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The Transandine Railway (in Spanish: Ferrocarril Trasandino) was a 1000 metre gauge combined rack and adhesion railway which operated between Mendoza in Argentina across the Andes mountain range via the Uspallata Pass to Santa Rosa de Los Andes in Chile, a distance of 248 km. The railway has been out of service since 1984, and has been partly dismantled. It is now being reconstructed. [1]

History

The Transandine Railway was first projected in 1854. However, the construction of the line was the work of Juan and Mateo Clark, Chilean brothers of British descent, who were successful entrepreneurs in Valparaiso and in 1871 had built the first telegraph service across the Andes, between Mendoza in Argentina and Santiago in Chile.

In 1874 the Chilean government granted them the concession for the construction of the rail link across a similar route. Due to financial problems their company, Ferrocarril Transandino Clark, did not begin work on the construction in Los Andes until 1887. The section between Mendoza and Uspallata was opened on 22 February 1891 and extended to Rio Blanco on 1 May 1892, to Punta de Vacas on 17 November 1893, to Las Cuevas on 22 April 1903. On the Chilean side the section from Santa Rosa de Los Andes to Hermanos Clark was opened in 1906 and extended to Portillo in February 1908. By 1910, when the entire line was first opened to traffic, the company had been taken over by the British-owned Argentine Transandine Railway Company. ^[1].

The line followed roughly the ancient route taken by travellers and mule-trains crossing the Andes between Chile and Argentina and connected the broad gauge, 66, railway networks of the two countries, rising to a height of almost 3,200 metres at Las Cuevas where the track entered the Cumbre tunnel, about 3.2 km long, on the international border. Nine sections of rack were laid in the last 40 km of track on the Argentine approach to the tunnel, ranging from 1.2 km to 4.8 km in length, with a maximum gradient of 1 in 17. On the Chilean side there were seven sections of rack in just 24 km, of which one section was 16 km long with an average gradient of 1 in 13. Sections of the line were protected by snowsheds and tunnels.

Characteristics

Railway companies:

The Transandine completed a 1408 km rail link between the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires with the Chilean port of Valparaiso, and provided the first rail route linking the southern Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. This journey involved the use of services operated by the following five railway companies:

Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway: Buenos Aires (Retiro terminus) to Villa Mercedes (1676) (689 km).

Argentine Great Western Railway: Villa Mercedes to Mendoza (1,676 mm gauge) (354 km).

Argentine Transandine Railway: Mendoza to the international border (Las Cuevas, Arg) (1000) (159 km).

Chilean Transandine: International border (Las Cuevas, Arg) to Santa Rosa de Los Andes (1,000 mm gauge) (73 km).

Chilean State Railway: Santa Rosa de Los Andes to Valparaíso (1,676 mm gauge) 134 km).

Additional information:

Passenger services from Buenos Aires to Valparaiso took about 36 hours in total, including changes of train in Mendoza and Los Andes, required because of the break-of-gauge at these points. Previously the 5630 km journey by sea from Buenos Aires to Valparaiso, around Cape Horn, had taken eleven days.

The Chilean Transandine railway was originaly worked by Kitson-Meyer 0-8-6-0s rack and adhesion locomotives, two examples of which survive in Chile.^[2] The line was electrified in 1927 with Swiss-built electric locomotives.

A glacial flood in 1934 destroyed 124 km of the Argentine section, which was later rebuilt.

When the entire Argentine railway network was nationalised in 1948, the Transandine Railway became part of the state-owned company Ferrocarril General San Martín.

During tensions between Chile and Argentina in 1977-78, all international railway use of the Transandine Railway was suspended. However, road traffic including buses, automobiles, and similar vehicles was conducted through the railway's "Cumbre" tunnel: since the railway tunnel was not wide enough for two-way vehicle transit, groups of vehicles were controlled and ran alternately from the Chilean and Argentine sides of the tunnel. With the normalization of relations between the two countries, railway passenger service through the tunnel was resumed for a short period ending in 1979. The last freight train using the tunnel was in 1984.

In 2006, both the Argentine and Chilean governments agreed to refurbish the railway and make it functional by the year 2010, at an estimated total cost of US$460 million.^[3] However, progress has been limited, although travellers in April 2008 saw some activity on the Chilean side, including ballast renewal at the Aconcagua power station and labourers in action at Santa Rosa de Los Andes.

In October 2008, a road trip from Mendoza to the Chilean border at Las Cuevas showed that the line is in a very neglected state but is by no means beyond repair. The rails are still in place, at least wherever the track can be seen from the road, but in many cases there are rocks and other debris on the track. In some places there is significant avalanche debris covering the track completely. In other places recent improvements to the main road have left behind construction debris on the track. In most cases the bridges are in excellent condition, some even showing signs of a recent coat of paint, in stark contrast to the state of the track itself. At Puente de Los Incas hundreds of tourists walk across the tracks every day to view the natural bridge. If it ever reopens, this line could easily be listed as one of the most spectacular railway journeys on earth.

References

^ Wade-Matthews, Max (1999). The World's Great Railway Journeys. Anness Publishing Inc. ISBN 1-84038-480-8.
^ http://www.lcgb.org.uk/html/santiagomuseum.htm
^ En julio se licitará tren Los Andes - Mendoza accessdate=2008-01-16 Template:Es icon

Bibliography

H.R.Stones, British Railways in Argentina 1860-1948, P.E.Waters & Associates, Bromley, Kent, England (1993).
W.S.Barclay, The First Transandine Railway, Geographical Journal, Vol.36, No.5, 553-562 (1910).
H.R.Stones, International Rail Routes Over the Andes, Railway Magazine, Vol.105, No.699, July 1959, pp. 460-466.
Santiago Marín Vicuña, Los hermanos Clark, Balcells & Co., Santiago de Chile (1929), 76-260.

External links

[1] Wade-Matthews, Max (1999). The World's Great Railway Journeys. Anness Publishing Inc. ISBN 1-84038-480-8.

[2] ttp://www.lcgb.org.uk/html/santiagomuseum.htm

[3] En julio se licitará tren Los Andes - Mendoza accessdate=2008-01-16 Template:Es icon

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[2]

[3]

@@ Line 59: / Line 59: @@
 * Passenger services from Buenos Aires to Valparaiso took about 36 hours in total, including changes of train in Mendoza and Los Andes, required because of the [[break-of-gauge]] at these points.  Previously the 5630 km journey by sea from Buenos Aires to Valparaiso, around [[Cape Horn]], had taken eleven days.
-* The Chilean Transandine railway was originaly worked by [[Kitson-Meyer]] [[0-8-6-0]]s rack and adhesion locomotives, two examples of which survive in Chile.<ref>http://www.lcgb.org.uk/html/santiagomuseum.htm</ref> The line was electrified in 1927 with Swiss-built electric locomotives.
+* The Chilean Transandine railway was originaly worked by Kitson-Meyer [[0-8-6-0]]s rack and adhesion locomotives, two examples of which survive in Chile.<ref>http://www.lcgb.org.uk/html/santiagomuseum.htm</ref> The line was electrified in 1927 with Swiss-built electric locomotives.
 * A [[Cacheuta Spa|glacial flood in 1934]] destroyed 124 km of the Argentine section, which was later rebuilt.