Westbound at Pitorreal, Chihuahua, on the "Copper Canyon" route. Note the "FCP" reporting marks, used to be for "Ferrocarril del Pacifico" (the old Southern Pacific de Mexico route) which got merged into NdeM years ago.
A "twofer". The green tank is the old day tank for Bunker 'C' fuel oil near the engine house at Cuautla, Morelos (where the #279 still steams). The main fuel oil storage tank is underground, and about 150 yards away. On the right, in the background, is a narrow gauge tank car in red oxide primer (or maybe that's just a complete rust job...). It was almost a "threefer", as you can barely make out another green tank immediately behind the support structure for the overhead tank. I believe that's what they use to store the diesel they use in the #279 these days (but not sure). Regards Ed .
Old tank cars get a second life as storage tanks here in Oaxaca. The tanks with the red stripes are diesel. The blue striped tank in the background is water (for the diesels). This line has been out of service for almost 4 years. We first visited it in April, 2004, just before they cut off service. Even at that time these tanks were no longer in service. They would send one locomotive, fully fueled, down to Oaxaca to work the Oaxaca - Cuicatlan route, carefully tracking fuel consumption. When the tank started getting low, they sent the loco back to Puebla for servicing and refueling. There were no longer any services provided at Oaxaca (despite seeing the locomotive shed in the picture). Regards Ed .
Not a tank car, but probably the smallest (and cutest) overhead water tank I've ever seen. In Zacatecas. It's been a long time since they repainted it. Note that it still bears the "NdeM" lettering! Regards Ed .
