from: rebecca rebeccabarry.net <rebecca@rebeccabarry.net>

Sent: Saturday, April 11, 2026 at 01:47:11 PM PDT
Subject: New Book by Frank Barry: Chasing Steam in Mexico Available now!

Hello Friends and Railfans!

This is to let you you know that Frank Barry's new travel memoir, "Chasing Steam in Mexico," is here and ready to ship. It is a beautiful hardcover book--368 pages of stories with over three hundred photos. If you are on this list, it's because you bought his last book, or have expressed interest in this new one.

You can read about and purchase the book on our website, https://www.frankbarryphotography.com/

It is $89.25 including shipping and handling in the US.

We also have a pay-what-you-can option where you can pay anything from $50 to $80.

We know the world is a wild place right now and money is tight for lots of folks and we want to make the book as affordable as we can.
Please don't hesitate to hit the pay-what-you-can if it makes things easier for you!

If you'd like to have it shipped internationally, the price goes up significantly depending on where it is going. You can contact me directly for a quote. (Please add the shipping cost to your pay-what-you-can option.)

If you'd prefer to send a check, please make a check for $89.25 (or whatever you can pay plus $9.25 for shipping) out to: Fresh Dirt Publications, and send it to:

Rebecca Barry
41 Cayuga Street
Trumansburg, New York 14886-9106
USA

Thank you so much for your interest in Dad's work.
This book has been a meaningful project for our family, and we are so excited to share it with you!

Please feel free to reach out to me directly with any questions or concerns.
Yours sincerely,
Rebecca

Here is a description of the book:

About the book:

In 1959 Frank Barry moved to Mexico to work for the American Friends Service Committee. Fresh out of college, he arrived with a rucksack, a Rolleicord camera, a tripod, and a quest: to visit and photograph every line of the National Railways of Mexico (NdeM) that still ran steam. He spent every weekend and vacation traveling mostly on foot, climbing trees and cliffs to get the right shot, sometimes riding on top of boxcars, or in the engine cab—taking photos and collecting stories. By the end of two years, he had traveled in 26 of Mexico's 31 states and territories to cover nearly every steam-operated route on the NdeM.

Years later, revisiting his photos for an exhibit at the Johnson Museum of Art, he saw things he hadn't noticed before: women wearing rebozos with children on their backs; a campesino with his burro alongside the tracks; a little boy riding an engine being turned by hand like a merry-go-round.

He realized that something had happened while his photos were sitting quietly in their boxes: They had become historic. Besides photographing the machines he loved, he had unknowingly captured a way of life that has perhaps otherwise been forgotten.
Each of the first 11 chapters of "Chasing Steam" consists of a collection of stories that took place on a division or subdivision of the NdeM; chapter 12 does the same for the United Railways of Yucatan; and chapter 13 covers the small railroads: short lines and industrials. Each chapter begins with a map, so the reader can follow along with the author on each of his rides.

Equally as compelling as the 326 photographs in this 368-page coffee-table book are the tales that go along with them. By turns suspenseful, funny, distressing, informative, remarkable, and heartwarming, his stories chronicle a time when the railroads were a central part of daily life for many people. Included at the end of most chapters are historical notes and a gallery of exceptional images that weren't part of Frank's storytelling. A story of adventure travel long before it became a trend, this is the kind of book that will captivate any true railfan—and might even convert the nonbeliever.

I ordered my copy last Monday and it has been shipped.

Frank Barry is a real genius with a camera. We are blessed to be able to see his work.
He gifted me a pair of 11 by 14 enlargements many years ago of IRCA operations
on the Atlantic Division and they remain among my most loved possessions.

This effort should be a real gem for anyone to have.

Tom

My book got here on Monday. It was well-packed and undamaged.

I lack the words to fully express just what a beautiful work this is.
And to think that Frank was teen-ager when he first started. it's
really an exhibit of art.

Tom

To readers of Frank Barry's magnificent Mexican Steam book,

Please allow me to apologize for a mixup in the chapter concerning the FC Mexicano del Pacifico. I INADVERTENTLY SDIGNED OFF on incorrect information concerning MdeP #5, as well as the rest of the MdelP steamers, rather than adding the following material:

Probably the best known of the MdelP roster, 2-6-2 #6 was built by Baldwin in 1920 for the California Western as their #21. Her smokebox originally carried the headlight in the center on a graceful Baldwin door and bracket, but one night she rear-ended #5, an Alco 2-6-2, hard enough to fold her tender tank up double. #6 was rebuilt with a flat smokebox front and high headlight mounting. #5 got a leaky old tender from a scrapped 4-4-0, but she was never the same after that, so she was sold to another mill in Vera Cruz State. #5's crumpled tank took root among the mesquites and salt cedars behind the enginehouse, and served for many years as an unofficial employee break area after being furnished with cooking utensils, playing cards, checkerboard, ashtrays, and suitable reading material.

I could have added that the mill #5 went to was CIASA, and that the engines working on the MdelP at the end were #4 #6, and #7, and that #2 had been put on display on the lawn of the sugar mill office. The present location of #2 and #4 is unknown to me, but the location of #7 is a shopping mall in downtown Los Mochis where she is on a pedestal next to a water sculpture without her tender (corrosion city). #6 was last spotted in a scrapyard in El Salto, Jalisco in terrible shape, but listed for sale for $65,000 USD and the tender for another $65,000 USD.

I especially offer my apologies to Frank and Rebecca Barry for letting this happen,

Sammy King