Tourist Attraction in Salta:
Tren a las Nubes
The Train to the Clouds (or Tren de las Nubes) is an Argentine tourist railway service on the C-14 branch of the Manuel Belgrano General Railroad1 in the section that connects the Salta Station with the La Polvorilla viaduct, on the Andes Mountain Range , at more than 4220 masl (13 845 feet). The train leaves from the city of Salta, crosses the Valley of Lerma to enter the Quebrada del Toro and reach the Puna de Atacama. The name "Train to the Clouds" was born from a film made by two students from the National University of Tucumán during the first years of the 1960s, who made the Salta-Socompa section aboard the passenger train, which in those times I was traced by steam engines. The train as a ferroturistic undertaking was born at the initiative of the authorities of the General Belgrano Railroad, who in November 1971, resolved to run an experimental train with officials and journalists. On July 16, 1972, the first tourist trip of an official nature took place, remaining until 1990 in the hands of Ferrocarriles del Estado and, since 1991, in the hands of Salta's private capital. The influx of passengers was at first scarce as Salta agencies preferred to sell their own programs to tourists. Only when, in 1978, the Argentinean journalist Federico B. Kirbus published a note entitled "A las Nubes en un Tren" in the autoclub magazine of the Automobile Club Argentino, began the interest of the public for this novel tourist attraction.