E.T.T.S. - Everything Turn to Doo Doo

Here's a "before and after" look at what the train station in Zimatlan de Alvarez, Oaxaca looked like on February 22, 1996, when it had rail service, and what it looks like today. Actually, the Google streetview pic was taken in August of 2013.

A couple of friends and I rode through the town twice that day on Trains 332 and 331 when we made a round trip from the city of Oaxaca to San Jeromino Taviche and back. In the photo, Train 332, with a rare G12 locomotive in the NdeM (pre-FNM) paint scheme, is dropping off a boxcar at the station. I almost wonder if the crews were dropping boxcars off at certain stations and later picking them up in a "make work" exercise to make it appear the line(s) had active freight shippers. Zimatlan was 22 kilometers down the line from Oaxaca.

In the 2013 "after" picture, as you can see, the rail line has been replaced by a highway and the train station has found a non-rail use. Sadly, there are now countless examples of this all across Mexico and many other countries of the world.

You can rotate this GOOGLE image 360 degrees once you access it:

[goo.gl]