Re: South/Central American Steam Questions

Grant,

About the coaches. Older wood bodied coaches in Guatemala and El Salavador did not survive into the 70's. Most were replaced with steel coaches, some built in the shops of the railroad. A few wood coaches of special service survived.

Ecuador rebuilt coaches for one reason, money. The Government gave out contracts to rebuild coaches on the frames of old third class coaches. The EFE management has many new cars, just no trackage to run them. The railroad has only a handful of wood bodied coaches in service. Some of the original coaches have not been refurbished over building all new bodies.

In Ecuador the cars were to make the President look good for the Dec 30, 2008 inagurial train special. Much of the extra work on building these cars was for show. It is necessary for the management to tackle the lack of serviceable track.

Dale Brown



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/2009 04:48PM by DWBrown.