Nostalgia & History > Quick visit to Mexico in 1984

Digging around through some old slides, I ran across a few taken during a visit to the border town of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. MyfordBrowning and myself had been chasing the SP 4449 through Arizona and during its layover in Tucson, he talked me into a little side trip. Apprehensive at first, the adventure turned out to be a lot of fun, so much that the following year we returned for round two. The FCP was a very interesting operation, here is a quick sampling of a few things we found on May 17, 1984.

1) In 1984, two passenger trains still served Nogales. Secondary train #4 is seen south of town with low-nose RSD12 518, D&H PA 19 and five cars in tow. Several years ago I posted another shot of the same train at Agua Zarca, a few miles to the south.

2) Thanks to Cliff's knowledge of Spanish, we were given permission to walk through the shop area. One of several locomotives we photographed was MLW M636 652.

3) In the early afternoon, first class train #2 (I think) prepares to leave the depot in Nogales behind a pair of NdeM painted C30-7's.

I have several more slides scattered here and there, if interested I will try to find more. "Gracias" for looking.

OYW

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Those are great Bob. Post more when you can find them!


Al

Thanks for the memories Bob. The FCP was a fun railroad to see in those days with a SP heritage. The train in the third photo is indeed train No. 2 El Costeno or as it was generally called La Bala (the bullet). If you are wondering why the train is running as an extra, the train was running on a new schedule however a new employee timetable had not been issued at the time.

Great series, Bob. Awesome catch on the RSD12-PA led passenger train.

Thanks for sharing,
~Ryan

Your second photo looks like a CSX paint job. Strange for sure.

Excellent bunch, we don't see enough Mexican operations here.
JB

The baggage car behind the PA also looks like ex-D&H ex-D&RGW. Bueno!

BSB



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/15 07:16 by BigSkyBlue.

Great photos, Bob. It's seems funny to have a passenger train being hauled by those high-horsepower (for the day) unstreamlined 6-axle GEs in Pic 3, but then I guess Santa Fe set a precedent for that with the U28CGs in the late 60's.

Rich

Yes, post more. And thanks for the high-quality photos.


Marty Bernard

OYW I can just hear "La Cucaracha" playing whilst I look at these pics so better dust off your sombrero! If only that PA had been leading!

Talk about "it's all crap now!", thank you Robert for some excellent memories from
when Mexico was the most interesting place on the planet, fotos mas fina!!

Out

!EXCELLENTE!

Those Mexicans really ran some neat stuff! Great power and photo's!!

Puts me in the mood for a chimichanga and couple o' cervezas! ;)

This is great stuff... beats the superbowl (can I say that?).

The second photo is of an ex-British Columbia Railway MLW M636 if im not mistaken......