I’m not here as a tourist, although now I wish I were. I’m part of a delegation to Mexico’s first “International Colloquium on Railway Cultural Heritage Conservation” (my translation). Nathaniel Guest, from the NRHS/Colebrookdale Railroad in Pennsylvania, and Terry Koller, from the Georgia State Railroad Museum/Coastal Heritage Society in Savannah, round out our informal railroad diplomatic outreach.
The museum is a delight. There are 91 pieces of standard- and narrow-gauge equipment spread out over 30 acres of urban parkland. Most are passenger and freight cars, but there are some eye-openers.
At one point, I turned a corner and came face-to-face with Alco PA No. DH-19 — a locomotive I rode behind on Delaware & Hudson’s Montrealer in 1969. Museum staff start it up a few times a month to charge the batteries and keep the machinery limber. Some of the same men who maintained it in regular service now take care of it in retirement — theirs, and the locomotive’s.
Former Pere Marquette Office Car No. 2 looked as if it had just arrived from an inspection trip to the Upper Peninsula. Museum conservators (MNFM has three university-trained specialists on staff; its curator, Bruno Wilson Ebergenyi, has a degree in chemistry) were restoring the interior of a former Northern Pacific Lewis-and-Clark-themed Traveler’s Rest buffet-lounge car. Poking around in the air brake instruction car was a real treat.
The themes of the conference were commonsense and blindingly obvious: How should we preserve the physical heritage we’ve accumulated over the last century? What are the stories we can tell? What good ideas and innovations are we cooking up? How do we make railroading interesting to new audiences, and ensure that our museums and heritage sites will still be around in another century?
Scholars, museum professionals, and railway specialists came from South America, Europe, Mexico, and thankfully, the U.S. So far as anyone could recall, this was the first time anyone from up here had taken the time to participate in meetings like this in Mexico — at least at this level. Why did it take so long — and what have we been missing?
There are lots of plausible explanations. It was a struggle for Bill Withuhn and Doyle McCormack to repatriate PA No. 18 and another damaged PA carbody from Mexico. Sometimes cultural resource policies work at cross-purposes. And we’ve only been talking freely to our Canadian cousins for a decade or two. We are only now beginning to reach across the pond to British and European railway heritage folks.
We three amigos didn’t push open the door to a new set of opportunities with our more southerly colleagues. They took the initiative, and swung the door open to its widest. Then they coaxed us in with Alcos, EMDs, and heavyweights, and then made us feel welcomed and valued as friends and fellow railroaders.
I will point out that until World War I — when we found it necessary to demonize Germany to fluff up American patriotism — my hometown of Baltimore had several German-language newspapers, and the city’s school system offered primary instruction in German for children whose native language was not English. Presenting our railroad heritage in Spanish isn’t politically correct or pandering. It simply recognizes changing times and shifting demographics, and the fact that there are new audiences we can bring into the fold.
The Association of Railway Museums should be delighted to welcome MNFM as a new member. My hope is that many U.S. railway heritage organizations will recognize how much they have in common with their Mexican counterparts. All of our Western railroads had financial and operating interests in Mexican railroading — why not understand those histories as two sides of the same coin?
MNFM has very nice traveling railway heritage exhibits that I think many of us here would like to see. We have exhibits they would enjoy. I see a bright future for railway heritage tourism in both directions. What if we begin to engage the many people in the U.S. of Hispanic heritage who might become card-carrying, dues-paying, participating members of our railway heritage organizations? It wouldn’t be difficult to make them feel like valued participants, and their interests and efforts could energize much of our work.
Terry, Nathaniel, and I agree. We’ve never been so warmly welcomed, or so graciously treated as friends and colleagues, as we have been here. We will leave wanting to come back soon. We very much want to get our Mexican counterparts to the U.S., and show them our work and what we have in common. There are no real borders when it comes to railroad history or heritage. An Alco PA — even with a replacement 251V12 prime mover — sounds precisely the same in a Puebla park as it did idling in Grand Central Station, or Montreal’s Gare Centrale. If you listen closely, it could have been Los Angeles or Chicago.
The challenges we all face, and the rewards we enjoy, are identical. I just hope we are smart enough to keep walking through the door Teresa Márquez Martínez, Bruno Wilson Ebergenyi, and their MNFM colleagues so graciously opened for us.
Outstanding, John. There is indeed special reason for collaboration among the preservation communities of Mexico, the US and Canada. Not only are (and were) railroading practices similar in all three countries, but they regularly interchanged traffic among one other. As for the rest of the Americas, how great it would be if, for example, pooled expertise could help save an Ecuadorian, French-built, dual cab, articulated, narrow gauge diesel (my favorite cab ride ever) or a vintage, US-built steam loco. Same goes for other historic equipment scattered throughout the two continents and around the world. This is an exciting new frontier for historic preservation.
I wish I knew about this place. After I retired from the airlines I got a job flying for a Mexican company based in El Paso. Small jets are no longer allowed into Mexico City and we tried Puebla as an alternate airport other than Taluca. The mordida was much higher in Puebla so after our three days there we never went back.
John (and all): I've come across two pictures from February 1975 of the rebuilt Delaware & Hudson PA-1 #19 passing through Clarendon Hills, IL on it's way back into service out east. This is the very same engine you saw at the Mexican Natl Railroad Museum.
I'd be happy to email or post it somewhere if you're interested in seeing it. Alternatively, I've attemoted to post it here: skydrive.live.com
If only a centipede had survived.... but I agree Mexico has fascinated me since I was a child. and now i have another source of info on the line between Carneros and Saltillo, where those monsters ran.
Trains has boasted for years that it is THE magazine of railroading, however, it has grossly neglected the Mexican railroad scene. Is it not time to completely restructure the content and eliminate the traffic density maps (they belong in Classic Trains anyway) and add monthly columns on Mexico and Canada rail reports (both current and historical) and also increase Classic Trains by two issues each year devoted to Mexican and Canadian railways?
Increasing the size of Trains each month to no less than 100 pages would also greatly improve overall reading quality despite a slight rise in the cover price. I believe all devoted Trains readers will gladly pay the additional cost. I know I would! Ditto to adding two issues a year to CT!
Thanks, John. Very Good. I have been to that museum 3 times--it is very interesting. Going back to the 1950s, I have ridden trains in 22 of the 31 Mexican states. I too have always been warmly welcomed. I would like to see more coverage of the Mexican railroads, past and present.
yes the amount of ex usa stock including alcos rusting away is amazing
It's about time that our neighbors to the south were given the same recognition and respect that we show for our neighbors to the north.
Well written with an excellent recommendation regarding the TX and CA museums. From all appearances the items in the museum are being well cared for and no obvious sign of vandalism. What is the museum's source of funds to have such a well kept roster of equipment?
I think that it's a great idea! It should definatlly looked into.
Re: the caption under the picture of N de M coach 401. I hesitate to quibble with someone with John’s credentials but, being from the south, my antennae tends to rise when someone uses the term “Jim Crow” when describing anything. To me, the classic “Jim Crow” coach is readily identifiable by the fact that a car in such service was divided into two passenger compartments separated by a baggage compartment in the center of the car. My cursory research discloses an early picture of the exact same coach taken when it was (apparently) in revenue service (rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx), and clearly this coach does not have those characteristics and this coach resembles ANY heavy passenger coach of that era. As the cited picture clearly shows there were NO first and second class designations painted on the car. I feel I must question the writer’s conclusion that that car was used in such service on the C&O. If the author has such information (e.g.: the original C&O car number) or information clearly indicating the car was built and used in “Jim Crow” service, it would be instructive to have had it included in the article. Why include such a remark in the first place?
Nice to see the hard work of the Mexican railroad preservationists getting recognition. I've always been curious as to what survives of US steam that was sold south of the border, i.e., C&NW Z-class 2-8-0's, etc. I agree with the previous comments that this subject deserves far more attention in the magazine. Thanks for posting this!
I hope that we're becoming a bit less provincial in the US, given that we're all much more connected with the rest of the globe, economically and socially, than we were even a decade or two ago. This is true with railroads as well. I think most fans in the US are put off by most foreign railroads, either the equipment "looks funny" or foreign languages are threatening to them. But this is an excellent call to arms for fans to look outside our own borders. As John said in the article, an Alco 251 sounds the same in Puebla as it did in Dearborn Street station (even though, in this case, the locomotive actually worked in both locales!). Foreign language? Railroading is a universal language and it is heartening to see magazines such as TRAINS embrace coverage of topics outside of the US and Canada (however slowly).
Are there a set of railfans in Mexico who are of the overzealous variety? Are they called Los Espumeros? :)