PeruTren

Sugar Railroads north of Lima (closed)

In the present province of Barranca various railroads serving the sugar estates existed such as: Supe-San Nicolás 5 km, 1.070 gauge; Pativilca-Paramonga 7.5km, Knew-Barranca-Pativilca 11 km and Barranca-Alpas of 27 km, the last three all of 0.60m gauge, a total of 52 km. They were built between 1899 and 1913. By 1928 they were connected with the Northwest Railroad.

Playa Chica-Las Salinas Railroad (closed)

This line served the extraction of salt to the south of Huacho. It opened in 1873 and was of 1 m gauge and 10 km long. It was owned by the Pedro Martinto Co and ceased operating in 1920.

Chancay-Huaral-Estate Palpa Railroad (closed)

Connected to the Lima-Ancón-Chancay line before the war of 1879 and opened in 1875, it belonged to the Negociación Agrícola Palpa, which also operated the dock at Chancay. It was 29km long and had 1m gauge. The Chileans destroyed it, but it was reconstructed and abandoned around 1920.

Lima -Ancón-Chancay Railroad (closed)

Another very interesting railroad to study. There was a proposal in 1867 for a railroad from Lima to Huacho. The first section started operation at the beginning of 1870 between Lima and Ancón, 42km of 1.435m gauge. Waldo Graña did the work. At the end of that year the section Ancón-Chancay was opened, following a dangerous section of line at Pasamayo, which suffered from landslides. In Chancay connection was made with the line to Huaral and Palpa. The war of 1879 and nature destroyed the section Ancón-Chancay as well as the bombardment of the Chileans and a sand storm. The section Lima-Ancón, which was not affected, was from 1890 in the control of the Peruvian Corporation as a branch of the FFCC Central. In Ancón there was a branch to Arsenal of 7 km opened in 1953. It was connected in Lima to the Central Railroad by means of a bridge; remains of the pillars are still to be seen across the River Rímac that connected it with Desamparados station. Originally, that is to say before the war, the station was on the right bank of the Rímac located on Tajamar Street, today the Rímac malecón. People had access to it across a bridge called La Palma from jirón Rufino Torrico. The line followed almost the line of the present Tupac Amaru Av. and then the freeway to Ancón. It became abandoned in 1964 when the Peruvian Corporation finally suspended the traffic. There are also some pillars remaining of the bridge across the Chillón river, a tunnel that passes under the freeway to Ancón, the station in this town and some trackbed, besides the pillars across the Rímac.

Northwest Railroad of Peru (closed)

This line must not be confused with the Lima-Ancón line. Although originally they were both part of the project to unite Lima with Huacho, this railroad did not form part of the previous one. At the start of the 20th century the old idea was revived to build a railroad to Huacho. A contract with an American company, the Northwestern Railway of Peru, was signed and work started in 1909. A new line was made and the dangerous Pasamayo cliff section was abandoned, by building the line on a new route via de Pasamayo in spite of the gradient. It was arranged by Law 470 to build the line to Lima, but because of the existence of the Lima - Ancón line by means of Law 1530 this idea be modified, probably due to the Peruvian Corporation’s pressure to protect its interests. Although the Laws 2912 of 1918 and 4131 of 1920 authorized the extension of the line to Lima, this was not done. The line had a total length of 194 km, including branches, of 0.914 gauge, incompatible with that of Lima-Ancón which was 1.435m. The construction company did not comply with the time limit established in the contract and the line reverted to the State. The railroad left Ancón, where a transfer could be made with the line from Lima, followed it to Huaral with a branch to Chancay of 13 m, passed Las Salinas and arrived at Huacho. It was finished to here in December 1911. At Huacho there was another branch of 56 km to Sayán opened in 1912. From 1920 it was administered by the Peruvian Corporation. In 1928 an additional section of 46 km connected with Supe and Barranca. In this area they operated lines that served the sugar industry, such as Supe-San Nicolás, Pativilca-Paramonga and Supe-Barranca-Pativilca, which were all connected to the Northewestern line. It had 7 locomotives, 3 passenger coaches and 100 freight wagons, which brought among others things, salt to Lima. It was the only extensive railroad that ran parallel to the coast; they called it the FFCC Costero. Its main headquarters was in Huacho, also its workshops. The section Huacho-Barranca was closed in 1960 and the remainder in 1964. The rolling stock was reused on the lines from Huancayo-Huancavelica and Cuzco-Santa Ana. There exist some remains such as bridge on the River Huaura, another one on the Chancay river and the stations at Ancón, Huaura Sayan and Huacho. President Balta arranged in 1869 the construction of the Huacho-Sayán railroad as part of the one that eventually would reach Cerro de Pasco, this being the shortest route to remove the minerals from there to the sea. The project never materialised. With the money raised by the auction of the remaining material other State owned railways were improved, according to Law 15663.

Central Railroad of Peru (operating)

This remarkable line is the most important of Peru from an economic point of view. It is one of the two large railroads that exist at present in the country. It begins in Callao and is standard gauge (1.435 m) and 535 km long. It is well known as the highest railroad in the world, and at Oroya it divides toward the north and south with a series of branches. It then reaches Cerro de Pasco and Huancayo. At present it is operated by the Ferrovía Central Andina. This line originally was projected as a railroad to Oroya and the proposal for its construction dated from 1859. The contract for construction was signed in 1869, together with the railroad from Arequipa to Puno, with Henry Meiggs. On 1st January 1870 work began to build the station at Monserrate. The railroad followed the route of the River Rimac to Chosica. In August 1875 the line reached Chicla near Matucana, 142 km from Callao. There it stopped for a time due to the lack of financing and to the war with Chile. After the war the country was devastated, and there then started the gigantic task to restore it; a great deal having been destroyed by the invaders. It was impossible for the country itself to reconstruct and to extend its railroads, and Peru signed in 1889 the so-called Grace Contract with the Englishman Michael Grace, by which the means was found to repair and to complete the lines. In exchange he was to receive three million tons of guano, payments in cash and the concession of the railroads for 66 years. In 1890 Grace formed in London the Peruvian Corporation to operate the railroads for 77 years although he then had only a concession for 66. In 1891 the Corporation created 7 subsidiaries. Prior to 1890 the line was under the control of Ernesto Malinowsky, arriving at Oroya in 1893 after defeating an endless number of obstacles between all the points that it joins in central Perú. It arrived at Huancayo in 1908. It has 61 bridges and 65 tunnels, many of which are true masterpieces of construction. By Law 6281 of 1928 all the State railroads were handed over to the Peruvian Corporation in perpetuity, although they were only supposed to be leased for 66 years, according to the contracts of 1890 and 1907. The lines were: Paita-Piura, Pacasmayo-Guadalupe-Chilete, Salaverry-Trujillo-Ascope, Chimbote-Huallanca, Pisco-Ica, the FFCC South and the FFCC Central. Further information upon request.

Railroads of the Cerro de Pasco Copper Corporation (operating)

Before the creation of Centromin, the State owned National Mining Co, and nationalisation, the part of the Central railroad between Oroya and Cerro de Pasco city belonged to the Cerro de Pasco Mining Corporation, with the name of the Cerro de Pasco Railway. It arrived at Cerro de Pasco city in 1906. It is 152 km long, out of a total of 314 km controlled by the Corporation.

Mining railroad of Cerro de Pasco (removed)

This railroad provided a service to several mining businesses established in Cerro de Pasco before 1879, with a total length of 30 km of 1.076 m gauge. It did not have communication with the coast. It was completely destroyed by the Chileans. Some lines were reconstructed by the Cerro de Pasco Corporation and other businesses. It worked with two 1869 Manning Wardle locos.

Lima-Lurín Railroad (closed)

This closed railroad was part of an attempt to connect Lima with Pisco, dating from 1868. After the war with Chile the strategic need arose to enable the transportation of troops to the south of Lima to prevent or at least hinder the disembarking of an enemy army. The railroad to Lurín was the first phase of the one that would later extend to Chilca, Mala, Cañete and eventually to Pisco. The government passed laws in 1888, 1889, 1895 and 1901, but the railroad to Pisco never was built. The railroad to Lurín was started by the State in 1913 as the first section of the Lima-Chilca 75 km line. It was opened to traffic in 1918, when the fears of a new invasion had already passed. It was from 1932 administered by the Peruvian Corporation. It had its station in the jirón Amazonas near Viterbo. Its gauge was 0.914 m and its total length was 48 km. It operated at its height 2 locomotives, American built 2-8-2s. Its main traffic was the material extracted from the quarry at Atocongo and taken to the old Maravillas cement plant. Its first station could be seen until a Mayor of Lima decided to demolish it and use the land as a shopping centre. The stations at Pachacamac and at Lurín can still be seen and are converted to houses. It had 11 stations. There also remains the small bridge over the El Pino road. It stopped operating in 1963, incredibly for lack of income. If it still existed it would transport an enormous number of passengers. The same thing can be said of the line to Ancón. The money from the sale of its material was used to improve other State lines.

English railroad Lima-Callao (closed)

In order to avoiding confusion with the Central Railroad of Peru, we have called this line by the name given to it by the people of Lima. This was the first railroad that was built in Peru and the first one in South America. Its planning started in 1833 when the Government of Orbegoso published a notice in the newspaper The Conciliator (later called The Peruvian, the official gazette) calling for its construction. The only bidder was Tomás Gill. The government approved a proposal on March 20, 1834, but the work was not started. Its construction, agreed by Castilla on November 14, 1845, was the start of railroads in the country. Its plans were approved in December 1848, and a concession offered to the businessmen Pedro Gonzales Candamo and Vicente Oyague and his brother. Prisoners were used during its construction. Eleven months after they began the job, in 1850, the trains travelled through the station of San Juan, and an old church and convent were later demolished to form the present plaza San Martín station. It was one of the busiest railroads of its time, in spite of only being 14 km long, and was of 1.435m gauge. It cost 550,000 soles and produced 400,000 soles of income annually. Between 1851 and 1860 it transported a total of six million passengers, that is to say more than three times the population of the country at that time. Upon building of the plaza San Martín in the 1920s, the station was moved to San Jacinto and it became a freight railroad to Callao. The Lima Railways, formed in 1865, owned it. It had 8 stations, one of them in La Legua and two branches, one to La Punta opened in 1903 and another to Bellavista, dating from 1897. It was electrified in 1907 and disappeared at the end of 1938. The tramway inaugurated in 1904 affected it since it almost travelled the same route. In some areas of Lima Industrial Zone the remains of the line can still be seen.

Lima-La Magdalena Railroads (closed)

First railroad: Compared to the success of the railroad to Callao, the first line to La Magdalena was a failure. It opened in 1875 and was 6 km in length of 1.05m gauge, and operations were suspended in 1878. It was re-opened in 1886 but in 1899 was abandoned and remained in a deplorable state. It was the property of the Frenchmen M. Bichon and M. Guibert. Its station was in the first block of the Av. Bolivia to the side of the old Prison, now the Civic Centre of Lima. It followed the Tingo María Av, passed the plaza de la Bandera and continued to Sucre, and from there by its own track until it reached Magdalena Nueva. In 1899 its concession expired. A curious custom was the use of locomotives on Sundays and on holidays, and mules in the week, for hauling the trains.
Second railroad: In 1901 a second line was opened to La Magdalena that left from the plaza San Martín following the Quilca, Alfonso Ugarte and the Brazil Avenues. It was 5.3 km long of 1.435m gauge. The same company that operated the “English Railway” to Callao and that to Chorrillos, known as the The Lima Railways Company, operated it. It became an electric tramway in 1909.

Lima - Chorrillos Railroad (closed)

The third railroad built in Peru, after the Lima-Callao in 1851 and Tacna-Arica in 1856. It was opened in 1858 and was the second in the Capital. It was 15 km long of 1.435m gauge. They called it the “English railroad to Chorrillos”. The work was started in November 1856 and as we have mentioned in 1858 it began to run trains. The cost of the work was 350,000 soles. The contract was signed between the Peruvian State and Felipe Barreda and brothers on January 9, 1857. The first station, called Encarnación, was in the plaza San Martín on the street Pacae jirón Carabaya and was connected with the San Juan station of the line that went to Callao. As it progressed towards Chorrillos it followed the present Express Way of the Paseo de la Republica, to reach Javier Prado where it followed the Av. Republica of Panama and the street Dionisio Derteano, continued to Recavarren and again along the Paseo de la Republica to the bridge on Angamos Ave. approximately. In Miraflores there was a station and a small electric tram that went to Balta Street. At the Benavides Av. the line deviated to the area called Tejada. It crossed the plaza Balta, and then along the Av. Bolognesi. In Barranco there was another station. It entered Chorrillos by the Av. Panama, took the Calle del Ferrocarril and the Av. Alejandro Iglesias or Alfonso Ugarte to the terminus where it had its workshops. It had a branch to the estate Villa. It influenced the development of Miraflores and Barranco. It was utilized intensely for the movement of troops during the Chilean invasion of 1881. It had an annual income of 110,000 soles on average, and was therefore profitable. The electric tram began in 1904 and for some time three lines functioned simultaneously to Chorrillos - two electric trams, one of the Empresas Electricas Asociadas that operated until 1965 and another of the Compañía Nacional del Tranvia Electrico (CNTE) that worked to 1910, and the steam railroad that was electrified in 1907. It closed in the 1930s. In 1934 the Lima Light, Power & Tramway Co, a subsidiary of English Electric, became the Lima Light & Power Co and the tramway to Chorrillos was transferred to the company. The National Tramways became a separate business. In 1937 the Lima Railways sub let its Chorrillos line for 50 years to the Compañía Nacional de Tranvías or CNT.

The Decauville Railroad (closed)

During the construction of old Lima Prison, 1856-1860, by Mariano Felipe Paz Soldán there was on the site at the San Bartolomé hill a portable railroad of the “Decauville” type, of 0.60m.gauge, as used in agriculture and mineral work, for carrying material to the building site. It was also called “the train to the quarries”. The line was also employed to transfer the statue of Bolívar when this arrived from Europe in 1859 to the plaza of the same name, now the station of San Juan in the plaza San Martín.

Cañete-Cerro Azul Railroad (closed)

In 1866 Esteban Crosby obtained permission to build a line from the port of Cerro Azul to the village of Cañete. Apparently he did not complete the work and it appears the contract was annulled in 1867. In 1870 Juan Miguel Montero y Rosas was granted a permission to construct a steam railway over the same route. The privilege extended for 25 years after which the company could remain private property for 99 years and no one else would be permitted to construct a line between these two points. The Scot Henry Swayne opened this railroad in 1870 and in 1925 was 15 km long of 0.914m gauge. It served almost exclusively to assist in the agricultural production of the fertile valley, especially cotton and sugar. It was taken over by the British Sugar Company, one of whose Directors was August B. Leguía, later President of Peru. In August 1881 a Chilean column, under the command of Baeza and Sergeant Sofanor Parra used it to destroy estates and to murder Peruvians natives. It ceased operations in 1943. Until recently in Cerro Azul there could be seen the station with the remnants of the old buildings, but there was no track remaining except parts of the line on the shipping wharf.

Huancayo-Huancavelica Railroad (operating)

We return to the mountain area to study this railroad that still operates. Originally it was designed to serve Castrovirreyna and Ayacucho. It is called the Macho Train because it leaves when it wants and arrives when is able! It is one of only two railroads that are still the property of the State. It is 148 km long and had 0.914m gauge. It was begun in 1908 and opened to traffic in 1926. It was proposed to build for some kilometers towards Castrovirreyna and Ayacucho but then this was abandoned. It has two steam locomotives at Huancayo and also operates Alco diesels.

Chincha-Tambo de Mora Railroad (closed)

This line was built in 1898 and administered by the FFCC de Tambo de Mora that also administered the wharf, and was 12 km long of 1m gauge. It had a station at Sunampe. Its main station was on the street Mariscal Castilla at Chincha. It ceased operating in approximately 1940. A branch was built to Chincha Baja in 1924. It served to transport the produce from the valley to the sea, including wines and piscos (Peruvian brandy) and to bring in fertilizers.

Pisco-Ica Railroad (closed)

This railroad was started in 1861 was completed in 1871, to convey the produce of the important valley of Ica to distant markets. José Francisco Canevaro who sold it to the government built it, with the help of Malinowsky, and then it was leased to José Boza. Its main offices and workshops were in Pisco. In 1881 a Chilean garrison under the command of Colonel Leoncio Tagle invaded the valley and destroyed the railway. It was 74km long of 1.435m gauge, including a branch of 6km to Guadalupe. In 1928 the State transferred it to the Peruvian Corporation, which rented it in 1940 to a gentleman named Alvarez Calderon. Later it was decided to abandon it due to lack of traffic - this happened in 1956. Almost no trace remains of the line with the exception of the old station in Pisco. It crossed the desert by the Villacuri plains or tablazo of Ica, where is found Pozo Santo, the place in which Father Guatemala discovered water in the middle of the desert.