Hi there ! I’m just back from a short trip to Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico, where I spent 3 days. As laying all day long on the beach and ending up day roasted like a sausage are definitively none of my business, I had railfaning purposes in my mind prior to that trip ! Some of you will tell me there are not that many railroads in the area, won’t you ? Well, that’s not true. There is a railroad that goes from Merida to Valladolid, in the neighbouring state of Yucatan. Interrestingly enough, this railroad with its terminus Valladolid is the very southern end of all Canada-USA-Mexico Railroad network. And Valladolid is only 90 miles driving from Cancun, barely two hours from the leisure hotel area… The only problem: that line sees only one or two trains each way every week . Not easy to see any train with such a frequency, you will tell me….. By the way, I’m lucky enough as I have the Ferrocarril del Istmo de Tehuantepec (FCIT)’s dispatcher phone number, and to be able to say two or three words in spanish language….. About the History : this railroad has been built as 3-foot gauge railroad in the 40’s or 50’s, I don’t remember, and has been upgraded to standard gauge in the 80’s. Although the recent upgrading the railroad is in very bad condition as you’ll find it on the following pictures. Nevertheless, this railroad is very useful for freight hauling between Merida (and beyond) and Valladolid. Until last year the railroad was operated by Ferrocarril Chiapas Mayab (FCCM) that was under concession with the american group Genesee & Wyoming. Unfortunately two years ago a tornado whom I forgot the name totally destroyed the other line belonging to that company, which was going from Ciudad Hidalgo to the Guatemala border on the Pacific side of that area. That line damaged beyond repair, G&W gave up its concession with FCCM, that’s why I was wondering about the remaining of the network’s status until I made up a connection with mexican railfans websites. And thus I learned that FCIT took over the operation of the remaining lines, including the line between Merida and Valladolid. So what about my railfan trip ? As soon as in my hotel bedroom after my arrival in Cancun last Friday, I used the phone number I have in my database and I called the dispatcher….And big piece of luck for me, the dispatcher very kindly gave me the information that a train was leaving Merida the next morning, even giving me the departure time. You must be aware that the 100-mile trip from Merida to Valladolid needs 13 (thirteen) hours to be run ! The max line speed is around 10 miles per hour ! BTW, this railroad, although in bad shape, is the only means of transportation to haul fuel to the Valladolid powerplant, and is used by a cement company just at the entry of Valladolid as well, using boxcars to carry its products. So, as I had the departure time of the train and as I knew its mean speed, I just had to rent a car, to purchase a map and to compute the meeting point with the train depending on my departure time from Cancun after an early breakfast Saturday morning ! Now, enjoy ! If you like the idea of a GP38-2 locomotive without ditchlights and caboose operation in 2008, the following pictures are for you ! And in my opinion, it’s a great piece of " grass "-running, the tropical version of street-running ! Dom
Well, guys, I hope you have fun with these shots! Infortunately I've not been able to insert all the shots I wanted to put here because I'm not very used to managing this website, but if some of you are interrested I may send you more pictures on private mails. Here a link for a small video I've taken of this train: http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=REXN6uGfTDE BTW, it has been an awesome day for me, and if some of you plan to spend some time in Cancun I may give them the phone number for FCIT dispatcher's, provided you speak spanish!:tb-cool: Dom
A lot of dirt, brush and grass. I wonder how it is, when there's a good rain? Neat stuff! Thanks for posting!
I guess it looks like the picture below, that has been taken just an hour prior to the train proceeding. Dirt and soil are drained all along the rails, and there aren't even any flange prints within soil on the internal side of the rails. But provided the train proceeds very slowly, and provided the soil remains soft, thus there are no derailments... Dom
True stealth railroading. Under the camouflage, nobody even knows it's there! Is that a RR water tank at left? Any chance you have a closer in view of it? Boxcab E50
Yes, absolutely, it's a water tank. In bad condition like all other structures matching this awesome railroad! Unfortunately I've no shot closer in view to it..... Dom
I don't know the standard maintenance and overhaul needed by an EMD or GE locomotive.....All that I remember, is the panel in the GE U23B I saw on the same line two years ago, on which was written "Max speed 25 mph". On the above GP38-2, just under the side windows outside, was a mention akin "max predictable speed 18 km/h" (11 mph). So in that case, maybe the locomotives may accept a lighter maintenance. Dom
Nice report Dom, glad you got to see some action during your trip. Boxcab - that steel water tank mounted on a circular cut stone masonry base is a pretty standard design down here. While I don't have a photo of that tank, if you want I can post some photos of very similar ones. Here's a similar one in Oaxaca: Best regards Ed
Hi Ed, cool to read you! It's a very nice shot as well! And I'm glad you have fun with my pics! Unfortunately there are not many shots from that (not so) remote part of Mexico, all the area within Chiapas - Yucatan. I have been trying to subject some of my shots to Rail-pictures.Net for two years, and all my shots but one have been rejected.....Not that easy to please to these guys. In these guys' opinion, pictures are always too shiny, or too less, too many clouds, or too few, the scenes are too big, or too small, etc....So now I give up trying to submit any pictures to them. Myself I don't care as I keep my pictures and as I'm happy to share them here and in french forums, but I really think they could interrest many other people. And there are very few pictures from that area in any website. Are you aware of a less "elitist" railfan website where I could share my pics? Dom
And Ed, yes, I should appreciate you put here the other shots you were speaking about.:tb-wink::thumbs_up: Dom
Well, you could try: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/ But I just host all my railfan photos here at Rail Images, which is part of TrainBoard. http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/ Here's the link to my sub-album of shots from here in Mexico: http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php?cat=1261 Best regards Ed
Okay, searched through my archives and found a few shots of water tanks in different parts of Mexico that I have now uploaded to my Rail Images album. Let's start off with a better view of that water tank at the yard/station at Oaxaca, Oax. And here's a similar one at Cardenas, in San Luis Potosí. This one has been given a coat of white paint. And one more of the same design down in Iguala, Guerrero, maybe painted white at one time. Kind of hard to tell right now. I'm not sure if the downspout was removed, was on the other side, or whether this tank just supplied free standing water columns. More to follow.
