Tramways of the Salinas Chicas
The Tramways of the Salinas Chicas were two narrow-gauge railways with a gauge of and a total length of . They ran from the Nicolás Levalle railway station to the Salinas Chicas in the La Pampa Province between Neuquén und Bahía Blanca in Argentina. History. The salt flats were exploited by the company "Salinas Chicas" in La Aurora, founded in 1903 by Bernardo Garciarena, to mine a 1–3 cm (½-1½ inch) thick layer of salt, which was formed by the evaporation of seawater in a lagoon, which is now below sea level. The salt was  initially pushed together with graders pulled by mules and transported to the railway station in tippers. In the beginning, animals were used to mine about 500 to 1000 tons of salt per year, and from 1910 steam locomotives manufactured by Orenstein & Koppel and Krauss (N° 5998/1908) were also used, with wagons made in Germany. At this time, another company was founded nearby under the name of "Salina Las Barrancas". From the 1950s, tractors were used to mine 50,000 to 200,000 tonnes of salt per year. The operation of the tramway ceased in 1990. Today, "La Aurora SAIC y G.  extracts about 1000 tons of salt per day on an industrial scale, washes it, packages it mainly in 50 kg bags and sells it.