Ferrocarril Central Andino

[David Benton]

I have fond memories of buying prickly pears in the market at La Plaz, Bolivia.

[NorthWest]

Jean-Marc Frybourg has taken some of the most spectacular photos I have seen on this line. You can see his work at
http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos. ... ||1|||||||
If the link works. I hope it does...

[David Benton]

Thank you North West, the link works for me , and the photos are incredible.

[philipmartin]

Jean-Marc Frybourg has taken some of the most spectacular photos I have seen on this line. You can see his work at
http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos. ... ||1|||||||
If the link works. I hope it does...

The link works, thank you. I will share some of these photos with a supervisor who comes from Peru when he gets back to work next week. I'v already sent him the photo below, claiming that it is on the sea side railroad I work on, for a joke. He'll get the e-mail next week

[Benny]

Thank you to NorthWest for the link.
Jean Marc Frybourg photos are fantastic, probably the best images that can be taken to Ferrocarril Central, BUT he was accompanied by railroad personnel, train crews were instructed, some special trains were made or some rare locos were put in service. It's the same as taking photos in a studio with models that put themselves as you want. Not the kind of photo I like to take. When I go to a photographic hunting there is the exciting sensation of the unespected, the thousands of things that can vary your plans (in good or bad), the research of the right place to shot, the waiting for a train that not arrives...something like sports photography. This can produce great happiness or great disappointment but in my PERSONAL idea is the essence of railroad photography intended as a leisure for fans.
All this without taking out nothing to the excellent photographic know-how of Mr Frybourg.
For a better comprehension of my point of view watch this photo that I've taken yesterday in the afternoon:

D80 539 in manovra all'ingresso del patio central.jpg (111.91 KiB) Viewed 3201 times

This is not a great shot, it was taken against the light, the loco is too much angled and there are various other defects but for me is a nice one because, hunting in a dead Sunday afternoon, I had the luck of viewing the end of a tanker in a road crossing so I shooted my minivan to pursuit it. At the entrance of the patio central I realized that it was 539, a loco of which I had not a decent image so I left my car on the road, passed guard rail and photographed before it enter. Now I have a not perfect image but better than the previous ones and I enjoyed far more than if an engineer took it outside the shed to photograph.

Ciao

[philipmartin]

FCCA passenger equipment is in Spanish colors. I don't know if that is deliberate or not, but Viva España, Arriba España!

[Benny]

Livery of the previous operator, the state owned Empresa Nacional de Ferrocarriles (ENAFER) was orange as showed in Philipmartin photo of the crossing. As the FVCA era started in 1999 I saw various images of the new corporate livery with many variants of red and yellow (position and tone), as the two locos in the last post, along with locos still wearing the old livery.
In the last years loco painting seems to be stabilized as showed in my shots apart for the two SD40-2s that are grey with respectively light blue and yellow stripes.
I never seen the coaches used for the tourist service but recent images showed them in a multi-coloured (horrible) livery.
The two special coaches Paquita and Atahualpa, that can be hired, are dark green.

Ciao

[philipmartin]

Thank you for the information, Benny. Mille grazie, to try out my meager Italian.

[philipmartin]

Jean-Marc Frybourg has taken some of the most spectacular photos I have seen on this line

There are some stupendous Andean photos, all right. I'm wondering why the terrain looks red in this photo. Is it the angle of the sun set, or is the soil actually that color, from copper content, perhaps? Mars is the red planet; it looks as though a little of it landed here.

[philipmartin]

I have fond memories of buying prickly pears in the market at La Plaz, Bolivia.

What do you do with prickly pears? I prefer the unprickly type myself.

[philipmartin]

[quote="Benny"][/quote]
I think it's a good shot. What's the guy in the red suit doing; kicking the wheels, the way you do before you buy a new car?

[David Benton]

The lady in the market cuts them open for you . They are quite small, i think I brought 5-10 at a time for a snack. It would cost 10-20 cents, I often felt a pang of guilt at paying such a low price for what was probably at least an hours work . But that was the going rate. The locals probably paid less.

[philipmartin]

The lady in the market cuts them open for you . They are quite small, i think I brought 5-10 at a time for a snack. It would cost 10-20 cents, I often felt a pang of guilt at paying such a low price for what was probably at least an hours work . But that was the going rate. The locals probably paid less.

I had the same sort of pang many years ago, getting a haircut in Scotland, and being charged a shilling, or something small.

[Benny]

Well, let's go to answer.
For philipmartin: di niente , sempre a disposizione. I've not yet gone to the high part of the line but I think terrain is reddish because of high percentage of iron; iron oxid is red and copper one greenish.
Yes, the shunter in the 539 photo wanted to buy a loco, and after kicking wheels he examined the mileage meter and the wear of the brake handle.
At every corner you can encounter people selling ready-to-eat fruits. The current price for three or four peeled prickly pears is 1 sol, approx. 0.30 US $.

Ciao

[philipmartin]

One of Jean-Marc Frybourg's photo, the Chaupichaca sign: are those bullet holes? If so, Peru and U.S. have something in common. I live in the country, and people go hunting here, and occasionally use signs for target practice. I heard rapid fire the other day, a lot faster than pulling the trigger for each shot. I wondered if I should duck.
Di niente. Is that like "de nada," a term I know?