Over the weekend I stopped at a garage sale. Burried amongst piles of aircraft and travel magazines, guides and other booklets was a gem of a book. Central American Holiday, by Gerald Best. What an incredible book this is. I had never paid much attention to steam south of the border before. They have my attention now. What is the preservation scene like down there? I was impressed by the amount of narrow gauge power, and in particular, a 3 foot gauge articulated locomotive that resembles some big C&O power in the states. Fascinating stuff if someone has not had the pleasure of seeing it.

I've had the pleasure of seeing it, and working for three different employers there. My last job was firing steam for the last operator of the system, Ferrovias Guatemala. The articulated locomotives you saw were the famous Sumpter Valley engines, which were scrapped, but I recovered the tenders from them for use with their original locomotives, SVRy #19 and #20. I wrote articles for RyPN about both these adventures, which are no longer in the articles section, and which were maintained by the FVG website for 20 years or so, but vanished now. I don't have any way to send them to you, but most likely another RyPNer can.

Presently there is an extensive museum in Guatemala City https://agn.gt/museo-del-ferrocarril-de ... -historia/ It has a branch in Zacapa, but I do not have a URL for it. There is also a smaller, recently established museum in Ipala, Guatemala, and there was a recent thread about it on RyPN which should be easily searchable.

International Railways of Central America had a division in El Salvador, and they have a nice museum in San Salvador. I have not been there, but you might try searching for FENADESAL, which is the present day name of what's left of the railroad in that country.

Also featured in Mr Best's magnum opus were the narrow gauge lines of the Nacionales de Mexico, and my article about the last bit of that which was preserved is here: http://www.rypn.org/articles/single.php ... 020646.txt

Excuse me Mr Rice, but I think the big articulated locomotives you referred to, that resembled C&O power, belonged to the NdeM. They had them in both standard and narrow gauge. All are gone now. My bad.

Had to look it up. N de M 364, 1928 Alco 2-6-6-2, class HR-01 is the one pictured in the book. Largest narrow gauge engine I have ever seen. Thank you for the additional info Mr QJ. I figured if anybody had insight on this it would be you.

You are very kind, Sir. Please let me know if I can be of any further service to you.