Altiplano Express Line

The Altiplano Express Line is currently the furthest extension of the railway system originating in Ankh-Morpork. This line begins at Sto Lat Junction and leaves at eight in the morning from Platform One. it originates in the driving need expressed in Raising Steam for a very fast, one-use-only, express line from Ankh-Morpork into Uberwald. Whilst the lines and tracks still exist leaving Zemphis and on the other side of the river, further use of the line after Ohulan Cutash is suspended until the not-insubstantial rebuilding of a viaduct capable of carrying trains is completed. This could well take some time and this line therefore terminates, for the moment, at Zemphis. Local trains are available on a spur line to Ohulan.

Stops on this line are;

• Hay-on-Ankh
• Much-Come-Lately
• Monks Deveril
• Upper Feltwhistle serving the Feltwhistles
• Seven Bangs
• Fratchwood
• Fustic Wells
• Gravelhang
• Zemphis

The trains out of Zemphis will call at:

• Hugglestones' Halt
• Twoshirts
• Ohulan Cutash - currently the terminus for services hubwards-by-widdershins, until services to Uberwald may be safely resumed. however, passengers may change here for the branch line to
• Hot Dang - serving Lancre.

Annotation

"Altiplano Express" is a Spanish-language novel published in South America in 2000. Translated into English as Andean Express, it is a murder mystery reminiscent of Agatha Christie's "Orient Express" (but with a rather less reactionary set of socio-political assumptions) concerning strange deaths on a sleeper train crossing the Bolivian Andes. A reviewer notes that it presents a moving environment at once carnivalesque and sinister. The novel explores the social tensions characteristic of Bolivian society in a way that is both accessible and highly entertaining.

The "altiplano" is apparently the high ground in South America where crossings of the Andes are possible. This engenders a certain mentality among people who live there. As this line crosses the mountains into Uberwald, or at least managed it once with golem assistance, it's an interesting choice of name by Terry.