Little Trains to Faraway Places

14. A Railway Reborn (2000)

14 long the banks of the broad, powerful Rio motagua we stood and stared at the unwelcome boulders that had slumped over the narrow-gauge rails of Ferrovías Guatemala, blocking the path of our train. No. 205, a stalwart outside-frame Mikado built in 1948 by Baldwin Locomotive Works (think Denver & Rio Grande Western’s very similar narrow-gauge power), hissed and wheezed, its pilot just feet from the rocks, while the crew, along with many of the 49 passengers, surveyed the impasse. In fact, it was no big deal for Guatemalan railroaders, who routinely improvised their way through washouts, derailments, and other untoward events (up to and including the complete years-long shutdown of their railway ), generally armed with only hand tools and their wits. Within minutes, crew members with crowbars pried boulders loose and wrestled them clear of the tracks. That done, engineer Jorge Diaz—76 years old, frail but indefatigable , and deeply proud of his locomotive and his work—yanked twice on A a railway reborn • Early morning in El Rancho as No. 205 is about to begin the second lap of its run to the coast. (facing page) Book 1.indb 151 2/16/10 8:51:01 AM l i t t l e t r a i n s t o f a r a w a y p l a c e s . 152 . the whistle cord, sending sweet, shrill notes echoing off the hillside, which in turn sent passengers scrambling to reboard the train. That was my cue to clamber up to the top of the locomotive’s tender, where I joined Bob McLaughlin, a model railroader from Massachusetts, on a wooden bench wired more or less firmly in place. “What a view!” Bob said with a big grin, unlimbering his camcorder. From this open-air perch, we could look down into the locomotive cab and watch Jorge and his fireman as they went about their arcane rituals—the subtle and specialized manipulations of throttle, brake handle, water injector , blower valve, and much else required to get an aging steam locomotive over the road. Or we could see past the locomotive’s boiler and smokestack to the track ahead—or, for that matter, anywhere in a 360-degree orbit at the passing scenery. The 205 was an oil-burner, so there was no hail of cinders to contend with, though low-hanging branches could administer a nasty slap in the face. Just as we were ready to roll, Barbara Coates, another passenger, hesitantly climbed up to make a third on the bench. “My husband will never The crew clears a rockslide near El Rico. Book 1.indb 152 2/16/10 8:51:04 AM a r a i l w a y r e b o r n . 153 . believe I’m doing this,” she said demurely, as we chuffed into motion, left the rockslide behind, and rambled along the Motagua at a stately 15 miles an hour. Speed, I found, is more relative than absolute. Fifteen miles per hour on a steam locomotive tender over marginal 3-foot-gauge track, rocking and rolling through the jungle, felt plenty fast. We were on the second day of the weeklong “Great Guatemalan Rail Adventure,” the February 2000 edition of a tour that Chris Skow’s Trains Unlimited, Tours had been offering since 1988, in every year but 1999. Our journey would take us 197.4 rugged rail miles from Guatemala City, the capital , to the Caribbean Coast at Puerto Barrios, then back again, with some time out for sightseeing. One hundred and ninety-seven miles doesn’t really tell the story, however; far more pertinent is the elevation differential: from 4,910 feet at Guatemala City to essentially sea level at the port. The western, mountainous section of this route is very much an up-and-down railroad, scattered with spectacular trestles and featuring ruling grades of 3 percent or better in both directions. In fact, our trip was remarkable in many ways. Ferrovías Guatemala was an operation only about two months old, run by a United States–based concessionaire that had taken over a nationalized railway shut down for many years—since 1996. It’s a story with many interweaving threads: Henry Posner’s Railroad Development Corporation (RDC), the concessionaire, headquartered in Pittsburgh; Trains Unlimited, which for a few years operated the only trains on the line; the...