A comment in the thread about Freight Car per diem rates made it sound like North American railcars could be interchanged to countries south of Mexico. Is that true, and if so, what countries besides Canada, USA and Mexico interchange railcars?

Brandi

Until about 1960 there was a car ferry between Florida and Havana, Cuba. There is recent talk of possibly resuming this operation.

At least into the 1990s the standard gauge North American rail network ran into Guatemala.

-Hudson

I seem to recall a copy of Trains Magazine that had an article about a rail transfer for chemicals(?) from near Mobile AL to Puerto Rico (about 2 miles of terminal track).

It was felt to be better to put the liquid in tank cars and use the tank cars for temporary storage in Puerto Rico instead of building a tank farm down there.

One diesel in Puerto Rico.

Doug vV

The current railheads or endpoints of the rail network are, in the north, at Hay River, Northwest Territories

In the south, the rail lines terminate at Port of Chiapas, and Ciudad Hidalgo, with a short dual-gauge spur line to the border city of Ciudad Tecún Umán, Guatemala.

-Hudson

Are we including railroads without a physical land connection to the rest of the North American network but still reachable by car float? If so, I think the Alaska Railroad's northern terminus at Fort Wainwright (near Fairbanks, AK) is a few degrees of latitude farther north than Hay River, NT.

-Philip Marshall

"Here finishes the North American Railroad System. Its most southern Point."
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/38406015

Rather than flying into Guatemala City like the others going on one of Chris Skow's trips, back in the early 1990s, I took the train... All. The. Way (other than walking across the borders).

My route was:
Peapack, NJ to Hoboken,NJ (via NJT)
... to Penn Sta, NY (via PATH)
... to Chicago Union Sta. (via the Broadway)
... to El Paso, TX (via the Texas Eagle)
[walked across border to Juarez]
Juarez>Mexico City>Vera Cruz>Tapachula>Ciudad Hidalgo
[walked across border to Tecun Uman]
Tecun Uman to Guatemala City (via F.E.G.U.A.)

Going back I flew to Mexico City to avoid the border hassle at Hidalgo... they wanted gringo to fork over Pesos or go to Mexican Prison on my way down. Rode the last train in Mexico with sleeper/diner service up to Saltillo and on to Piedras Negras, crossed into Eagle Pass, TX, took a bus to San Antonio. Then I took the Sunset Limited (IIRC) to NOLA, arriving at 8pm on Fat Tuesday (first and last time I ever drank tequila).

Next morning was a very hung over and sedate (albeit packed) City of New Orleans to Chicago. Took the Lakeshore back to NYC. Path to Newark and rode the Raritan Valley Line out to High Bridge where a friend picked me up after calling him on a payphone.

I am glad I did it when I was a kid... made the whole trip with nothing but a huge military surplus canvas packpack loaded with extra clothes, a blanket, and my passport. I didn't even take a camera with me... so the trip is purely preserved forever in my memory only, save a few ticket stubs, Pesos and Quetzals as reminders.

I will NEVER do anything of that sort again... in fact, it is now physically impossible as the railroad is no longer there.

RCW

Great Story.

In January 2010 on a round trip motorcycle ride from Seattle to the Panama Canal, at the invitation of Mr. Posner, I stopped in to the main terminal yard in Guatemala City to see the remains of his operation. Using an old GE diesel built in Spain in 1973, I was taken out on to the Pacific division to the container unloading point. I rode out on a flat car "surfing" and back in the cab.

A week later someone stole the rails from outside the terminal gates and that was the end of rail transport in Guatemala. So I guess, I was the last passenger....

A couple of years before we went down as far as Durango, Mexico and found the "close to operable" Shay.

Last year again on the motorcycle we went looking for the operable steam crane on the "Chepe" south of Creel as seen in 2008. It was gone.

We did take photo's and I've posted here from time to time.

TH

On one of Clark Johnson's Mexican trips with "Caritas", his train was wyed and then backed some distance on the dual gauge track towards or into Guatemala. I am confused, because Google Earth shows a combination rail and highway bridge over a river between the border cities of Hildago and Tecun Uman, and Clark mentioned backing in the wilderness.

I would be very interested to know precisely when that was. I recall meeting Clark for the first time when the Caritas was parked on the stub at Saratoga Springs station back in the summer of 2011 when I was up there helping IPH start up the SNC.

Anyways, back to Guatemala... as I was walking to the border checkpoint, I saw private varnish at that very location you wrote of... coming back through the wye from the direction of the bridge. I can never remember exactly what year it was that I went to Guatemala... 1992 or 1993... it was a January/February trip. I certainly can't recall the name on the PV I saw. Hell, I can't even recall what I ate for breakfast this morning.

Oh, also... the tracks across the river share the bridge with the road. They are set off to the side of the road.

RCW