Re: Interesting station arrangement.

GREAT picture! The Guatemala Central Railroad Company had a lot of California/ Central Pacific connections. Here are a couple of lines from my short history of the IRCA ( this part of which was largely adapted from an earlier Jerry Best article in the R&LHS journal).

"The first railroad construction in Guatemala began in 1879 at Puerto San Jose on the Pacific Coast by the Guatemala Central Railroad Company. The meter gauge Guatemala Central was chartered in California, and backers included Collis P. Huntington and Timothy Hopkins of Central Pacific fame. Experienced Central Pacific engineers supervised construction, locomotives came from Baldwin, and cars were built by Kimball Manufacturing Company in San Francisco and Central Pacific's shops in Sacramento. The line from San Jose reached Escuintla in 1880 and Guatemala City in 1884.

"In 1888 an advertisement in the U.S. described the Guatemala Central as the "best appointed railway" in Central America, with "fine rock and gravel ballast, 50 lb. steel rails, and all rolling stock supplied with Westinghouse automatic air brakes." It listed as officers C.P. Huntington, president, and Timothy Hopkins, vice president, and among the principal stockholders Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, and William Vanderbilt.

"The line was changed from meter to three foot gauge in 1890."

The picture certainly substantiates the description of it being a well built railway.

Here is a similar scene from the 1970's, at least the volcano looks about the same.



The head house at the pier in Puerto San Jose had a similar run through design but was obviously more modern. This is from 1973. The IRCA in Guatemala had been nationalized three years earlier.



Another neat railway that has disappeared.

JBWX



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2017 04:08PM by John West.