I hope Mexican railroads go here. I'm searching for information on odd locomotive rebuilds by various railroads. I've heard that NdeM had a number of unique wreck rebuilds, but I haven't been able to find information on them.
Sorry for the late reply, I don't usually check out this board. The best source I have seen for pictures and info on at least some of the rebuilds is the Matthew Herson book, "NdeM in Color" published by Morning Sun Books. It has 6 pages of photos and captions of various rebuilds, all in the mid-60's. These particular rebuilds were all done in the shops in San Luis Potosí. I'm sure there were more rebuilds, but this is the best example of information that I have seen. Anything in particular you were looking for? I suspect you aren't going to rush out and buy the book just for those 6 pages. Best regards Ed
Mexican Railroads are North American railroads The railroads of México, back to the NdeM days and before, have been participants in the North American rail system and subscribe to the AAR interchange rules the same as the US and Canadian railways. Until Hurricane Stan hit last year, there was an unbroken rail line from the México-Guatemala border to the coast of Nova Scotia. This should be restored by the end of this year. :cat:
I don't know anything about the units, so I can't really formulate any specific questions. I suppose my main concern is what they looked like. Right. I don't usually think of them as North American, but I guess they are... but NdeM isn't a Class II or III, and it doesn't have its own forum. I wasn't sure where to put the topic.
Has NdeM been absorbed by KCS along with TFM and (fill in blank)....? If so, wouldn't all questions like this go into the KCS Forum....?
No, NdeM was split up into several "concessions", the largest of which is now "KCS de México". The second largest is the "Ferrocarril Mexicano" (FXE) in which UP has a significant share. It operates North and West of Mexico City. A third concession is the "Ferrocarril del Sur", owned by private Mexican interests. Finally, in the far South, there is the "Ferrocarril Chiapas al Mayab", which is owned by Genessee & Wyoming Industries, which operates railroads in the US, Canada, Australia, Mexico, and Bolivia. :cat:
Basically correct, but let me add a few clarifications. First, "NdeM" actually was changed to "FNM" years ago. But lots of people continue to refer to it as "NdeM". It was split up and privatized in the 90's. The biggest portion of the old system is Ferromex, with KCSdeM in second place, with about 5,400 route miles for FXE, vs about 2,700 for KCSdeM. UP owns 26% of FXE. The rest is owned by the same people who own Ferrosur (FSRR). Those people are actively trying to merge the two railroads. It's currently being held up in courts here because it goes against the terms of the original privatization agreements. There are a couple of other small players, the most interesting of which is TFVM (Ferrocarril y Terminal del Valle de México, S.A. de C.V.), owned jointly by FXE, KCSdeM, FSRR and the government, and which acts as a belt line / terminal railroad in and around Mexico City. Regards Ed
PM me with your email address and I'll see what I can do. Since I'm probably the only guy on here who actually has Mexican railroads as his primary interest, I've thought about this a lot. Ferromex (FXE) is a Class 1 North American railroad. As such, it would rate its own forum under "Today's Rairoads". But being as how there are more TrainBoard members who model European railroads than Mexican railroads, how much traffic would such a forum have? That's really why I have never pushed the Admins to set up a forum just for FXE. KCSdeM (and TFM before it), being closely associated with KCS, makes it easy to post stuff about them on the KCS forum. In fact, I have posted several topics relative to KCSdeM there. Ferrosur (FSRR) is a Class II. But if FXE doesn't generate much interest, imagine how little would be posted about FSRR. Anyway, we have the Class II forum as a catch-all. NdeM (including, I suppose, FNM) could rate its own forum under Fallen Flags. But again, we have the question of how much interest it would generate, and whether it would be worthwhile having a forum for it. I don't relish talking to myself on a forum. So we're kind of left where we are today. Every once in a while someone posts a question regarding Mexican railroads here on International Railroads forum (even though technically it's not the right place), and I do usually check here every month or so, just to see if anything has come up and not been responded to. Also, I get a number of PM's from people who have come to figure that I'm our correspondent on the ground down here "South of the Border". KCSdeM has its place on KCS. FXE and old NdeM are kind of in limbo, but I don't know anyone who is dying to post about them. Regards Ed
For those who are interrested, I've still a few pictures of the Ferrocarril Chiapas Mayab in my own photo album here. I've taken them last spring close to Valladolid in Yucatan, that is the very end of all Canada-USA-Mexico network. You can see an old U23B previously property of Southern Rwy and then Norfolk Southern..... Dominique
