Photos: Bolivia’s Great Train Graveyard

A steam locomotive turns a reddish brown as dust coats its exterior. (Chris Staring/@skaremedia/REX/Shutterstock)

Yahoo News – 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.

More than 100 machines have been dropped into the desolate plain. (Chris Staring/@skaremedia/REX/Shutterstock)

Graffiti covers an abandoned railcar. Chris Staring/@skaremedia/REX/Shutterstock

A space-age looking engine part is consumed by rust. (Chris Staring/@skaremedia/REX/Shutterstock)

Naked metal poles are all that remain of this train carriage. (Chris Staring/@skaremedia/REX/Shutterstock)

The wrecked interior of a rail car buckles under the desert sun. (Chris Staring/@skaremedia/REX/Shutterstock)

An old industrial tanker lays unbalanced in the train graveyard. (Chris Staring/@skaremedia/REX/Shutterstock)

Some of the hulking structures look like they’ve come straight from a science fiction film. (Chris Staring/@skaremedia/REX/Shutterstock)

A look through the inside of an abandoned steam engine. (Chris Staring/@skaremedia/REX/Shutterstock)