Lima.  We had a narrow gauge special train which stopped at several villages where formal ceremonies were held We even had entertainment on the train Huancavelica is a large, somewhat forbidding place high in the mountains. There were a good number of runpasts We were treated to local dances and customs I purchased this colourful chullo. It seems that the patterns are different for every village A meet More music and dancing at Huancayo We eventually reached Huancayo after a long, colourful and entertaining day

  This fascinating picture was taken at Huancayo at the beginning of two wonderful days traveling out to Huancavelica and back the next day. It shows two locomotives built by Montreal Locomotive Works with consecutive road numbers but the one on the left is narrow gauge (3 foot) while that on the right is standard gauge. It seemed  a straight forward operation to change the trucks under the locomotives to change the gauge. The line between Huancayo and Huancavelica is an isolated section of narrow gauge track at the end of the Peru Central line high in the Andes. Our trip was taken in a relaxed manner and it seemed the local people realized there was a small party of gringos and we were greeted at several stations and shown local customs. We had lost our nurse at Huancayo, presumably we had acclimatized to the high altitude.  However we gained a couple of stewardesses. Their function was not clear and I didn't trouble to find out. Huancayo provided plenty of interest. No ...