| Photo Location Map |
Locomotive Details |
Location/Date of Photo |
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» Southern Peru Copper Corporation (more..)
» EMD GP40-3 (more..) |
» Ballow Siding (more..)
» Toquepala, Peru (more..)
» March 27, 2011 |
| Locomotive No./Train ID |
Photographer |
» SPCC 32 (more..)
» - (more..) |
» Jean-Marc Frybourg (more..)
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| Remarks & Notes |
Desert shunting
Desvio Km 124 Ballow, i.e. Ballow siding, is nothing more than a siding in the desert. There is no branch, no junction, no industry, nothing that justifies that a scheduled freight train stops and shunts cars there. However, about one hour before this picture was shot, the U23B leading the first of the two afternoon trains failed. With only one SD70, it did not have enough power to climb the hard grades of the Andes. So it left some of its cars in the siding. The second train took some of them and all the tank cars carrying petroleum products for the mines - probably the most needed and precious cargo on the uphill trains. As a result, the trains shunted cars in the middle of the high desert for about 1 hour. Here, we see the train #2 almost ready for departure. Because of these unexpected events, we missed the spot at km 171 that we had planned to reach for the sunset shot. About 1.5 hour behind schedule, the trains would pass that spot at night. And of course, it was our last day in the area before going back to Lima. “Pito” means whistle: the sign orders horning. |
| Community Response |
Photo Comments (1) |
| | Views: 3,659* Favorited: 9 | | Since added on July 16, 2011 | |
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