International Railroad Discussion > FCAB Cumbre Pass EMDs April 20 2019 morning

Our plans for Saturday April 20 were to fan the loops at Cumbre Pass in Chile in the morning and then drive to Calama to be in position to fan farther northeast the next day. Wound up with three trains going over the pass that morning and was able to get all three in some different spots. Started camped out on the Loops themselves. After about 90 minutes we got our frist train, sulfuric acid cars heading eastbound (this might be train 243). Power was a trio of GR12s. Chased that train down to Gaviota, then went searching for more trains. found a set of three Newfies heading east, so chased them back up to the Loops. From there we went back down to Gaviota to catch them again. There we found the 210 train from Minera San Cristobal in Bolivia waiting at the siding for our Newfie train. Following the meet, back up on the dirt roads towards Cumbre we headed for some angles at new locations.

Image one is the sulfuric acid train on the Loops. Images two and three are of the same train coming off the hill near Gaviota.

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/19 08:40 by erielackawanna.

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Light was good, so image four is a moving roster of the lead GR12.

Image five is back on the Loops as the Newfie train comes round.

Image six is once again in Gaviota as the Newfies come over a crest on the downgrade.

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Image seven is of the meet between the unidentified Newfie train and the 210 train.

Image eight is the 210 train from Bolivia still on the siding after the acid train has passed. Light was getting pretty toasty at this point.

Image nine is now up on the dirt road between Gaviota and Cumbre as we chase the 210 train up.

 

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Last three images are more of the 210 train headig up to the top of the pass.

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A friend's brother worked in Calama as a mining engineer. I am told that the Atacama desert is the world's driest. 

colehour Wrote:
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> A friend's brother worked in Calama as a mining
> engineer. I am told that the Atacama desert is the
> world's driest. 

Looks like the surface of Mars