The Tramways of

AREQUIPA, PERU
An Illustrated History
by
Allen Morrison
Arequipa is located 1,000 km
southeast of Lima, about 100
km inland and 200 km from
Peru's borders with Bolivia
and Chile. At 2,300 m altitude,
the city has a year-round
springlike climate.
Snowcapped peaks of the
Andes loom nearby: El Misti
reaches 5,800 m, Chachani
6,075 m. Arequipa was the
second city in Peru to have a
tramway system.
The steam railroad between
Arequipa and the port of
Mollendo opened in 1871. Its
construction was supervised by
the California engineer Henry
Meiggs, who seems also to
have been involved with the
organization of the Ferro-
Carril Urbano de Arequipa.
About 1873 FCUA ordered an
assortment of trams from the
John Stephenson Co. in New
York, including the passenger
model shown below. The
photograph was taken in 1874
at Stephenson's factory on East
27th Street in New York [col.
Museum of the City of New
York]:

FCUA opened its first line on

14 March 1875, eleven years
after Peru's first tramway in
Callao and three years before
the first line in Lima [see The
Tramways of Lima]. Not much
is known about the city's
tramway operation during the
 next three decades. The
postcard below shows a
variety of cars at the railroad
station about 1900 [see map]
[col. AM]:

A local resident, Carlos Espejo

y Ureta, secured a franchise in
1908 for electrification of the
city's tram lines. Espejo sold
his rights in 1911 to W. R.
Grace Co. of New York, which
registered Tranvía Eléctrico de
Arequipa and placed a large
order with the J. G. Brill Co.
of Philadelphia in 1912. The
shipment included 14
passenger cars of four types, a
sprinkler car, a meat car and a
 gondola. The vehicles
numbered 100-106 were
"convertible" models: in warm
weather their side panels were
removed and replaced by
screens. [The following four
illustrations are from Brill
Magazine of May 1913: see
BIBLIOGRAPHY.]

Trams in the 300 series had

eight wheels and an unusual
design with center doors and
vestibule. First class
passengers sat in the enclosed
section on the right. Second
class passengers used the open
compartment on the left:
Even the seats in the first class
compartment, shown in the
photo below, did not look too
comfortable:

Here is the unnumbered

sprinkler car, before
attachment of the trolley pole:
 Tranvía Eléctrico de Arequipa
inaugurated its electric
tramway system, 1067 mm (42
in) gauge, on 18 July 1913.
The first line ran from the new
railroad station, shown below,
to Tingo [see map]. The tram
in this postcard view -
unfortunately in shadow - is
number 106 [col. AM]:
 Here is number 104, the same
type car as above, but in winter
mode, with its sides enclosed
[col. AM]:
 Trams 106 and 400 in this
postcard view are on Av. Parra
on the Tingo line [see map]
[col. AM]:

In 1924 TEA ordered two

"Birney" type trams from Brill,
numbers 501 and 502, which
set the standard for a new
design. TEA eventually rebuilt
all its old trams to look like
501. It ordered two more cars
from Brill in 1930, numbers
601 and 602, and constructed
new routes to Antiquilla,
Yanahuara and Paucarpata.
The undated photograph below
 shows one of the rebuilt cars
on the Paucarpata line - a
favorite of tramway
enthusiasts because of its
magnificent scenery and right-
angle turns around cornfields
[see map]. Note the freeloaders
on the back and the Andes on
the horizon [col. AM]:

Peruvian government surveys

of 1927 and 1928 noted a
separate service from
Paucarpata to Apacheta
cemetery - but it is believed
that the suburban lines to
Tingo, Paucarpata and
Apacheta were always part of
 the TEA system [see map].
The World Survey of Foreign
Railways found 21 passenger
motor trams running on 20 km
of track in 1935 [see
BIBLIOGRAPHY]. Here is a
worker's pass from the period
[col. AM]:

TEA ordered no more trams

from Brill after 1930, but in
1939 it purchased two used
cars from the abandoned
tramway system in Elmira, a
small city in New York state,
USA. Arequipa renumbered
them 701 and 702. In 1947 it
purchased two used trams
from New York City, which it
numbered 901 and 902 [the
Lima tramway system also
 imported cars from New
York]. Despite the acquisition
of this new equipment, TEA
closed its Apacheta line in
1947 and its Tingo line in
April 1952 [see map].
The remaining pictures on this
page were taken by U.S.
tramway enthusiasts who
visited Arequipa in the 1950s
and 60s. Here is "Birney" car
501 on 9 Oct 1958. Scene is
Av. Bolognesi on the
Yanahuara line, with Mt.
Chachani in the distance
[William Janssen]:
 Birney car 502 rests at the Plaza de
Armas in 1963 [see map]. The
destination sign reads "Urbanización
Miraflores". The initials "T.E.A." are
legible above the windows [col.
www.tra.ms]:
The origin of car 604, with an
advertisement for batteries on
its roof, is unknown. It is
probably a reconstruction of a
tram from an early series. The
photograph was taken on 5
January 1957 [William
Janssen]:
 This interior view of an
Arequipa tram was captured
on 17 May 1965, eight months
before the system closed. Its
fleet number was not recorded
[Foster M. Palmer]:
Eight-wheel tram 701 was one
of two imported from Elmira,
New York, in 1939. It was
photographed in Arequipa on 8
October 1958 [William
Janssen]:

Here is one of the New York

cars imported in 1947,
photographed on 5 January
1957. The New York trams
originally had 12 windows on
each side. They were too long
for Arequipa's narrow streets,
so were shortened: the first and
last windows were rebuilt as
doors, and the ends were
remodeled. Truck gauge was
altered from 1435 to 1067 mm
[William Janssen]:
 Finally, here is the tram built
in 1912 to bring meat from the
stock yards in Yanahuara [see
map]. Also at the tram depot
that day, 9 October 1958, were
passenger cars 105, 501 and
805. The tramway employees
were delighted to meet a
visitor from abroad, but all
except one were camera shy
[William Janssen]:
Tranvía Eléctrico de Arequipa
pulled its last car into the
depot on Sunday night 9
January 1966, after 53 years of
operation. The system was
declared officially closed the
following day. The Arequipa
tramway was the last to
operate in Peru. Lima had
closed the preceding
September.
A U.S. streetcar fan who
traveled to Arequipa in 1967
 found its trams rusting in the
yard above, and most of the
overhead wire removed from
the streets.

BIBLIOGRAPHY (in order of

publication)

"Interesting Rolling Stock for New

Peruvian Electric Road" in Brill
Magazine (Philadelphia), 5/1913, pp.
140-148. Nice article on Arequipa
tramway. Seven illustrations.
Peru. Dirección Estadística. Extracto
estadístico. Annual surveys of
"Ferrocarriles" note gauge and track
length. The 1927 and 1928 editions
distinguish the Paucarpata and Apacheta
lines in Arequipa.
Peru. Ministerio de Fomento. Dirección
de Obras Públicas y Vías de
Comunicación. Economia y Reseña
Histórica de los Ferrocarriles del Perú.
Lima, 1932. A chapter entitled "Tranvía
Eléctrico de Arequipa", p. 68, describes
the formation of the company.
 Peru. Instituto Geográfico Militar.
Servicio Geográfico del Ejército. Carta
nacional. Lima 1934. "Arequipa" sheet
at scale 1:200,000 shows complete tram
system, including Tingo, Apacheta and
Paucarpata lines. The author also has
another government map of the area at a
larger scale - but does not know its
source.
United States. Bureau of Foreign &
Domestic Commerce. World Survey of
Foreign Railways. Supplement, 1935.
Description and finances of the Arequipa
tram system.
Adela Pardo Gómez. Guía de Oro de
Arequipa. Arequipa, n.d. [1944].
Description and schedules of tramway
lines, pp. 255 & 268.
Edit. El Deber. Plano de la Ciudad de
Arequipa. Street map has good tramway
detail. Arequipa, 1947.
Allan Berner. "The Trolleys of Arequipa"
in National Railway Historical Society
Bulletin, Third Quarter 1959, pp. 16-19.
Description and six illustrations.
Manuel Rodríguez Velásquez
("Marove"). "Remembranza: Por rieles
del fracaso rodaron 53 años los tranvías
 eléctricos" in El Pueblo (Arequipa),
5/5/1988. Nice history of the tramway
system and the source of its closing date.
Máximo Neira Avendaño. Historia
General de Arequipa. Arequipa, n.d.
[1990]. Paragraph on tramway
development, p. 577.
Ramón Gutiérrez. Evolución Histórica
Urbana de Arequipa 1540-1990. Lima,
1992. Brief notes on tramway
development, pp. 164 & 192-194.
Mercy Chávez Chávez. "De las carretas
a las combis" in Arequipa al Día
(Arequipa), 15/8/2002. Brief history of
public transport in Arequipa. The only
document that notes the inauguration
date of the electric tramway.
Elio Galessio. Brief Historical Summary
of the Railroads in Peru. A nice webpage
that describes the development of Peru's
railroads, including the Southern
Railroad that served Arequipa.
The author wishes to thank Luis Pareja
of Arequipa for locating and supplying
several of the newspaper articles noted
above.
 This page was uploaded on
25 February 2004

Also see my pages on

The Tramways of Lima
and
The Other Tramways of Peru

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