Bolivia’s Great Train Graveyard

In a vast desert plain in Southwestern Bolivia, a field of steam-powered locomotives have been left to rust.

The hulking skeletons of British trains and rail cars sit in a sprawling train graveyard on the edge of the Andean plain.

The trains were imported to Bolivia from Britain in the 20th century. But when the rail industry choked and faltered, the enormous machines were abandoned and left to the mercy of the elements.

The hollow carcasses of the great machines are buffeted by the salt blown over from the nearby salt flats, and are gradually rotting away entirely.

Photographer Chris Staring visited the train graveyard, capturing the bleak beauty of the rusting machines and the bizarre Mad Max-style atmosphere.