THE HISTORICAL HERITAGE OF BAQUEDANO STATION
The Baquedano Station Railway Complex has an invaluable patrimonial value and despite its state of abandonment and progressive deterioration, it has been able to keep more than 100 years standing and in force until today.
Its value comes from the culture inherited from the industrial towns of the Atacama Desert, which proliferated with the advance of industrial development in the territory. A) Yes it was like creeks Inhabited by collectors from Guano and Changos, they became ports, Railway Stations such as Catalina, Baquedano, Monturaqui, El Toco, Pintados, among others, gave life to small communities that organized and lived in different industrial productive activities linked to exploitation, production , transportation and shipment of raw materials such as copper, silver and / or saltpeter.
Baquedano Station is composed of a series of buildings dating from the early twentieth century, which make up part of the primitive infrastructure of the Railway Complex, such as, the Old Power House, Power House, Old Longitudinal Railroad Station and the First Railway Workers Camp, which consisted of adobe houses like those found in the Saltpeter Offices.
The Baquedano Station Railway Complex has an inventory of railway parts and rolling stock of great historical relevance, among these we can highlight the Locomotive Type W No. 3511, which provided services on the Trasandino de los Andes Railway and was used during an official visit by Juan Domingo Perón to the country. Also among the courtyards of the Maestranza near the horizontal turntable, is the Tender that according to its numbering would correspond to the Steam Locomotive Nº 3557, baptized as Presidente RÃos and the first to be built in the Central Maestranza of San Bernardo - Chile. These and 5 other Steam Locomotives, as well as Saltpeter Cars, Cars and Wagons are declared a National Historic Monument and protected by Law 17.288 on National Monuments.
