Train to the Clouds: the impossible railway that conquered the Andes and became an Argentine icon

With 1,279 curves, 21 tunnels and enormous viaducts, Argentina’s Train to the Clouds climbs to 4,475 meters above sea level. Its route brings together the scale of the Andes, deep valleys and the clear skies of the Puna with a railway line that seems to defy the terrain.

Every bend, bridge and tunnel reflects a determined effort to overcome steep gradients and geographic obstacles in one of South America’s most inhospitable regions. Today, the train runs from San Antonio de los Cobres to the celebrated La Polvorilla Viaduct.

The line was not originally conceived as a tourist attraction. Its larger ambition was to connect Argentina and Chile across the Andes. The project was first known as the Huaytiquina Railway, after the mountain pass through which the border crossing was planned. That option was definitively abandoned in 1929, and planners chose the Socompa Pass instead because of its altitude and strategic location.

In 1921, Domingo Fernández Beschtedt, administrator of the State Railways, called on U.S. engineer Ricardo Maury to design a line across Salta’s geography without using the rack railway system common on other mountain railways. The decision required new solutions for extreme changes in elevation and helped make the future C14 branch one of the continent’s major railway works.

A documentary released in 1970 popularized the route and gave it the name by which it became known. The first official tourist service began two years later, and regular service started in 1978. Writers and researchers including Federico Kirbus and Milenco Juan Jurcich later helped spread the story of the railway feat.