Great Venezuela Railway

[1] Friedrich Krupp AG contracted with the Venezuelan government in 1888 to build the railway in exchange for £12,800 per kilometer to be repaid at 7 percent interest.

Caracas is at an altitude of 3,000 feet (910 metres) and to reach Valencia the railway had to climb even higher to cross the Coastal Range.

Krupp computed Venezuela's debt (including damages arising from the revolution against Venezuelan president Raimundo Andueza Palacio) as £1,900,000.

Suspension of debt payments by Cipriano Castro in 1901 was followed by the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–1903, a naval blockade involving gunboat diplomacy.

Work began in 2015 on a 350 million bolivar plan to restore 7 km (4.3 mi) of track as a heritage railway, with 7 tunnels and 5 bridges, providing for a 25-minute journey from Los Lagos to El Encanto.

4-4-4T 11 m (36 ft) long locomotive with 1,280 mm (50.39 in) driving wheels built by Hartmann's ( Sächsische Maschinenfabrik ) at Chemnitz and fitted with Walschaerts valve gear
Map of the Great Venezuela Railway and connecting lines
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