THE author has compiled a superb set of images from his travels in South America in the 1960s, mainly looking for steam but fortunately not ignoring the more modern (but now largely vanished) early diesel and electric locos.
The book starts, alphabetically, in Argentina, with two early English Electric diesels appearing in the first images, although steam from multiple British and international builders predominates the next pages, divided into five chapters. Bolivia and Brazil feature in the next five chapters, with one depicting the amazing funicular operation of the broad-gauge line to the port of Santos, which used steam locos as well as the funicular cable! The line still exists but was converted to the slightly more conventional Abt rack system by 1982. Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay follow, with pictures of steam in action in all the countries, although by the late 1960s, modern American-built diesels were already common in Peru and Uruguay. Some excellent colour pictures of these locos when relatively new are included, as are very rare pictures of Swiss-built electric locos at work on the sadly now-closed line over the Andes between Santiago, Chile and Mendoza in Argentina.