| Driving toward the Arica Railway Station in Chile | | | | and by the Linke Hoffman Company in Germany. |
| on a swelteringly hot summer morning, I caught | | | | Eleven rail cars had comprised the fleet by 1939. |
| glimpse of the wooden, 60-year-old, English-built | | | | Having been administered by Enafur, the |
| sentinel car, registered 0261 and painted a bright | | | | Ferrocarril Tacna-Arica had been passed on to |
| orange and yellow, on display, making my way up | | | | Enapu and ultimately the regional government of |
| the few stairs and crossing through the building to | | | | Tacna, the Arica railway workshops having been |
| the platform, where I awaited the day's first | | | | relocated to this terminus and ownership of the |
| departure of the Ferrocarril Tacna-Arica Railway, | | | | Chilean section of track having been retained by |
| scheduled to leave at 0935 for its trek across the | | | | Peru at this time. |
| border, by means of the vast expanses of the | | | | Although earthquakes and floods had destroyed |
| Atacama Desert, to Tacna, Peru. A tour bus, | | | | part of the line in 2001, its reconstruction, coupled |
| intermittently stopping in front of the station, | | | | with persistence, had enabled it to celebrate its |
| disgorged some two dozen passengers who had | | | | 150-year anniversary in 2006. |
| equally scampered through the depot and | | | | The rising dust tornado, revealing the |
| immediately infiltrated the singular, stationary, | | | | sun-glistening rails the single car had just cleared, |
| museum-like car. Raising an arm and about to | | | | continued to trail it. Flat expanses of brown dust |
| inquire if the group had been awaiting the morning | | | | stretched to the tan-shaded, wave-like silhouettes |
| train to Peru, a nameless face audibly corrected | | | | of the Cerro Cabeza out the right windows. A |
| my thoughts with an exclamation. "This is it!" it | | | | man stranded here, on the other side of the |
| had shouted. | | | | single coach's green, paint-peeling walls, would |
| In disbelief, I climbed the few steps into the | | | | assuredly cause him to hallucinate those |
| wooden relic, fully expected it to remain | | | | silhouettes into waves of water, I had thought. |
| stationary and silent, yet the "engineer" entered | | | | Lurching on its lateral axis, the coach, still vibrating |
| his own forward, side door, inserted a key, and | | | | from its retrofitted diesel engine and clacking as |
| the car's deep, throaty, diesel engine pinnacled into | | | | its wheels rode the sometimes-disappearing rails, |
| chassis-vibrating life. "Through the Atacama | | | | crossed the Chilean-Peruvian border, marked by a |
| Desert in this," I thought? | | | | short obelisk, at 1000. The hot, dry wind carried |
| Initiating momentum and inching past the platform | | | | not welcomed breezes through the opened |
| on the single track before my thoughts could run | | | | windows, but parching steams of sand instead. |
| to the end of theirs, this moving, autonomous | | | | Passengers, negotiating the cramped car, which |
| coach would serve as both transportation and | | | | had featured a four-abreast, face-to-face |
| protection, as both engine and rail car. Paralleling | | | | configuration of bench seats, gathered in the |
| the sand-lined Pacific beneath the sky, which had | | | | yellow-painted, mid-vestibule whose sliding doors |
| worn its flawlessly-blue morning ensemble, the | | | | had provided egress on either side. |
| coach followed the dust-imbedded track past the | | | | The track, along with the Atacama Desert which |
| Arica suburbs characterized by their modern, | | | | had supported it, seemed to stretch into dry |
| low-rise apartments, behind which rose the soft, | | | | infinity in front of the train. |
| wave-like, tan and brown mountain silhouettes of | | | | Stretching, in fact, 600 to 700 miles from north |
| the Andean foothills, which had been as dry as | | | | to south, between the Loa River and the |
| dust and devoid of a single green sprout of | | | | mountains which separated the Salado-Copiapo |
| vegetation. | | | | drainage basin, it extended as far as Peru's north |
| Seemingly trackless, the wagon, built up of | | | | border and had been flanked by the Cordillera |
| vertical wooden planks and a slightly arched ceiling, | | | | Domeyko in the east and the Cordillera de la |
| penetrated the dirt-buried rails periodically flanked | | | | Costa in the west. Comprised of pebble and sand, |
| by small heaps of rock and sand, on the fringes | | | | alluvial accumulations in the east and salt pans at |
| of the Atacama Desert, the dust filtering through | | | | the foot of the coastal mountains in the west, it |
| the open windows and leaving the eyes stung and | | | | contained the 3,000-foot Tamarugal Plain, itself |
| the mouth immersed in sand. Behind, in its wake, | | | | formed by a raised depression running from north |
| rose mini-dust tornadoes and the just-covered | | | | to south. A part of the continent's arid shoreline, |
| track, stretching to its origin, somehow symbolic | | | | the desert had been created by the permanent |
| of the railroad's history, which had equally | | | | South Pacific high pressure cell which had rendered |
| stretched to its origin. | | | | it one of the world's driest locations, resulting in an |
| Peru's only international rail line, and the second to | | | | average rainfall of two to four times per century. |
| have been constructed here, the Ferrocarril | | | | Now approaching Tacna, the rail car veritably |
| Tacna-Arica traces its origin to December 16, | | | | entered an oasis in the desert. The Caplina |
| 1851, when a decree, authorizing the construction | | | | River-irrigated valley, lining either side of the |
| of a railroad, had led to a contract, awarded to | | | | hitherto dusty track, had revealed lush greenery, |
| John Hegan on August 6 of the following year. It | | | | which supported the growth of figs, olives, |
| had stipulated the import of 400 Chinese workers, | | | | grapes, pomegranates, and prickly pears. |
| usage of standard rail gauge, the establishment of | | | | Tiny, cement block squares, beyond the greenery |
| minimum tariffs, and the transfer of rights to a | | | | and no larger than tool sheds, marked the |
| third party. Hegan, granted a two million Peruvian | | | | Peruvians' individual land claims, location of their |
| peso advance for the project, had been required | | | | future residences, while even earlier claims had |
| to repay it within a three-year period at a | | | | been designated by sheer lines traced in the |
| 4.5-percent interest rate. | | | | desert, marks representing the foundations of |
| The line, completed in 1855, had stretched 62 | | | | future dwellings. To the left of the track, even |
| kilometers at a 1.455-millimeter gauge, | | | | electricity lines had risen from the dust, indicating |
| constructed of 60 pounds-per-yard of rail | | | | initial fringes of civilization. |
| fastened to quebracho wood ties, and had | | | | As the train continued its journey, yet a third |
| encompassed the six stations of Tacna, Kilometro | | | | stage of structural progress had been prevalent: |
| 42, Hospicio, Escritos, Chacalluta, and Arica, and | | | | desert lines had supported concrete walls and |
| had traversed five bridges. A 3.8-percent grade | | | | these had been covered with bricks, yet not a |
| had been maintained between Magullo and Tacna. | | | | single human had dwelled in any of these pending, |
| Trial service of the "Empresa del Ferrocarril | | | | still roofless buildings. It had seemed as if the vast |
| Tacna-Arica FCTA," or "Arica and Tacna Railway | | | | expanses had sprouted a soulless, still-uninhabited |
| Company," had commenced on December 25, | | | | city. |
| 1855, while scheduled passenger service had been | | | | Sandwiched between modern, dual-lane roads |
| inaugurated two years later, on January 1, 1857, | | | | forming Avenida Cuzco, the track, thresholding |
| with a fleet of five 4-4-0 R & W Hawthorn | | | | Tacna, penetrated the city, its buildings becoming |
| locomotives numbered 869 to 873, thus beginning | | | | commercial and toting their purposes with signs, |
| its contractual 99-year period. | | | | with each clack of the car's wheels. |
| Because initial passenger and freight volume had | | | | Piercing the silence with its horn as it announced |
| failed to generate sufficient revenue, their tariffs, | | | | its arrival from Chile, the Ferrocarril Tacna-Arica |
| attempting to stimulate traffic, had been halved in | | | | engine-coach threaded its way past palm |
| 1859. | | | | tree-lined strips of manicured grass and fieldstone |
| Although President Balta-mandated studies to | | | | sidewalks, while cars and taxis, paralleling its path, |
| extend the line to La Paz, Bolivia, would have | | | | moved within arm's reach on either side. The |
| been instrumental in troop transport during the | | | | spires of the cathedral, rising from the Plaza de |
| War of the Pacific, the project had never | | | | Armas, loomed in the distance. |
| materialized. | | | | Inching through the clock tower-supported gate, |
| Two other developments had been considered: a | | | | the single, orange-and-yellow wagon screeched to |
| 478-kilometer, eastward extension, contemplated | | | | a halt on the copper-colored rails which had |
| in 1904, would also have taken the line to La Paz, | | | | multiplied into many and had cradled the steam |
| while a 278-kilometer southward extension, from | | | | engines, wooden coaches, and freight cars |
| Arica to Zapiga, would have connected it to the | | | | displayed by the Tacna Railroad Museum, rolling |
| Chilean railway system, but Chile's then current | | | | stock which had been instrumental in the |
| occupation of the territory had otherwise | | | | Ferrocarril Tacna-Arica's early history. |
| deterred both efforts. | | | | Descending the three, steep steps to the |
| Several additional steam locomotives had been | | | | platform of the 1856 station, I glanced at the |
| instrumental in maintaining service, inclusive of | | | | track leading through the clock tower gate |
| both a Morro and a Tacura 2-6-0 Rogers and | | | | toward the city and stretching through the |
| later-model 4-4-0 Hawthorns, all doing so during | | | | sometimes buried no-man's land of the Atacama |
| the latter part of the 1800s. Early-1900's | | | | Desert, across the border to Chile, and to its |
| equipment had included 2-4-0 and 2-6-0 Baldwins | | | | Arica origin, and somehow realized that it had |
| of 1908, a 0-4-0 Kerr Stuart of 1911, and a C-C | | | | connected me, two countries, and a |
| Alco Diesel of 1958, equipment built both locally | | | | century-and-a-half of history, all in a single day. |