Ferronor (Empresa de Transporte Ferroviario S.A.) is a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an railway company operating on the old Red Norte (northern network) of

Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Estado Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Estado (abbreviated EFE, lit. ''State Railway Company'') is the national railway and the oldest state-run enterprise in Chile. It manages the infrastructure and operating rail services in the country. Track gauge ...

, which was privatised in 1997. Since 2004 the primary shareholder is APCO. Currently Ferronor owns a railway network of about , consisting of a main line between La Calera and

Iquique Iquique () is a port city and commune in northern Chile, capital of both the Iquique Province and Tarapacá Region. It lies on the Pacific coast, west of the Pampa del Tamarugal, which is part of the Atacama Desert. It has a population of 191,468 ...

and various spur lines. However, about 60% of the railway network are currently unused due to damage like landslides, washouts and rail theft. Ferronor mostly transports mining supplies and products. Ferronor transports 7,000,000 tonnes of

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

concentrate, 900,000 tonnes of salt, 290,000 tonnes of

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

concentrate, 530,000 tonnes of

sulfuric acid Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid ( Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen and hydrogen, with the molecular formu ...

, 230,000 tonnes of copper cathodes and 35,000 tonnes of fuel annually. Other railway operators transport 2,200,000 tonnes of freight on Ferronor lines annually.

Diego de Almagro division

The

Diego de Almagro Diego de Almagro (; – July 8, 1538), also known as El Adelantado and El Viejo, was a Spanish conquistador known for his exploits in western South America. He participated with Francisco Pizarro in the Spanish conquest of Peru. While sub ...

division connects Potrerillos (a now abandoned town and mine in the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

at , only the smelter is still in use) with Llanta (filtration plant and workshops) and Diego de Almagro, where the line connects to the Longitudinal Norte, and continues to

Chañaral Chañaral is a small coastal city and commune in the Atacama Region, Chile and capital of the Chañaral Province. It is largely unknown by tourists, who generally head straight for towns such as San Pedro de Atacama. The town has no high rise ...

and the harbor at Barquito. The Longitudinal Norte is still used from Diego de Almagro northward to connect Mina Franke. The line was built starting 1916 by the Andes Copper Mining Company to connect the Potrerillos copper mine and smelter with Pueblo Hundido (now called Diego de Almagro), where it connected to the state railway network, which continued to Chañaral. At Chañaral, a branch was built to connect the harbor at Barquito with the state railway network. Production at the mine started ten years later. The railway was subsequently used to transport supplies to Potrerillos and refined copper to the harbor at Barquito. In 1959, the

El Salvador mine El Salvador mine (The Savior) is a combined open-pit mining, open pit and underground mining (hard rock), underground copper mining, mine located in Chile and owned by the Government-owned corporation, state owned copper mining company Codelco. Th ...

opened and the mine at Potrerillos subsequently shut down, however the smelter remained in operation. Since then, the liquified ore is transported by pipeline from El Salvador to a filtration plant near Llanta, from where the dried ore concentrate is transported by railway to the Potrerillos plant. The copper refining process requires large quantities of

, which is produced on-site at Potrerillos. Potrerillos also supplies other plants with sulfuric acid, both by truck and railway. Facilities to transfer sulfuric acid from train to truck exist at Llanta and El Salado.

Vallenar division

The

Vallenar Vallenar is a city and commune in Atacama Region, Chile. It is the capital of the Huasco Province and is located in the valley of the Huasco River. Vallenar has 52,000 inhabitants. Its main activities are farming and mining. It was founded as S ...

division connects the Los Colorados iron ore mine with the harbor at

Huasco Huasco () is a Chilean city and commune, in the Huasco Province, Atacama Region. The port city of Huasco is located 50 km west of Vallenar and close to the town of ''Huasco Bajo'', which lies on the southern bank of the Huasco River and o ...

. It consists of a branch which connects the mine with the Longitudinal Norte north of Vallenar, which is then used southward to Vallenar. A further branch line then provides the link from Vallenar to Huasco.

Baquedano division

The Baquedano division used to transport natural gas via Palestina and the Socompa pass to Argentina. This traffic ceased in 2006, after two Ferronor locomotives (408 and 412) were damaged in an accident in Argentina and the Argentinian operator Belgrano Cargas initially refused to repair and return the locomotives. The locomotives have since been repaired and returned to service for Ferronor, but traffic over the Socompa pass has not been resumed to date. Ferronor also owns various steam locomotives and other historic rolling stock, which is on display in an open-air "museum" at Baquedano. However, most of the locomotives are stored outside without any protection and are in very bad condition.

Locomotives

This is an incomplete list of locomotives used by Ferronor.

Gallery

File:Ferronor GR12U 412 Montadon - Potrerillos.jpg, GR12U 412 (one of the engines involved in the 2006 Socompa pass accident) between Montadon and Potrerillos File:Ferronor GR12U Montadon - Potrerillos.jpg, GR12U climbing the grade to Potrerillos (in the background) File:Ferronor GR12U 401 Llanta filtration plant.jpg, Two GR12U shunting at the filtration plant near Llanta. The pipeline from El Salvador mine is visible on the right. File:Ferronor Museum Baquedano.jpg, Roundhouse at Baquedano

References

External links

* {{in lang, es Railway companies of Chile