Here's a photo of the High Iron Travel MEXICAN FIESTA 2000 train at the station in Uruapan, Michoacan on April 01, 2000, TWENTY-TWO YEARS AGO. The power has been run around the train in preparation for our departure. A number of us decided to pose on and around the rear platform of the private car "Prairie Rose" for a group photo. On the ground, left to right, we have Jack Swanberg (CT), the security guard watching over the station, George Werner (TX), and Fred Springer (TX). On the private car, left to right we have Dante Stephensen (GA), one of the car attendants, John Godfrey (Quebec), Dwight Long (DE), Frank Fairbanks (PA), John Arbuckle (KS) and Sharon and Tom Sharratt (WI). There's also someone lurking in the shadows between Frank and John, whom I believe may be John Harmon (NJ) but I can't be positive.

Sadly, Mssrs. Springer, Stephensen, Long, Fairbanks, Arbuckle and Harmon have since passed on since this photo was taken.

With privatization, and with the passenger trains discontinued, the future of the station in Uruapan is uncertain and it appears KCSdeM has abandoned the four-kilometer line segment that brought trains into the city from Caltzontzin (also known as Apatzingan District Jct.). Here's a video from 2009 that shows probably one of the last movements over the line before abandonment when a couple of grain hopper cars were pulled from a team track at the abandoned freight house which was a little beyond the passenger station.

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Also, the links below will take you to a re-produced article from the now-defunct publication RAIL TRAVEL NEWS and is the April 15/30, 2000 issue that had extensive coverage of High Iron Travel's MEXICAN FIESTA 2000 chartered train. The late John Harmon wrote the article and I supplied the photographs. I have previously posted almost all of the photographs from this article here at Altamont Press, in the 28th, 29th, 31st, 32nd, and 35th installments. The 30th and 50th installments are a couple of "bonus shots" not included in this article.

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As I may have mentioned previously, to save money I "split" a ticket with another passenger where I essentially rode southbound and he rode northbound. On the northbound journey, I was not on the train from Morelia to Tampico and from San Luis Potosi to New Orleans. While the train was working its way from Morelia to Tampico, I did some general "touristy" things like taking a boat across Lake Patzcuaro and hiking up to the statue of Morelos on Janitzio Island. Today's trivia: In 1967 the TV series "I SPY", starring the late Robert Culp and Bill Cosby, filmed the episode "The Spy Business" (Season 3 Episode 24) on Janitzio Island and the surrounding area.

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