The previous five photos I've posted covered a trip I made on NdeM Train 108 from Puebla to Oaxaca on February 21, 1996. Here's another photo I posted earlier, looking out the rear of the train, when we were in one of the narrow stretches of Tomellin Canyon -- perhaps THE narrowest stretch:

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The next day my traveling companions and I rode NdeM Trains 332 and 331 on a round trip from Oaxaca to San Geronimo Taviche, and I've previously posted three photos from that trip that can be accessed here:

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Jumping from 1996 to the year 2000, I made another trip to Mexico and rode a three-car High Iron Travel Explorers special train organized by Clark Johnson and Nona Hill that covered almost all of what is currently the Kansas City Southern de Mexico, part of the merged Canadian Pacific Kansas City railroads. A fellow passenger, the late John Harmon, wrote an extensive article about the trip for the now-defunct RAIL TRAVEL NEWS magazine, and the links below will take you to the article. I furnished the photographs for the article.

He mentions in detail an incident at the international border where we had to pay a bribe to enter the country!

Since it was a very expensive trip, I split a ticket with another guy and rode southbound while he rode northbound. We switched at Morelia but, as the train was working its way back to the U.S. it made a round trip over the line from San Luis Potosi to Tampico and we both wanted to "get the mileage" on that segment. So ..... I rode a series of buses from Morelia to Tampico and rendezvoused with the train there. I then rode to San Luis Potosi and flew home from there. I had to change buses in Mexico City and they have some bus stations there that are as large as airport terminals. There was one point in the middle of the night where we had a "change of equipment" of buses on the shoulder of a road in the middle of nowhere. There were also frequent checkpoints by the Federales.

I also did some general touristy stuff while I was making my way to Tampico and it was quite an adventure and a lot of fun. As we all know, things have changed quite a bit in the ensuing 24 years.

In addition to the article, here are some links that will take you to most of the photos that appeared in the article, and they are of better quality and have descriptive captions.

The photo here shows the train on March 30 pausing for a crew change at the large stone depot in Escobedo, Guanajuato on TFM's Celaya District. Note the Mexican soldier guarding the station platform. Most of the major cities in Mexico had large, impressive stations. Cuatla, Morelos had a stub-ended terminal for its narrow-gauge operation and San Luis Potosi also featured a stub-ended terminal, as examples.

John Harmon's RTN report on the 2000 Mexican Explorers Trip:

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Here are the photos and captions:

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