FEGUA has been taken over by an American company out of Pittsburng, PA called "Railroad development Corporation".  The new name for FEGUA is now "Compania Desarrolladora Ferroviaria, S.A.". RDC started to rebuild the old mainline of FEGUA between Puerto Barrios on the Atlantic Coast and Guatemala City early in 1998.  Plans called for the mainline to be back open by the end of 1998 between Puerto Barrios and Guatemala City.   The rebuilding of the system is continuing but because of the massive damage from Hurricane Mitch the target for having this section back open to rail traffic is now March 1999. According to Fernando Pombal, who is in charge of the rebuilding project, there are many massive slides and washourts between Guatemala City and El Rancho and between El Rancho and Puerto Barrios there are several bridges that were knocked of their abutments that need to be replaced. (The TUT tour scheduled for February 1999 will either be cancelled or postponed to March 1999.).

Active steam on the old FEGUA are:

RDC has stated that once they get the old FEGUA back open they would be willing to repair No. 200 Baldwin 2-8-2 of 1948 and No. 34 Baldwin 2-8-0 of 1907.  All steam is used for charter work only such as ralfan specials, VIP specials and events.

Click here to return to the TUT Americas Page

Click here to return to the International Steam Page

Email: webmaster@internationalsteam.co.uk