Valle Hermoso, Argentina

Valle Hermoso (Beautiful Valley) is a small town 65 km northwest of Córdoba, Argentina, which is 750 km northwest of Buenos Aires. In the late 1990s a local resident, Prof. Osvaldo Pedro Ferreiro, built a tram car and a 600 mm gauge tram line around the grounds of his property, which includes the town's former railroad station. The car measures 1.05 m/3.4 ft wide by 5.3 m/17.4 ft long and can carry 21 passengers at 7.2 kph/4.5 mph. It is numbered 652 in homage to ex-Porto tram 652 which runs on the heritage tramway in Buenos Aires. The development is called "Paseo con Ciencia" (Science Walk) because it encompasses various scientific, botanical and environmental exhibits, including a planetarium, which he and his family created. The line and the displays were inaugurated on 6 March 1998 and have been open to the public year round ever since. The photograph above was taken in 1999, the one below in 2000 - both by Lucio Peñaloza of the
Asociación Amigos del Tranvía de Córdoba.