International Railroad Discussion > Last Day on the Cubmre Loops Chile FCAB

Our Wednesday FCAB plans were to spend the entire day up on the Cumbre Loops, shooting everything that came by. While this did eliminate getting trains on the main, we had seen so many trains our previous days, we assumed we'd stiill get a lot. As it turned out, the combination of only seeing trains on the branch, and it possibly being a lighter day than normal, resulted in our only shooting three trains the whole day, and one of them in clouds. It was our first day of just hangning out and waiting for trains for extended periods. Even weirder, for a day we had dedicated to just shooting the Loops, we wound up without a single shot there. That's not a terrible thing. There's some amazing scenery all aorund the Loops too.

Despitre having been in Chile for nearly two weeks, I still had to manually reset my bearings as the sun position kept me  confused as to which way was east and which way was west. For someone who prides himself on his sense of direction, it was really disconcerting. It wasn't until I got home and started editing these shots and compared them to maps that I fully understand where I was for each image.

Our first train was a morning run to Mejillones from Bolvia with loaded cars of lead concentrate. This train was the only time we saw any of the four rebuilt Clydes (with a higher roofline and a turbo stack). We shot this in one spot and took off for the Loops, convinced we were heaing another train coming east. We sat there for a few hours not seeing anything, and eventually decided what we'd been hearing earlier was the reverberating echo of the train that went west.

Our second train was another Mejillones bound train, this from one of the mines on the Chile side. It was led by three Newfies. We went to the "other" set of horseshoe loops that are east of the famous ones (and not nearly as tight). After shooting the train there, we went off to explore farther west, and didn't manage to get that train again. Finally, we heard an eastbound and set up between Sergio Galvan and Cumbre for some mountain climbing shots of it. It was a pair of the new GT42ACs with empty flats and sulfuric acid for one of the mines. It also had a helper shoving it up to Summit. Finally,  train to chase. We shot it again east of the Loops and then at Gaviota, and then in a spot between Gaviota and Prat. While we still had one more day in Chile, that was the end of our "desert wilderness" photograpy.

Images one through three are the lead concentrate loads train cresting a hill in Cumbre. In hindsight, I wish we had chased this. (It also had a helper GT42AC on the back).





 

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Images four through six are a few hours later as we finally got our second train. These are shot not at the famous Loops, but at another pair of reserve horseshoe curves (looser than the famous pair) that are east of their more well-known brothers.

 

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Images seven and eight are of the eastbound train climbing the hill between Sergio Galvan and Cumbre. 

 

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Images nine and ten are of the eastbound train now at Gaviota.

Image eleven is the same train between Gaviota and Prat. The telephoto makes this look like much more of a grade than I remember (it's actually coming off the hill, but I guess it has a little bit of climb again here).
 

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Sure like that last picture.

Have really enjoyed your series from this very desolate place. Have not seen any vegitation in any of your shots from
the area you photographed these trains!

Thanks for posting.

Regards, Jim Evans

I know its a telephoto shot but I wonder what the grade is on that last photo.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Bob I am gonna guess  2 %.  I hope he knows.

Great pix of a truly dry landscape. 

Thanks very much for sharing these wonderful photos and the desolite area inn Chile.

Stanley Jackowski
Valrico, FL