"In Nicaragua we saw all three surviving steam locos known to us at Managua, Granada and Corinto.

In Tegucigalpa (Honduras) we saw the steam loco at the Army headquarters.

In El Salvador the new museum is excellent as it has kept much of the character from a working railway. We saw all six known steam survivors in San Salvador and Sonsonate and were able to arrange a charter within station limits with EMD GA-8 858 on the spot. 861 & 862 are also operational and the line to Apopa (13 km) could still be operated over.

In Guatemala our visits to the former FEGUA/Ferrovias have been arranged through Jorge Senn, Henri Posner 3's former in-country manager for Ferrovias, and we were able to see all 12 stem locos and all the diesels at Ciudad and Zacapa.

I also managed to get permission to visit all 7 of Grupo Pantaleon's steam locos (+ 1 Ruston diesel) at the sugar factories in El Baul, Pantaleon and Concepcion. At first the answer for Pantaleon was no, but i was able to convince them to let us in for the Shay.

There are many more still active sugar factories along the Pacific coast and there might be some more preserved locos inside. We were told of another loco at Ingenio Madre Tierra, but could not gain access and were then told it had been recently scrapped, which might have been a way to not tell us no.

We also made some interesting new discoveries. At Champerico the internal pier railway remained in service until 1980, some time after closure of the Fegua line. After the pier became inoperable the port is only being used by small fisherboats, but the railway is still active on special occasions with a Rhurthler diesel running up and down one of the three lines with two small bench cars. Once we made ourselves know as visitors from Germany it was easy to arrange a photo special. Part of a warehouse has been turned into a museum which contains two more locos, machinery and photos. The following locos were present:

0-4-0ST No. 2 Baldwin 11511 of 01/1891 plinthed with 1 wagon;
4wD No. 3 Davenport 1955 inside Museo;
4wDM No. 4 Rhurthaler 8608 operational;
4wDE No. 5 GE 1976 inside Museo (operational).

If anyone has accessto the details for the Rhurthaler from the Merte list, I would be interested.

Then Jorge told us about the remains of a Shay-worked n.g. railroad a which used to link a mable quarry high up in the mountains at Telucutan (30 km from Zacapa) with the IRCA station, including a steam-worked incline. The remains of one of the Shays (boiler, part of the motion and builders plate No. 927 of 1904) are on display 5 km off the main road from Ciudad to Pto Barrios. Up in the mountains are the remains of two more Shays, but its a 2-3 hour drive over a rough road.

For today we have an authorization to visit the Bandegua steam loco at Morales, then its on to Honduras and Belize, where a learnt of a 3rd surviving steam loco having been discovered exactly 1 year ago shortly before setting of for this trip. It's probably a Porter and is close to Hill Bank Field Station, the place with the portable."

A report by Thomas Kautzor from this week.

Where do you find the time and money to do all this?

Every person on that RR tourist vacations should come back with full sets of blueprints.

Those RR's will be gone in less than 10 years, then what? We need the blueprints for every piece of equipment down there.

I can get it cataloged and placed into one of the transportation libraries and it will last forever, but it has to get here first.

Anytime anyone, and any group, from the Western world goes to look at RR's in distant continents and countries, you should think of yourself as a group of RR archeologists, in the mold of Indiana Jones and bring back the paper.

Any ALCO locomotives, the blueprints do not exists anywhere.

Most Baldwin locomotives older than 1938, the blueprints do not exist in our collections.

We need you people that have the resources to go tour those distant locations to hunt down the info and bring it home, bring home notes, contacts, lists, whatever you can get. And contact a researcher before you go so you'll know what to look for. We are running out of opportunity fast.

I was unaware that railroads in "third world" countries kept large inventories of duplicate blueprints to sell or give to "Yanqui" touristas. . . .

They don't ( keep copies for the tourists) but they do have them usually, either at the shop, or at an archive. There is a copy/print shop in the big cities. I didn't say it was quick, but its not difficult. The task might not be able to be completed on the first trip, but how many trips have been made to all those locations? Our archives should be full by now, and they are as incomplete as they were 30 years ago.

Wow, that's quite a find regarding the Shay powered line near Zacapa, Guatemala. Had I known of that when I was down there in the 70's, I'd likely have tried to explore same.

As to the 30" gauge Shay at Pantaleon, both it and the Baldwin 0-6-2T were both running in March of 1973 when Al Shelton & I visited there. Despite the place being guarded with kid soldatos toting M1A1 Thompsons, we were able to poke around and got to run the little Shay in the mill yard.

Tom,

Do you have images from your time with the Shay and the Tank loco in 1973?

This is what they look like today.

TH

.

What did you see in the line of locomotive cranes?

The Pantaleon Shay is apparently Lima C/N 2374, built in 1910:
http://www.shaylocomotives.com/data/lima2399/sn-2374.htm

It looks like the current steel cab is of relatively recent construction.

-Philip Marshall

Thanks for the reply Tom.

I'll send you a PM but do not want to put you to any trouble or expense. Thomas though would certainly like to see the loco(s) working in 1973 for his final report which will be widely circulated.

Meanwhile here is an image of the Baldwin located in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Note the builders plate and this comment.

"FCNH 2-8-0 number 9. The plate is from Baldwin MacArthur 71420, with the 4 in 1945 filed off to make it look like 1915."

https://www.dropbox.com/s/iojswue7ydclt ... 8.JPG?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/joif3haeh2l1l ... 1.JPG?dl=0

TH

No trouble at all Trevor. 4 by 6 prints cost next to nothing for me and I'm happy to do this. Just send me your address too.
Tom

Trevor -

So, do you (or someone) know the REAL particulars on Ten-Wheeler #9 down there in Honduras? Looks like narrow gauge to me; 30" or 36"? A good looking locomotive, and in very nice shape to boot!

Les