This work has been performed under the Project No. 3354-5 Fondart 2009 Council for Culture and the Arts. This summarizes the research that has been developed to the railway heritage cadastre declared National Monument in Chile in its current state. The images of this work have been delivered to the Railroad Museum of Santiago, as well as the National Monuments Council to assist with conservation policies railway heritage.
 
  General objective: "Registering artwork in high resolution and detailed, aimed at developing an updated on all movable and immovable property of the National Railway Heritage, which are protected under Law 17.288 catalog. Part of this record will be made ​​available to the community through a Web page, turn the entire material will be delivered to the National Monuments Council and Railway Museum in Santiago, contributing to the generation of policy interventions such property. "

Specific objectives:
- Create a photographic documentary archive on railroad property declared National Monuments in its current state.
- To contribute to the dissemination of the national railway heritage through the creation of a Web page.

Groundwork.
The railway in Chile, managed to generate a revolution in the means of land transport from the mid-nineteenth century to the late twentieth century, a large percentage was in the hands of the state and can be summarized as: a) Integrate rough areas territory (I, II, XIV, XV, VIII, IX and X Anyone). b) Generate the territorial mobility of freight and people in the country, either for business or pleasure. c) Be a promoter factor industrialization of the country through the creation of own arsenals and external. d) Encourage the development of tourism in Chile through the creation of proposals such as Travel Magazine; Vacationer's Guide; hotel construction, enabling Travelers Cheques, among others. e) Creation of the first organizations nationally qualified (FOCH) workers.
The significance that the railway we see it reflected in the more than eighty objects declared National Historic Landmarks that are distributed throughout our country, who do not have an integration for knowledge and appreciation of this heritage, why is necessary to articulate this page contribution to give unity and meaning to these goods. This allows a partial solution to the lack of visual references on the surviving material circumvent the lack of information dissemination and preservation of important heritage railway in the country, publicizing these testimonies of history, to keep alive the memory and identity and providing an essential documentary record for the knowledge of railway heritage.

Beneficiaries.

Direct: National Monuments Council, the Heritage Railway Association, Railway Museums, provinces and cities that host Heritage, Municipalities, and railroad community.
Indirect: Educational institutions, Archives and Libraries, institutions related to tourism, community.

Since the formation of the State Railways, we sought to encourage the construction of rolling stock in the country. Thus, in the government of Balmaceda "the first locomotive manufactured in the country" that led the president's name was built. It is because this period also building one of the most spectacular engineering works have been undertaken in the country, we mean the viaduct Malleco, whose construction will begin in France in 1887 by the firm Schneider & Cie. Le Creusot, was inaugurated on October 26, 1890, by President José Manuel Balmaceda.
Another major engineering works that were undertaken in the late nineteenth century was the construction of the dome of the Central Station. This station operating since 1856, but the final configuration would acquire in 1897, a period in which "the two structures and the intermediate tower roof by a large metal structure were replaced." Manufacturing was outsourced to the same company that built the viaduct Malleco.
The train will continue its extension to Victoria in October 1890 and in 1913 the train finally reach the city of Puerto Montt.
Notably, in the late nineteenth century the idea of building a railroad on the island of Chiloé gauge of 0.60 inches to nearly 90 miles long, which was also launched in 1913