International Railroad Discussion > Anyone Want To Ride FCCM Between Ixtepec and Tapachula?

A friend of mine asked me to post this. If interested, please contact them at the email addresses shown at the bottom of the post.

To: Any Adventurous Railfan Interested in a Mexican Train Ride

From: lll.dwilong@worldnet.att.net (Dwight Long)

I have received information from the Chiapas-Mayab RR about trains Nos. 105 and 106, which run between Ixtepec and Tapachula, 417 KM each way on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico. There have been significant changes since the last (2002) information.

From what C-M RR has advised, the trains now only run once a week in each direction, rather than tri-weekly and take almost 24 hours (scheduled) each way, as opposed to the quoted 12 hours last year. Southbound 105 leaves Ixtepec on Tuesday at 10:00 and arrives Tapachula Wednesday at 09:15. Northbound 106 leaves Tapachula on Saturdays at 15:00 and arrives Ixtepec at 13:35 on Sunday.

This is obviously an arduous trip through Oaxaca and Chiapas states, which are the frontier of Mexico and sometimes in the past have been subject to guerilla warfare and bandit attacks. The railroad was quick to point out that "this is not a tourist train!"

If I can convince at least one other person I am going to do this (southbound) after a Panama Canal trip in January. Here is my plan:

Arrive Mexico City by air Monday 19 January by mid afternoon. Take super lujo/rapido bus (Uno Bus Line) from Mexico City Tapo bus station to Juchitan; this leaves at 21:00 and is a 10 hour trip. Juchitan is 17 KM from Ixtepec and either a local bus or cab should get us there in time for the 10:00 departure. The fall back position is to catch the train at Juchitan at 10:48. From Tapachula there are busses (17 hours) direct to Mexico City or one can break the trip over Oaxaca, which is what I plan to do. I am going to stay a night in Tapachula to recover from the ordeal, shower, etc., then move on to Oaxaca, then Mexico. Those with limited time could fly back from Tapachula to Mexico City.

I do not feel up to doing this adventure without at least one companion. The more the better! I am going to book to Mexico City in any event for the 19th; if no one is foolhardy enough to do the Tehuantepec trip, I will head north and do the Cuatro Cienegas-Sierra Mojada trip (177 KM each way) on the Coahuila Durango RR.

Anyone interested, please contact me by private email, but due to some travel commitments, it may be several days before I can respond. You may also contact Miles Post at the email address shown below, who will pass the information along to me. He can answer some of your questions in my absence.

Dwight Long
lll.dwilong@worldnet.att.net

--or--
Miles Post
milespost@aol.com

If you do this & get to Tapachula, walk cross the bridge (border crossing) into the Guatemalan yard & see if there is still any stored steam there. Last time I was there, they still had a steel water tank, a small engine shed & a 4-6-0 that was sometimes used to switch. Bear in mind, this was some years ago, but you may find a surprise or two.

FCCM crosses the border from Tapachula, Chiapas to Tecún Uman, Guatemala yards (dual gauge) and the railroad south of there is closed (I think it's in the process of reopening because i was sold to a U.S. operator).

The problem is the North America/Central America incompatibility of standard/narrow guages.

Geep

Railroad Development Corporation out of Pittsburgh, PA has the Concession to operate the former Ferrocarril Guatemala (FEGUA). I believe it is a 25 year concession and the Government gets a percentage in return for restoration of the line.

As of 2003 only the Guatemala City to Puerto Barrios section has been reopened. The long term plan was to reopen other sections including the Mexican border line. However the amount of traffic has not warranted the investment in reopening the line. Also a proposal to 3 rail the line has been proposed.

In reference to Dwight Longs proposed tour, it is a ambitious plan. I would like to hear more information on the safety issues? Not a good time for me to try it. This tour was proposed during a Trains Unlimited Tour in 2001 to Mexico. Then September 11th came along and the world situation changed. Tours were cancelled to Mexico and other destinations by Americans.

Dale Brown

See "Train Attacked..." posted in this forum on 12/11/03.

Very interesting post and important information on the situation in Southern Mexico. I would side on the way of safety and not see this as a good time to travel this route. What kind of security is provided by the railroad and Government?

Also is the southern point of standard gauge of the North American Standard Gauge system at the Guatemalan Border? South of this point the railroads are three foot gauge in Guatemala and El Salvador and transition into a variety of gauges both in Central and South America. There is no continuis rail connections to the South American Continent.

Dale Brown

Very interesting post and important information on the situation in Southern Mexico. I would side on the way of safety and not see this as a good time to travel this route. What kind of security is provided by the railroad and Government?

Also is the southern point of standard gauge of the North American Standard Gauge system at the Guatemalan Border? South of this point the railroads are three foot gauge in Guatemala and El Salvador and transition into a variety of gauges both in Central and South America. There is no continuis rail connections to the South American Continent.

Dale Brown

I should have added to my earlier post that the Tecun Uman yard was dual-gauge & that the NdeM used to come across the border & switch. I witnessed this in late January of 1977. Loco used then was one of those EMD lightweight geeps, #5821.

Referring to the lightweight geeps, they were called G12's and G16's, Ferromex has 2 G12's still in service.

Canada had em too.

Geep

Back in the good ole days Central American Rail Tours ran several trips to Guatemala via the Tecun Uman connection. I think Great Western Tours did so as well. There used to be a through sleeper from Mexico City to Tapachula, and its capacity was supplemented with a chartered NdeM business car. It was a long slow trip via Vera Cruz (old street cars), but it was interesting.

But speaking of dangers, I remember being delayed enroute Tapachula by a derailed freight ahead of us one day. When we stopped in a small town to cool our heals, the conductor warned us to stay near the train because "here they don't even like Mexicans".

It is quite possible that the FCCM still operates into Tecun Uman, because in the old days they handled standard gauge cars directly to some online industries in Tecun Uman. Seems to me LPG or other petroleum products arrived in standard guage tanks. I also remember seeing a SFRD reefer in Tecun Uman and wondering where Santa Fe's computer thought it was, or when it last had a reporting on it.

There have been various proposals for a Panamerican Railroad over the years, starting with Minor Keith at the turn of the century. More recently, on a Trains Unlimited tour in Guatemala, I ran into an engineer who claimed to be retained by the World Bank to assess whether the ex-IRCA bridges could be standard gauged.

John West