a translation of one of the site gleaned this information

TALTAL And The RAILROAD

                                 The locality of Taltal has its origin in the discovery of the salitrero corner
                                 of Taltal, that it carried out the pioneer Jose Brown Antonio by the decade
                                 of 1850. The town grew on the base of the mining facilities and to the port
                                 that Colored person per 1858 built, to operate and to export the mineral.
                                 By virtue of the treaty of limits of 1866 between Chile and Bolivia, Taltal
                                 became the most northern locality of Chile. By virtue of the strategic
                                 importance of Taltal, and to foment the industry of nitrate, the Chilean
                                 government had in 1877 the layout and the poblamiento the city, the one
                                 that was growing and being developed in the middle of the anything,
                                 White thanks to the immense wealth of the near corners, Taltal and
                                 Aguas.

                                 Taltal was, as Iquique and Pisagua, a great salitrero port. The Salitrero
                                 Railroad was constructed by The Taltal Railway Co, English company
                                 with seat in London. The work was made as of 1882, quickly, efficiency
                                 and quality. In 1889 the line arrived at the terminal station: Cachinal, to
                                 149 kilometers of Taltal. The railroad had branches to all the offices of
                                 the region. Jointly with the railway network, the company constructed
                                 harbor infrastructure in an area of 15 hectares. The facilities
                                 included/understood five wharves, warehouses, coal bunkers, arsenal,
                                 platform, house of machines, and a stock of transport means that got to
                                 consist of 560 cars and 22 locomotives. It still on remains the Nº2 Wharf,
                                 that is the last one of the seven loading platforms that had Taltal. It has a
                                 length of 120 meters and a wide one of 12, and rests on 33 stocks of 4
                                 piles each one. Envigado of wood is of cross-sectional and longitudinal
                                 metallic structure with; the piles are of steel. The structure was made in
                                 mounted England and in situ. It could support two locomotives with his
                                 loaded cars of saltpeter, and embark the product by his two bands,
                                 through mailboxes that still are possible to distinguish. On the cover of
                                 the wharf they are left the ruins of two cranes to steam that operated in
                                 the load and unloads.