Railroaders' Nostalgia > The Wild & Crazy Mexican "Caboose Party"

whistlepig asked in another thread if railroad workers had ever brought their girlfriends on board trains while they were working. While not exactly meeting his specific inquiry, his question did cause me to recollect the following event.

In March of 1997 my friend Steve Brown and I traveled to Mexico and rode a whole bunch of trains because we knew that privatization was on the way and the days were numbered not only for most of the nation's passenger trains but also the National Railways of Mexico.

I'm pretty sure it was a hamburger I had in Ocotlan, but, regardless, I came down with a case of "Montezuma's Revenge" which kind of put a dampener on things. Since I was feeling lousy and Steve was feeling fine, we decided to split up for a few days. At Uruapan Steve took a bus to Lazaro Cardenas so he could ride the train out of there, while I bussed up to Irapuato to find a nice hotel room with a comfortable toilet to recuperate for a bit. While on the bus I met a woman and her daughter who were from Southern California. Since she was fluent in Spanish and could help me get through a language barrier, she was nice enough to assist me in making arrangements with the yardmaster at Irapuato in securing a ride for me on a freight train the following day that would operate over the freight-only Zacapu District between Penjamo and Ajuno. It's a scenic line that runs along the western shore of Lake Patzcuaro.

The following morning, March 5, I showed up at the railroad yard at the appropriate time and joined the conductor and rear brakeman in the caboose. The brakeman prepared some hot food and it was some of the best tasting fare I've ever had on my many trips to Mexico. After Penjamo we stopped at several towns along the Zacapu District for switching and, at one of the towns, we also picked up some party supplies and an ice chest filled with adult beverages. To liven things up, a couple of good-looking young women also climbed aboard. I guess they were the girlfriends of the crew members and they seemed pretty familiar with the routine, like they had done this before.

For most of our journey down the Zacapu District, there was a good party going on in the caboose with the women. Everyone on the crew must have been engine-qualified because the guys in the caboose would trade out with the guys on the engine so that everyone would get some "caboose time." With unauthorized women on the train, my mind kept thinking of the Illinois Central Gulf freight train that derailed in Livingston, LA on September 28, 1982. Fortunately, this trip on the NdeM would not make national headlines, but it was certainly eventful and memorable enough to suite my needs! Coordinated with considerable alcohol consumption and the ambient air temperature, the women became uncomfortable and decided that shedding most or all of their clothing might assist them in feeling comfortable once again. Poor girls. There are times where it can get very hot in Mexico and the caboose was not air conditioned. Being a foreign tourist, I felt a need to photo-document this procedure. Some of my 35mm color slides could, no doubt, be eligible for submission into that "Girl Next Door" column of a certain magazine that's owned by some dude in a wheelchair and who was sued by Jerry Falwell.

After the train got down to Ajuno, I taxied and bussed my way back to Guadalajara to position myself for the March 6 departure of Trains 27-28-29-30 that covered the branch lines west of town to Etzatlan and Ameca. Interestingly, these lines were operated by NdeM, then Ferrocarril Del Pacifico for several years, then back to NdeM when the regional railroads lost their separate identities in the nationwide merger in the mid 1970's. These branch lines were not heavily used and apparently service was on an as-needed basis. A friend of mine who tried to ride these lines ran into a problem when the train didn't operate beyond the junction with the main line on the day it was supposed to. I was fortunate that, on this day at least, we would travel to the outer extremities of both branches. The track quality was some of the worst I encountered on this visit to Mexico, so, of course, it was only fitting that we would have NdeM locomotive 11019, a big, heavy six-axle C30-7 pulling our train! Only in Mexico.

There's some sort of military installation in Ameca, and when I boarded the train, the only other passengers were seven Mexican soldiers. We did pick up some other passengers downline, however. Sure enough, before we arrived in Ameca, one of the Federales asked to see my "papers" which, wouldn't you know, I'd left back at the hotel. After a lecture and a mild hint that I should cough up some money to smooth things over, it was mutually concluded that I was not a tremendous threat to national security. While giving me the lecture, the soldier was using hand signs one sees while playing the game of Charades. "Money" was indicated by rubbing the thumb with the fingers on the same hand. "Jail" was defined by placing the fingers in a verticle position in front of the face. With the advantage of a language barrier, I was able to "play dumb" just enough to skirt what I loosely interpreted was a suggestion of a bribe. A word to the wise for visitors: Keep your passport/tourist/visa papers readily accessible at all times. I certainly will from now on.

That night I flew Aeromexico Flight 129, a DC-9-32 (XA-DEJ) from Guadalajara to Mexico City to once again meet up with Steve and resume some more train riding. While taking a taxi from Mexico City's airport to the Pontevedra Hotel (directly across the street from Buenavista Station), I saw a first in all my years of riding taxis: the driver wedged a small television between the glove box and the passenger seat so he could watch TV while driving! As I was peering over the front seat in disbelief, the driver thought I was straining to see what was on TV and courteously lowered the back of the passenger seat so I'd have a better view! Imagine how many traffic accidents there are in Mexico City when, say, a game point is being scored in the final match of a world soccer series! I wonder how long it'll be before we see this in the States?

The next morning, Steve and I headed over to Buenavista Station to ride Train 61 for Beristain. When I told Steve about my experience on the caboose, he said that he wished we hadn't split up! His experience on the passenger train from Lazaro Cardenas to Uruapan was not quite as eventful. There's good scenery between Lazaro Cardenas and Uruapan, but it's a different type of scenery than what was observed between Penjamo and Ajuno on the Zacapu District.

After I returned to the U.S., I showed the "caboose party pictures" to some of my co-workers, saying, "This is how they railroad down in Mexico. NOW do you guys understand why I like to go on these 'busman's holidays' to our southern neighbor?" I also showed them to some railfans at a slide presentation at a private residence in Santa Ana, CA. Some of the people who were in the all-male audience are participants here on Trainorders and I imagine they still have some vivid memories of that slide presentation.

In September of 2017 I went to a retirement party for an engineer I worked with for many years. At one point when we were reminiscing about memorable events, he discreetly asked, "Do you still have those pictures from that 'caboose party' in Mexico?"

Twenty years down the road, he still remembered them!



Edited 8 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/18 18:07 by CA_Sou_MA_Agent.

Well...we're waiting.

Be sure to add "NSFW" to the subject line when you update the post.

Thanks.

:D

It may be a long wait. It was hard enough for me to try and describe the event and still keep everything within the parameters of a "G" rated website.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/18 18:07 by CA_Sou_MA_Agent.

" ice chest filled with adult beverages, some party supplies and a couple of good-looking young women"

Must have been a BIG ice chest :)

LOL! Noted and corrected.

CA_Sou_MA_Agent Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Noted and updated.

It's not NSFW until you post the pix. ;)

trainjunkie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's not NSFW until you post the pix. ;)

That might be "pushing the envelope." We have to leave something to the imagination, don't we?

Apparently, the young ladies did not......

And god bless them

elueck Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Apparently, the young ladies did not......

Posted from iPhone

¡Santo Bozo Texino!

Then there's the story about your party with a couple of local school board members...