See also San Bernardo Workshops
1923 Report of the Chilean State Railways - Institution of Locomotive Engineers
The Chilian Railways had, in their first years, development, the first enterprises being private ones, there was established in 1849 the constructing company of the mineral railway from Copiapo to the port of Caldera with a length of 0.81 kilometres. The line was handed over to public traffic in January, 1852, it being the first railway work of any importance constructed, not only in Chile but in the whole of South America.
Parallel with the development of the mineral lines in the North Zone, railways were laid in the agricultural zone from Valparaiso to the South. By private enterprise - especially of the American engineer, Guillermo Wheelwright, the constructor of the railway from Copiapo to Caldera - in 1842 the first studies of the railway from Valparaiso to Santiago were made: and in 1849 the project of construction was sanctioned by the law of the Republic.
In 1852, with private and Chilian capital, the construction company was formed, the work being started the same year, and the first section was opened for traffic in April of 1855. Owing to financial difficulties of the construction company the Chilian Government acquired all the shares, taking upon itself the continuation of the work and the operation of the part already constructed. In 1863 Santiago and Valparaiso were definitely joined by a railway, built and operated by the State.
The railway from Santiago to the South, initiated, constructed and operated by a Chilian company on the section from Santiago to Curico (185 kilometres), passed finally into the hands of the State in 1873, the extension of the line from Curico to the South being continued immediately.
The acquisition and operation by the State of the Railways of Santiago to Valparaiso and of Santiago to the South clearly defined the zones of State influence and of private influence in the construction of railways. To private enterprise belonged the railways of the North, laid in the mining and saltpetre zones, the intense and valuable productions of which assured profit from the very first. To the State corresponded the construction of railways firstly in the agricultural zone and afterwards in the unpopulated forest zone. The private railways were thus of a commercial nature. The State Railways, commercial whilst they were extended through the agricultural region of the country, became, as they were continued towards the South, cultural or colonial railways.
The Private Railways.
We have already seen that the first Chilian railways were private enterprises, and these enterprises could be kept up only in the mining and saltpetre zones of intense and valuable production. These railways remained operated by private enterprise only as long as there existed a prosperous industrial life to give them traffic.
At the present time, because of the crisis in the operation of the mines, all the financially unsuccessful private railways have passed into the hands of the State. Private management is maintained to-day only on the saltpetre railways. Lately there have also been established private railways in the coal zones of the South.
To date, the principal private railways (of more than 100 kilometres of line) are the following :—
- Junin Railway ... 119Km. (2ft. 6in.)
- Caleta Buena to Agua Santa Railway... 117Km. (3 ft. 6in.)
- Iquique to Pisagua Railway... 553Km. (4ft. 8.5in.)
- Tocopilla to the Toco Railway... 152Km. (3ft. 6in.)
- Antofagasta to Bolivia Railway... 894Km. (2ft. 6in.)
- Aguas Blancas Railway... 209Km. 0.762 (2ft. 6in.)
- Taltal Railway... 289Km. 1.067 (3ft. 6in.)
- Carrizal Railway... 191Km. 1.270 (4ft. 2in.)
- Other Railways of less than 100 klms.
The State Railways.
The State Railways of Chile, because of their extension and situation, constitute the transport system of greatest importance in the whole of the territory. On the other hand, being constructed not in view of any local or immediate interests but in accordance with the great ideals' of administrative, cultural and economic cohesion in the whole nation, they are bound in time, by force of circumstances, to absorb all the private railways in the country. This tendency is easily proved by following the comparative growths of the private railways and of the State Railways.
The Chilian State Railways form three principal systems :—
- 1. Arica to La Paz System.
- 2. Northern System.
- 3. Southern System.
The Arica to La Paz System in its Chilian section, has 206 km. of metre gauge. It is administered directly by the Government of Chile, which appoints a General Manager who is over both the Chilian and Bolivian sections.
The Northern System has 1,726 km. of metre gauge and will shortly have 2,439 km. when the 713 km. now operated temporarily by ‘‘The Chilian Northern Railway” have been handed over.
The Southern System has 2,635 of 1.676 m. gauge and comprises the lines from Valparaiso to Santiago and Puerto Montt.
Both systems, the North and the South, constitute the Company of the State Railways, a powerful autonomous corporation which is administered, according to the 1914 law, by an Administrative Council of six members...