We might include, in this discussion, locomotives/equipment that was substituted because the original had already been scrapped. There's a CNR Hudson that survived in that manner, not to mention an NYC Mohawk. I'll bet you guys can fill in the list of others quite competently.

Hundreds of NdeM steam locomotives checked into the gigantic scrapyard at Huehuetoca, Mexico, and never checked out.... BUT at least half a dozen Niagaras DID, along with a standard gauge 2-8-0 1150, a British built 0-6-0T 504, a narrow gauge 2-8-0 and a narrow gauge 4-6-0, probably there are more that I don't know about.

NdeM 4-6-2 #2520 was hidden by employees for several years during the early 70s in the MOW compound in Queretaro, now she's displayed in front of the depot. It certainly CAN happen on a great big railroad that an engine might get lost in the paperwork shuffling --- employees know that nobody at the top knows everything that goes on, these stories of workers conspiring to save a forgotten steam locomotive sound very believable to me.

When I was 12, my family visited a friend who was a civil engineer for ASARCO Mexicana in Nueva Rosita, Mexico, and he showed me a 2-6-2T named LEONOR and a Porter 0-4-0T saddletanker, both out of service. I took pictures and asked about their plans for them, and was told that they would be scrapped when their boiler certificates expired. I immediately offered to match the scrap price for the Porter, and was promised that my offer would be considered. Several months later they contacted me and said that they were not going to sell either engine because they decided that they should be fixed up nice and put on display. 50 years later they are still being cared for, they just got a new paint job.

When the International Railways of Central America was nationalized in 1968, 2-8-2 #205 had been written off and was sitting in the scrapyard in Escuintla, Guatemala. 20 years later FEGUA needed a steam engine for excursions, #205 was the best one left, she was patched up and painted, then she ran charter trips until 2002, now she is displayed in the old trainshed in Guatemala City. There have been numerous scrap metal drives by the Guatemalan Army to raise money for weapons, you could safely say that everything that still survives from the FIdeCA/FEGUA has gotten a reprieve.

Finally, I can say for sure that the ADORABLE, 30 inch gauge, woodburning, 7 ton, Porter 0-4-2 saddletanker I found in the scrapyard behind Ingenio Pantaleon (Guatemala) back in 1991 was being cut up slowly, and that most sheet metal had been removed for other projects around the mill. I immediately threw a fit, and stuck around for a few days so that I could meet with the mill manager and bid on the engine through proper channels. The guy was Cuban, he didn't care for the Guatemalans much, and he liked gringos less. Of course jmy offer went in the trash, and my contacts eventualy reproted that the engine had been scrapped. As it turns out, Thomas Kautzer posted a trip report better than 20 years later including a foto proving that they patched this engine up, painted her real nice, and put her on display by the front entrance. Not only that, but the three 30 inch gauge steam engines at nearby Ingenio El Bayuel have also been painted up and put under cover.

I think broken is really the only word that can be used for the GP7, since it was set aside, eventually used by Pielet as a yard switcher, and was then sold.