I got time to squander this afternoon so I thought I'd share this here...
My first trip to Guatemala in November, 1971 was certainly the most steam filled of 6 trips that I took down there. Although 18 new GE second generation diesels were on the property and in operation, the railroad still was using a lot of steam on its ng lines.
It was either a Wednesday or Thursday and right before I returned home that I made another visit to the large yard and shop area in Guatemala City. After getting a few images of 194, a postwar Baldwin Mike, I walked over to it and was invited by the crew to ride. It was late in the day & I was already thinking about dinner, but I was not about to pass up this opportunity.
194 was to run light about 60 miles to Rancho, water, service and turn, then help the daily passenger back to Guatemala City. The road fireman gave up his seat and I was able to fire the damn thing all the way to Rancho. We stopped for water only once and he took care of the spout for me. We also passed the wreckage of sister 2-8-2 195 that had rolled into the river, killing her crew. The overturned wreck was a sobering sight.
I had little chance at all to take in the scenic river that we followed for miles as the hogger
was flat cooking. Frequently when firing a light engine, you experience a difficult time
firing with not enough draft, but we boogied along so well that it was easy keeping up with steam & water. In the miles to Rancho, we went over 3 summits and through 2 tunnels IIRC.
We got to Rancho, took care of the engine and turned it and still had a short wait for the passenger.
The fireman suggested that he & I pool some change and he purchased us some food from a vendor that turned out to be pretty tasty and filling.
The ride back was a real experience and the engine was working so hard that I had to really force the fire to keep up with it. Shopmen had fabricated a tin shroud on the lefthand side of
the firebox box to shield you from the heat and white light. If it hadn't have been for that, I'd have had a heck of a headache and I'm sure, some difficulty seeing.
We didn't tie up until around midnight and the guys all treated me good during the trip. This was my only experience around a helper on the Atlantic Division.
One thing about the 194, she was the only one of the 57 Mikes that had a sealed beam headlight, I remember that.
194 was used on at least one Central American Rail Tours charter ran by John West & George Werner. John may have photos of her on his ng website. A nice machine and fairly good shape and I also remember how square her valves were.