Santiago Steam Train Museum

Saturday March 28, 2009 we, and our friends Ron and Eileen
Gonzales, visited a large park in Santiago, that has the national
railroad museum and other things to see. Across the street from
the parking lot is an art museum in a beautiful building that
could probably be converted into a Greek Orthodox Church
without too much work. We did not visit the art museum
yesterday. Maybe next time....



The railroad museum has sixteen old steam engines in it. They
are all about 100 years old. Most were built in Germany, then
assembled in Chile. Chile got off to a bad start in the railroad
business, in that they began with three different gauges (width
between rails). With that setup, they sometimes had to transfer
freight from one train to another to get it to the intended city.






Here is the front of the museum building that has some displays of railroad items in it. Also the bathrooms....

This steam engine and its attached railcar looked like it might have been a private railcar of a railway executive. It could have been the early 20th century version of a pickup truck and travel trailer.

Here were a couple of young ladies trying to sneak aboard this railcar.

We are shown sitting inside a 1906 passenger car that had stained glass windows above the clear windows. We had to duck in here for a while to cool off. It is fall in Santiago, but it was really hot outside on March 28th.

This engine seemed to be a yard switch engine, sitting on a turntable. Chile has some rail lines going now. One of these Saturdays, we are going to ride the bus and the subway to what is called the "Central Station," then take a train ride out to Rancagua and back, just so we can say we rode on a train here in Chile.

Going to work in Santiago

I start the day by saying chio (chow) to Jose who speaks as much

English as I do Spanish. I have managed to learn that he is single

and lives at home with his mother. He is always very polite and
friendly. He is our day time guard at the apartment building.
We have guards around the clock but we still had a missionary's apartment broken into recently. Their laptop, camera and cash
was taken but not credit cards.

I walk across the street into the church office parking lot.
Interestingly, they have security cameras which caught the
theft at our apartment building in living color. That didn't
help get the loot back to its rightful owner.

I now say buenas diaz to the guard at the church parking lot.

His name is Alex and he has a little more English than I do

Spanish. We teach each other a few new words each week. He

works full time for the church guarding the inside and outside

of our church compound. There are about 8 of them on rotating

shifts day and night.

I almost always meet a group of young missionaries heading

back to the Mission Training Center which is also on the compound. They are all Latinos and only stay 3 weeks in the center. They eat their meals in the cafeteria of the church office building. They will serve their missions in Spanish speaking countries. Some of the missions in S. America now have more Latino missionaries than Gringos which is just what President Kimball said would happen back in the 80's.

This is the front door to the area office building. The entire compound is fenced and locked. If you want in they have to ring a buzzer to open the gate. The Santiago Temple is also on this compound. In addition to the Mission Training Center there is a 4 story building that houses the temple missionaries and provides housing for temple visitors. These visitors arrive from all over Chile and Mendoza, Argentina on buses. One most weekends there are 3 or more large buses loaded with temple going members. Bryce works 2 days a week in the temple. On those days I go to the office alone, which was the case when I took all these pictures.

This is my office which is on the 3rd floor and has a lovely view of the Andes. It is air conditioned and heated so this winter I may be spending extra hours in the office. We have decorated our office with pictures drawn by Naomi our grand daughter. We welcome any other contributions from other grandchildren.

This young woman is Viri Canelario Navarrte. She speaks perfect

English and Spanish and is willing to volunteer her skill to help me with the Spanish only speaking missionaries who want to visit with me. She is Mexican but was born in the US so has dual citizenship. She served a mission in Texas where she met Ceasar who she married after her mission. He is from Chile. They are members of our ward here and are expecting a baby girl in July. I can hardly wait to hold that little baby! Sadly, they also plan to move to Las Vegas in September where he is planning to go to school. Viri has an undergraduate degree in criminal justice. She and her husband help us feel like we have kids in Chile.


This is a good friend who has now completed her mission and returned to Equador. She is a math major at a university in Equador. She is planning to take graduate studies in math after she completes her undergraduate. I loved getting to know her.

This is another friend who has gone home. She lives in Argentina.
She gave me the beautiful shawl since she was unable to use it as
a missionary. The best part of being a missionary in S. America is meeting these wonderful people who I have loved. The real blessing is that they seem to love me, too.