UYUNI – Bolivia’s train cemetery
Follow me, o reader, as we wander into one of the most bizarre landscapes this planet has to offer. This is a train cemetery located a few kilometers outside of Uyuni, a smallish city in the south of Bolivia.
The setting is wide open spaces, deep blue skies and clouds rolling in and out faster than wild horses, ever changing the colors and the contrasts. Young couples come here to find a little privacy away from peering eyes. Small groups of people play the most classic of games: hide and seek. Children of all ages clamber up, down, into and out of these hundreds of rusting locomotives and cars, many of which are well over 100 years old.
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A young Bolivian couple stands on top of an ancient locomotive’s tender.
Some of the scrap metal has been cut away for reuse, but most still remains.
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Some bits of the railroad leading to the cemetery still employ wooden ties between the rails.
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Man playing hide-and-seek. The hiding is easier than the seeking, here.
“No” painted in yellow letters means the particular car or locomotive did not clear it’s last inspection.
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The wider picture. This sad, litter-strewn landscape is what the train cemetery looks like from just a few steps away.
The outskirts of Uyuni. Although still technically active, this railway sees such little traffic that people ordinarily walk along the rails.
Alessandro Ciapanna
Great point of view, curios place
Thanks. And yes, definitely an unusual place
Very nice series of pictures – like these a lot !
I’m glad you do. Thanks for the comment!
I’ve never seen anything like this graveyard. Nicely done.
Until I was there, neither had I. I just had to stay for three full days, just to shoot it right.
Thanks
As always, a fantastic series with a story behind!!!! Great, Alessandro!!!
Thanks, Santi. I’m sure if those old trains could talk, they could tell stories of armed robbers on horseback…
Love it! I love the colors, the sky flattered your images
Thank you. In the three days I was there, the weather went through the whole gamut from cloudless to pouring rain…
Lady luck shined down on you that day!
really cool series. very hard to find places like that in this days!!! well done !!!
Thanks, Pawel.
It was like a little wonderland. And given it’s location in the middle of a dry desert, it will take a long long time for those trains to weather away. At least i hope so…
Great photo shoot, Alessandro. What a place to visit. And what a place to photograph! Abandoned, broken, rusted, ruined, dirty ……… places – there is something fascinating and beautiful about these places.
And your photos – are always fascinating and exciting!
Thank you Truels.
Most people visit for half an hour and then leave. I found it so fascintating that i spent three days there…
I hope I’ll get there once too – I will stay 3 days too!
PS – I will put you on my blogroll – so even more people may benefit and get inspiration from all your great photos
What wonderful pictures. You should get these published. Very beautiful and a lovely glimpse upon another world. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you very much. It is my great pleasure and privilege to share the wonders i have been so lucky to have seen.
Sorry for the trains, I love trains. But a very good series, Alessandro. Even with this very strange subject like this, you do very interesting and inspiring work. Favorite (among many), the tracks ending (nr 13).
A little sad yes. But it helps to put things in proper perspective, like a visit to a graveyard might.
Actually, i find that very strange subjects are often the easiest ones to make interesting photographs with. Thank you very much, Bente.
Another great series, colors are just great, you had a beautiful sky. When was it? What did you shoot with?
Thank you.
It was early january, in the middle of a freezing cold Bolivian summer. Camera used was a dslr with standard zoom lens.
This is incredibly cool, and sad at the same time. What an interesting landscape and your image are so great, Alessandro.
Fascinating, rusty bone-yard…
Thank you, Karen. (bones – love that!)
Being there really was an other-worldly experience.
These are the kind of posts I love love love! Thanks for sharing this. I could wander here for hours.
Thanks, Ann.
It took days before i’d had enough of this place…
This is fascinating! Thanks for sharing, great photos.
And thank you for the comment, Jeremy
Rest in peace!
Rust in peace
Good one!
Loved the train cemetary, too. Advice for future tourists: do not include it in your guided tour if you want to get the most out of it. Do it on your own, hire a taxi to get there (you even might be able to walk over) and spend as much time as you like.
So true. Most tours either start or end in Uyuni, so it’s no problem to tack on an extra day or two for solo exploration.
Thank you
Interesting digital pictures in a somewhat morbid way? http://www.segmation.wordpress.com
That is a good question, segmation.
Beautiful pictures!
Thank you, Charlie
Congrats for being freshly pressed again, Italian celebrity in the blogosphere!!!
Thanks, Covetotop. Not really sure what it depends upon, but i’m not complaining
It’s sad to see a Beyer Garratt in that state (Hide & Seek) they should get it going for a challenge, could be a real money spinner offering rides on it
Thanks for naming that locomotive, rich1698. I googled it and now i know for sure: the man is standing on the water tank that actually rode ahead of the locomotive – unique design. It is one beautiful, beautiful piece of machinery.
Very, very nice!
Thank you, Christina
Incredible. Glad you put in the trash photo, not that many people would. There’s a train cemetery much bigger than this one outside Scranton, PA.
Thank you. Sometimes an extra picture or two (the last two, in this case) can help make better sense of the larger photo essay. Are you allowed into the train cemetery in Scranton or is it cordoned/fenced off?
I think there was a fence. I’m sure we weren’t allowed : )
Things might have changed, that was a few years ago. Unfortunately I’ve no pictures to show for it. Great work!
I’m wishing you would write about Bolivia. I haven’t had the pleasure of visiting.
I used to be a writer, but i’m trying to quit. Now i’d rather be photographing a train graveyard than staring at a computer screen longer than i already do. Thank you very much, bravesmartbold.
Love the picture’s…
Thanks, viking Mike
Nice pictures. A great place to explore. I am sure that it is also beautiful as the sun goes down and you start getting great silhouettes. I can just imagine a sunset behind some of these.
True, but i didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of sticking around until then, because i would have had to wander around the desert in the dark to get home.
Thank you.
So cool! I especially like the young couple standing on top of the train–the contrast of old/new, the eerie romanticism. And wow those powerful clouds could knock you right over
Thank you Tassos. The original plan was to convert these to black-and-white. But then i saw the colors…
A startling place! Lots of memories there, it feels like. Is this an unintended attraction, an abandoned, forgotten old site or a museum of sorts?
Bit of all, really. It’s just basically a junkyard, but it’s huge.
Memories… you know for sure that some these trains have been robbed time and time again by armed, bandanna-clad men on horseback…
I can’t say why, but I like the photos.
I can’t say why, either, but i’m glad that you do.
These are beautiful. I enjoy the look of the rust against the sky.
Rust is one of photographers’ best friends: it never lets you down
Hauntingly decaying images. Well done. I would be afraid of falling through the rusted metal.
Haha! Yes, this place is potentially quite dangerous. But i think the main drawback is all the asbestos you breathe there, as it used to be employed copiously in old locomotives…
so worthy of being freshly pressed
WordPress is to thank for that. Very glad you liked this – thanks
liked and commented too
What a great movie backdrop. I am sure there are amazing stories hidden in the bones of those trains.
Itg really would be. Thanks for the comment!
I love these photos. I was there a few years ago, it’s such a stunning part of the world.
Great post!
Thank you. I’m sure it doesn’t change much over time…
Great pictures!
Thanks, ifightforgod. Declining eyesight:at first i read: “iforgotipod”…
Hope God wins
haha thank you as well
Whatf anatastic pictures. I went there a few years ago, it really was a strange place. My photos weren’t as good as yours though! Well done on FP!
Thanks Mummy!
The crazier the setting, the crazier the (photo) stories… Very glad you enjoyed
Awesome pictures of an awesome place. Fantastic for many, many reasons – the shapes into which those locomotives collapse and decay, the colours and the settings, emblematic of lost rail glories and the relentless passage of time. Thank you so much for sharing!
My friend, thanks for such a heartwarming comment.
The sharing is the easiest, and most enjoyable part. The harder part is hauling one’s camera all the way out there. But hard though it may be, i just love a challenge…
Amazing pictures, very enjoyable and unique! I visited The Atacama Desert last week but I never thought of visiting Uyuni. I will try to go back during the Chilean summer.. Congratulation on the Freshly Pressed!
Thank you, Cheryl! Sometimes i’m good, but most of the times it’s just plain luck…
Really hope you make it back in good light and weather
Awesome taste of the cemetery there! I’m en route to Bolivia and will most likely get to play with the ghost trains as you have. Congrats on being freshly pressed, good luck with the email bomb!
Oh, you will so enjoy it…
Thank you very much!
SAD BUT INTERESTING—THANKS FOR SHARING WITH US! I write poetry about trains, etc. Most recently on PRIVATE RAILWAYS….come see! I’ll consider a poem or two on this subject…give me a few days. http://www.ourpoetrycorner.wordpress.com.
Thank you, Jonathan. My thoughts exactly: a little sad – there is a great wealth there that could be properly recycled, and some of it could be made into a proper museum – but incredibly interesting.
Looking forward to your poetry
Reblogged this on bellakatdotme.
Thanks for the reblog
This is fascinating! Thanks for sharing, great photos
Thank you very much
Nice fotos. I was there in ’04. Really interesting place. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you. I’m pretty sure it has not changed much since then…
Beautifully haunting and desolute. Thanks for posting this fascinating photographic journey.
Thank you very much – I appreciate the comment
What a beautiful and haunting place. Such vivid colors.
Thank you. It really is a unique location…
Very nice photography.
Thank you, Alv
Amazing photos. Thanks for sharing.
I’m glad you enjoyed them. Thanks for the comment!
Preciosas fotografías Alesandro!
Gracias, Manoli
you made great use of the subject matter here…
Thank you. I spent a few days on this project
Well, the hard work proved worthwhile; I’m sure you had many choices to make.
Wow. This place is a treasure trove of great photo-opportunities and you made full use of them. Striking photography
Thank you, Face – glad you like them
The only other real tourist attraction of Uyuni is the Cementerio de Trenes (Train Cemetery), a large collection of historic steam locomotives and rail cars, which are decaying in the yards about 3km southwest of the station along Av Ferroviaria. There have long been plans to turn the collection into a railway museum, but that seems a pipe dream and they will most likely just keep on rusting. Many tours visit the train cemetery as a first or last stop on the three-day salar circuit.
Thank you
Alessandro
What a terrifically unexpected post. I begli scheletri di treno.
Scheletri – esatto! Exactly what i thought as i tread that odd ground…
Thank you, Hattie.
i have a passion for train photography; your set of photos are the best i’ve seen in years.
I thank you dearly, Chuck. Much of what i love conspired here: things mechanical, rust, decay, history, light, setting… It was like being a kid in a playground
magnificent
Thank you
repetition of alliteration is not my thing, but your work is absolute inspiration for us mortal beings!!!
do you think I should stick to photography or try my hand at poetry! 
You should post in color more often…seriously!
Thanks for the tip – more color combos coming…
can’t wait!