Here's a photograph taken on March 12, 1997, TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, by the conductor of NdeM Mixed Train 321 that ran from Durango to Tepehuanes. At his suggestion, we decided to do some "train surfing" to get some more unique photographic angles and he took this photo of me in the act. I'm standing on the roof of the caboose. On the right you can see part of the ventilator pipe for the coal burning stove. Behind me is the Segunda coach that made it a mixed train. Ahead of that are six boxcars to be delivered to a shipper in the town of Santiago Papasquiaro and ahead of them you can see the G-12 locomotive pulling our train around a curve.

Another thing I liked about traveling in rural Mexico was that, unless maybe you went to church, there was pretty much no formal dress code. You could dress like a slob because most everyone else was dressed that way too!

The following is an excerpt from an article that was published in the October 25 and November 15, 1997, editions (Issues 576 and 577) of the now-defunct Rail Travel News.

On March 12, 1997, a Wednesday, I caught Train 321 (12) to Tepehuanes. NdeM keeps a small fleet of rare G-12 locomotives in Durango, and this day's train was powered by freshly painted No. 5809 pulling six boxcars, a Segunda coach and caboose. The town of Nuevo Ideal had another completely intact water tank and several stations still had agent / telegraphers. The scenery was a little bland until we reached Kilometer 136, where the track suddenly drops off a mountainside through a series of reverse curves and then runs along a very scenic unnamed river canyon, miles from the nearest highway. I made friends with the conductor, and he suggested we climb onto the roof of the caboose for some better photographic angles. My first exposure to "train surfing!" I'm hooked! It was cool having to dodge low-hanging tree limbs outstretched above the train. Climbing up and down the ladder, I knew that one slip would mean I was dead meat. I guess this is what it was like in the U.S. before lawsuits and liability lawyers started redefining our quality-of-life. After arrival in Tepehuanes, I bused back to Durango to save some time. The train is on a up-one-day-back-the-next schedule.

And, of course, with privatization of the nation's railroads, the line has since been abandoned, ripped up, and most likely most local residents under the age of twenty probably have no idea a railroad was ever there in the first place.