pc = postcard; col. = collection; AM = the author
Click here to return to the Cochabamba text page.

A train of trams crossing the Río Rocha on the interurban line to Quillacollo and Vinto [see map]. These may be former horsecars. Too bad the photographer didn't show us what was pulling them. [col. Renato Crespo]

The motive power for the train above was probably this steam locomotive acquired from Borsig-Werke in Berlin in 1905. It served the Quillacollo-Vinto line until the electric locomotives arrived in 1910. [col. Renato Crespo]

This electric train has just crossed the Río Rocha on the Quillacollo (not Quillacolla) interurban line [see map]. The little electric locomotive was probably built by the Arthur Koppel Co. in Berlin. [pc, col. AM]

Another view of the Quillacollo line [see map]. [col. Renato Crespo]

The view south along the east side of Plaza 14 de Septiembre [see map]. One of the passenger motor cars that Empresa de Luz y Fuerza Eléctrica de Cochabamba purchased in 1914 from Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg in Germany. At least five trailers follow. [pc, col. AM]

An engraving shows a Quillacollo train reversing direction at Plaza 14 de Septiembre [see map]. The motor car has released its trailers, will come forward, then return on the other track past the trailers, then reverse and reconnect them at the other end. [col. Renato Crespo]

One of the MAN cars with five trailers on Calle España. View is north from Plaza 14 de Septiembre [see map]. ELFEC track gauge was 750 mm (29 1/2 in). [Rodolfo Torrico Zamudio]

A motor car and six trailers cross the Río Rocha en route to Cala Cala [see map]. [Rodolfo Torrico Zamudio]

The arrival of a tram at the park in Cala Cala was always a welcome sight [see map]. [Rodolfo Torrico Zamudio]

MAN tram number 2 at Cala Cala. [Rodolfo Torrico Zamudio]

Another view at Cala Cala [see map]. This tram has a bow collector rather than a pantograph. Photographer and date unknown. [col. AM]

A car waits at Plaza 14 de Septiembre [see map]. [Rodolfo Torrico Zamudio]

A MAN tram with two trailers. Location is said to be the Bolivian Railway station [see map]. [Alarcón, Bolivia, p. 568: see BIBLIOGRAPHY]

MAN tram 2 at an unidentified location. The woman's black stockings indicate that the photograph was taken in the early 1920s. [col. Renato Crespo]

Here is a very different type of tram, numbered 5, on the north side of Plaza 14 de Septiembre [see map]. The author has no idea where ELFEC acquired this vehicle. [Rodolfo Torrico Zamudio]

A postcard mailed from La Paz to Chicago in 1919 shows the north side of Plaza 14 de Septiembre. The view is east. The passenger cars are unlike any others seen in Cochabamba and there is no evidence of motive power. Overhead wire may have been erased. [col. AM]

A MAN photograph, taken in Germany, of double-truck tram 3 that it built for Cochabamba in 1924. [MAN, col. AM]

Interior of the vehicle shown in the previous picture. [MAN, col. AM]

MAN tram 3 at its dedication in Cochabamba in 1925. [Alarcón, Bolivia, p. 984]

The Río Rocha. Are the men fishing? Walking on water? [Rodolfo Torrico Zamudio]

Cochabamba cathedral on Plaza 14 de Septiembre [see map] in 1940. View is toward the south, with the park on the right. [col. Renato Crespo]

ELFEC logo reproduced – this size – on a webpage that presents a brief history of the company.

 

Note: Getty Images in California owns a beautiful photograph of Cochabamba tram 3 (+ trailers), but wants $300 for permission to reproduce it on this page. Since the author does not like to encourage extortion, he cannot show it here. Enter "Bolivian Street Car" in its search window.