Preserved Standard Gauge Steam in Mexico 2012, Part 3

Thomas Kautzor reports on some preserved items recorded during his November 2012 visit. Click here for the index to the other reports which include stationary steam, 'modern traction' and railway cranes.

This report is in three parts, click here for part 1 or click here for part 2.

This page covers surviving non-NdeM standard gauge steam.

National de Tehuantepec (NdeT) 0-6-0ST 507 (NdeM B-6 class, Kitson 3615/1895, NdeT 8 pre-1930) is on display at the Museo de los Ferrocarrileros (open Tu-Su 10.00-17.00) at the old La Villa station in Mexico City, DF (north of city). It is one of a group of 17 0-6-0ST built by Hunslet, Peckett, Kitson and Manning Wardle between 1889 and 1905 and taken over by the NdeT from contractor S. Pearson & Co. upon completion of construction of the railway and port facilities. N°. 507 was Pearson N°. 58. With the NdeT and NdeM the locos were used as switchers and 507 was withdrawn in 1957. It had recently been moved here from the Bosque San Juan de Aragon park (near the airport) and was under restoration and covered in a tarpaulin at the time of our visit. The second picture (added 20th January 2018) was sent in by Eduardo Dusk. 

Nacionales de Tehuantepec (NdeT) 2-8-0 535 (NdeM G-6 class, Baldwin 27414/02-1906, NdeT 74 pre-1930) is plinthed next to the station at Matias Romero, OAXACA. It is one a class of 17 locos built for the NdeT by Baldwin between 1903 and 1908 (534-550), the last ones to be withdrawn in 1962. The NdeT became part of NdeM in 1908 and the locomotives were integrated into the NdeM numbering scheme but continued to be marked NdeT.

FC Mexicano (FCM) 2-8-0 40 (NdeM G-20 class, Baldwin 5769/08-1881) on display at the National Railway Museum, Puebla, PUE. It started out as FCM 1” “Guadalupe”, was later renumbered 61 and in 1950 into 40. It was withdrawn in 1956 and plinthed in a park near the Pantaco freight yard in Mexico City, DF, before being moved to Puebla.

FC Mexicano (FCM) 2-8-0 212 (NdeM class GR-28, Baldwin 73238/10-1946) on display in the middle of a traffic circle (CF 119 & CF 136) in Apizaco, TLAXCALA. One of ten ‘Pershing’ style locomotives ordered by the FCM (211-220) prior to its purchase by the Mexican Government, they were the last steam locomotives built for a Mexican railway. On the FCM they worked the entire main line between Veracruz and Mexico City, as well as the branch from Apizaco to Puebla. After unification in 1960 they were reassigned to other NdeM lines, but retained their FCM markings until withdrawal in 1964. In 05-1964 N°. 212 made it from Apizaco station to its plinth in the middle of town under its own power over temporarily laid track. Housed at Apizaco’s old station (next to the present-day station), Museo Casa de Piedra (open Mo-Sa 09.00-19.00, Su -15.00) has displays on the town’s rail history, a caboose and an HO layout. (Kevin Hoggett adds that it looks more like Belgian class 29 and Chinees Kd7... RD)

FC Occidental de Mexico (FOM) 0-6-0 2 (HK Porter 7463/09-1942) is on display at the National Railway Museum in Puebla, PUE. The loco started life as USATC 0-6-0T 5003 before being sold to FOM together with USATC 5000, which became FOM 1. In the late 1980s both were still operational at Culiacan, SINALOA. N°. 2 was later transferred to NdeM’s Empalme, SONORA, shops before being moved to Puebla, while N°. 1 ended up plinthed at Culiacan’s ex-Sud Pacifico de Mexico (SPdeM) station (wrongly numbered 2).

FUY 4-6-0 352 (NdeM F-2 class, Baldwin 6924/09-1883) is on display at the social services center (DIF) in Tulyehualco, a southern suburb of Mexico City, DF. It has a long history, starting out as Ferrocarril Central Mexicano (CM) N°. 89, renumbered 429 in 1902. In 1908 CM became part of NdeM and it was renumbered 236, then 717 after 1930. Because of their light weight, these class of locos was used to operate over lightly-laid branch lines. In 09-1946 it was transferred to the Secretaria de Comunicaciones y Obras Publicas (SCOP) as their N°. 23015 for use during construction of the Coatzacoalcos to Yucatan railway link. It later became N°. 7321-1 and after the link was completed in 1960 it was transferred to Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatan (FUY) and became their N°. 352 in 1963. It is on display since 1970 with NdeM 2nd class steel coach 3257 and a DC-3 ‘Dakota’ airplane.

CTV 2-6-0 9 (Baldwin 55275/01-1922) is plinthed outside the station at Veracruz, VER to commemorate the Cia. Terminal de Veracruz, which used to operate both standard and 3-ft gauge track in the port area. It did however never work for that company, but was built for the Yosemite Valley Ry. at Merced, California, as their last loco N°. 29. After the railroad closed in 09-1945 it was sold via an equipment dealer to SCOP in Mexico as N°. 23030 for use during construction of the FC Sonora-Baja California (SBC) between Mexicali on the US border and Benjamin Hill, SONORA. However, the use of steam locomotives in the hot and dry Sonora desert was not practical and in 1947 it was transferred to Yucatan as N°. 7311-3. In 1960 it was transferred to the FUY), becoming their N°. 353 in 1963.

American Smelting & Refining Co. (ASARCO) 2-8-2 1924 (Baldwin 43056/1913) was built for the Ozan-Graysonia Lumber Co. in the US. In 1924 it was sold to Fundacion Morales, later ASARCO Mexicana, S.A., a mining company based in San Luis Potosi, SONORA. It was previously on display at the Museo Interactivo de Xalapa (MIX) but has been moved to the under construction Transportation Museum in Xalapa, VERACRUZ (on the road to Coatepec).