The Uyuni Railway Cemetery (Spanish Cementerio de (los) Trenes) on the edge of the Salar de Uyuni salt plain in Bolivia, southwest of the city of Uyuni, a few kilometers from the city center, is considered the largest railway cemetery in the world.
In 1872, construction began on the Ferrocarril de Antofagasta a Bolivia, Bolivia's first railway line. It was used to transport raw materials such as sodium nitrate and other salts, but also metals such as copper, silver and gold, from the mines in the interior of the country to the port cities on the Pacific Ocean. When the railway line reached Uyuni at the end of the 19th century, a railway depot was built in the city. Uyuni developed into an important railway junction. Around the 1940s, the local industry collapsed and most of the precious metal mines were abandoned by the operators. This meant that the supply routes built for this purpose and most of the locomotives and wagons were no longer needed, were shut down and left to decay.
There are around 100 locomotives and wagons in total in the railway cemetery, the oldest dating back to the late 19th century. In addition to corrosion (which progresses slowly thanks to the local climate) and the salt from the Salar de Uyuni, local residents also damage the vehicles by using them to obtain scrap metal. Many of the locomotives and wagons have also been covered in graffiti.
Source: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenbahnfriedhof_Uyuni

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Ado & Žana

July 12, 2023

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Elevation 3,670 m

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Thursday 25 December

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Location: Potosí, Bolivia

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