Re: Central American Narrow Gauge

Hello John,

Thanks for posting this. As I think you know I visited the shed and works at San Salvador in April 2012; I had a real treat when I arrived there as no. 12 was being put into steam for my benefit - amazingly kind people. There have been some developments since then, not all of them positive. The suburban service stopped running in August 2012, supposedly because the track was reckoned to be unsafe, and the senior management team who had been so helpful back in April were replaced about the same time. I think there was some suggestion that the occasional freight train may have continued to run out to Sonsonate but I don't know if this is right.

Thomas Kautzor wrote a few weeks ago to alert me to online reports that a museum was being set up in a part of the works and that track had been lifted in other parts of the station (depot) and yard and that they were being turned into a bus garage. No 12 has been installed as one of the exhibits in the museum, apparently without a tender. Thomas also found a report that no 112 has been an exhibit at the Tin Marín Children's Museum in San Salvador for some years so that five of these IRCA 2-8-0's have survived in the country presuming that no 101 in the shed at San Salvador and no's 110 and 117 which were dumped in the woods at Sonsonate are still there. No 12, incidentally, used to be no 102; the old number was clearly visible under the paint on the cabsides and the staff confirmed that it was indeed no 102. They didn't know why it was renumbered. I posted some notes and photos on Rob Dickinson's website at [www.internationalsteam.co.uk].

I visited Guatemala on the same trip and posted some notes and photos at [www.internationalsteam.co.uk]; they cover the majority of the locos about which Steam Fan 492 was asking. I don't have any updates since 2012.

Best wishes,

James