railbus in Bolivia, South America

[cultrevolutioner]

a very necessary service is this "ferrobus" as people called in Bolivia, connect little villages in the high Andes mountains and is the only way to go to the major cities there

 

[Bill Anderson]

Some of those tracks look a little sketchy, but it still looks safer than the infamous "Road of Death."

 

[cultrevolutioner]

Some of those tracks look a little sketchy, but it still looks safer than the infamous "Road of Death."

that´s for sure, but these tracks in that shape can be used for that railbus only, not real trains allowed

 

[Bill Anderson]

Are steam locomotives still in use? On the left side of the screen at the 0:58 mark in the first video there is something that looks like a standpipe for filling the tenders of steam locomotives with water To the right of the ferrobus at that same mark is a large black piece of equipment that might be a steam locomotive, I can't tell from the angle.

Do you know the highest elevation of the ferrobus's route? The station sign at Potosi reads elevation 3,904.58 meters (over 10,000 feet in our outdated US sysytem) and I'm sure the ferrobus must reach even higher elevations on its trip through the mountains.

Thanks for posting these videos. I have had a certain fascination with the Andes since I was a little kid in the 1950's looking through my grandparents' National Geographic magazines. I have a book which shows some very interesting railroad lines through the Andes back in the 60's and 70's.

 

[cultrevolutioner]

Are steam locomotives still in use? On the left side of the screen at the 0:58 mark in the first video there is something that looks like a standpipe for filling the tenders of steam locomotives with water To the right of the ferrobus at that same mark is a large black piece of equipment that might be a steam locomotive, I can't tell from the angle.

Do you know the highest elevation of the ferrobus's route? The station sign at Potosi reads elevation 3,904.58 meters (over 10,000 feet in our outdated US sysytem) and I'm sure the ferrobus must reach even higher elevations on its trip through the mountains.

Thanks for posting these videos. I have had a certain fascination with the Andes since I was a little kid in the 1950's looking through my grandparents' National Geographic magazines. I have a book which shows some very interesting railroad lines through the Andes back in the 60's and 70's.

there are not steam in use not even turistic ones in Bolivia, the locomotive that you saw at the video is an old Garrat with frontal tender, i´m not sure about the altitude but i´m pretty sure that Potosi is the highest in this route, and all the railway sistem in the andean countries are interesting no matter that most of them are inactive deactived, is crazy to see how people managed to construct the line all over those sites