Malinowski - creator of the highest railways in the world Peru Andes

Prince 15 | 590

5 Jan 2009 / #1

poland.gov.pl/Ernest,Malinowski:,railroad,in,the,clouds,1981.html]

Polish engineer, Ernest Malinowski (1808 - 1899), was the originator and builder of the highest altitude railroad in the world. After the fall of the November Uprising (1830) he left for France, where he graduated from the elite Ecole des Ponts et des Chaussees and subsequently, in 1852, moved to Peru as an expert in the field of railroad construction.

Ernest Malinowski is regarded as a national hero in Peru. His achievement is immortalized by a monument on the Ticlio Pass.

Malinowski is among the most distinguished engineers, railway second half of the XIX century. Recorded in history as the creator of the highest railways in the world Peru Andes, then recognized as a miracle of technology, and as a pioneer in solving theoretical problems of the construction of bridges and tunnels

SeanBM 34 | 5781

5 Jan 2009 / #2

Polish engineer, Ernest Malinowski (1808 - 1899), was the originator and builder of the highest altitude railroad in the world.

I was on part of it :)
The Devil's Nose in Ecuador.
Would you like to see photos?, I have many.
We rode on top of the train, on the roof, it was one of many things I had always wanted to do, ride on top of a train, funnily enough I could not do it in SouthAfrica or Nepal.

And Ernest Malinowski is well know for this amazing engineering feat.
I remember reading about how it was built, very difficult for sure.

Lima to Huancayo Train Journey

OP Prince 15 | 590

5 Jan 2009 / #3

Would you like to see photos?, I have many.

Sure :)

by the way ... there is another famous Malinowski.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronisław_Malinowski

Bronisław Kasper Malinowski (IPA: [ˌmaliˈnɔfski]; April 7, 1884 - May 16, 1942) was a Polish anthropologist widely considered to be one of the most important anthropologists of the twentieth century because of his pioneering work on ethnographic fieldwork, with which he also gave a major contribution to the study of Melanesia, and the study of reciprocity.

The First World War had broken out, and, as a Pole from Austria-Hungary in a British controlled area, Australian authorities gave him two options, to be exiled to the Trobriand islands or face internment for the duration of the war. Malinowski chose the Trobriand islands. It was during this period that he conducted his fieldwork on Kula and produced his theories of Participant observation, which are now key to anthropological methodology.

Apart from fieldwork, Malinowski also challenged common western views such as Freud's Oedipus complex and their claim for universality. He initiated a cross-cultural approach in Sex and Repression in Savage Society (1927) where he demonstrated that the complex was not universal.

;)

He stated that the goal of the anthropologist, or ethnographer, is:

to grasp the native's point of view, his relation to life, to realize his vision of his world.

-Argonauts of the Western Pacific, Dutton 1961 edition, p. 25.

SeanBM 34 | 5781

5 Jan 2009 / #4

Sure :)

Ecuador is not a very rich country and this train breaks down a lot, it is common for it to derail.
It did break down once but it was due to a flat battery, you can see the crowd of men trying to "fix the problem" in the third photo :)

The amazing part of this journey was that the train Zig-Zaged up the steep incline of the mountains.
To do this it drove up on one set of tracks and when it was fully on them it reversed up another set of track lines and slowly but surely, up the mountain we went.

Quite amazing really when you think about what they pysically and mentally had to do to make this feat come true.

PICT0077_1.JPG
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SeanBM 34 | 5781

5 Jan 2009 / #5

I don't know if this is anything but at the Riobamba train station in Ecuador, sitting stationary was this train.
It looks like one of the originals from way back when, i have looked for more information on it but I can't find anything.

PICT00034_1.JPG

OP Prince 15 | 590

5 Jan 2009 / #6

great pictures

plk123 8 | 4119

5 Jan 2009 / #7

cool stuff prince £. sean too.

SeanBM 34 | 5781

6 Jan 2009 / #8

I find it terribly difficult to get perspective when photographing mountains, because you have no real good reference point.
But these are huge mountains and it would be a struggle to achieve this with modern day technology. Urbina at a staggering 3604 meters is the highest point of this route, now consider that Lima is 100 meters above sea level.

The Devil's nose is an almost perpendicular wall of rock. Many people must have died building this.

But i am having problems acquiring the correct information, such as a map of the railway system on the net.

OP Prince 15 | 590

6 Jan 2009 / #9

But i am having problems acquiring the correct information, such as a map of the railway system on the net.

I think it is their railways sytem but I am not sure.

mep peru

SeanBM 34 | 5781

6 Jan 2009 / #10

I was in Lima too but not on the train.
What this map does not show at all is that Lima is very close to sea level (100) metres or so and the train reaches heights of up to 4,818 meters (15,806 ft).

That for me is the incredible part.

Railroad in the clouds
poland.gov.pl/Ernest,Malinowski:,railroad,in,the,clouds,1981.html

I think I may have been wrong about Ernest Malinowski having been the was the originator and builder of the Devil's Nose.
I was looking at the "the great south American railroad" that is now destroyed, which the Devil's Nose formed part of.
But i can't find suitable maps and info about it, sorry about that.

But something for sure is the map and data you have provided Prince and the part about What this map does not show at all is that Lima is very close to sea level (100) metres or so and the train reaches heights of up to 4,818 meters (15,806 ft).

Well I suppose it gives a better idea of what Ernest Malinowski had to do.