Where is the highest RR tracks in elevation?
I googled your question and came up with this. I can tell you that the highest main track in the Peruvian Andes crested near 15K feet. I lived in a place in the Peruvian Andes where the grade was at 14,100 feet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qinghai-Tibet_Railway
-Crandell
China’s Q-T is one of many foreign railways which my son and I have “explored” in GoogleEarth and found to be more fascinating than most of the domestic stuff that gets covered (and re-covered) in Trains, R&R, RR’s Illustrated, etc. Take a closer look and there are multiple hairpin turns, a Tehachapi-style loop, bridges and tunnels and stark scenery.
Yes, I have misfeelings about the social and political impact this railway places on Tibet, as well as the unchecked labor, safety, and environmental issues associated with its construction. Therein lies reason for some form of journalistic review, if possible. That, combined with the obvious impressiveness of the Q-T itself, the unique challenges of its high-altitude operation, and the stories that could be told by the track workers, train crews, and local residents, would be a shining example of why Trains should indeed expand its coverage to more frequent foreign subjects. Not just another piece where the author whizzes across the landscape and pauses for a couple of station platform observations, or gets the supposed low-down on everything from an in-office interview, and the only pictures to show for it are a view from the cab with track and scenery blurring by and mugshots of personnel loading baggage or wrenching rail joints.
I tend to agree with you on the foreign coverage. There’s an uncovered market in serious pieces about non-Americian railroads, what we get now (and I’m British) is hagiography when it comes to passenger services, a lack of understanding about freight and, though it pains me to say it a streak of American patriotism that simply says America is best without any kind of argument.