Even as late as 1971, when the 3' gauge former IRCA line in Guatemala was recently into second generation diesels, they still had an everyday afternoon helper job called out of Guatemala City.

This job ran east, railroad north, about 61 miles to Rancho as a light engine. It would return with the steam helper cut into the train, usually the daily passenger from Puerto Barrios.

The color image shows Krupp built Mikado 170 crossing the 240 foot high Puente de Vacas on the outskirts of Guatemala City in early 1961. Photographer unknown. I never ran an engine across this bridge, but fired across it twice.

The black & white shows Baldwin Mikado 194 in the Guatemala City yard on the afternoon of November 28, 1971. Right after I shot this, the crew invited me up in the cab. I asked where they were headed and they said to Rancho. The fireman took my camera case off of my shoulder and stowed it up in the overhead rack. I was the fireman for the rest of the day. I knew then just what a unique opportunity this would be for me. Once I got the hang of it, it was pretty easy to stay with the engineer. I was surprised at how fast we went, 20 mph on 40 inch drivers. The machine rode decently enough.

We got to Rancho before dark, watered and wyed the engine. The engineer got out a grease gun and started to hit the rods and the fireman led me a couple of blocks into town where we pooled our finances and bought hot food to share with the crew.

The passenger eventually arrived and we were cut into the train. I was really glad for the tin shroud that they had fabricated and affixed to the firebox door. Not only did it shield me from the heat and prevent leg burns, but it also cut out some of the blinding white light from the firebox on our way back to Guatemala City. We topped 3 summits on grades as steep as 3.3% and didn't tie up until about one thirty the next morning. I was on a PanAm Clipper heading home about 13 hours later.