Like Pat said, the Chinese scrap merchants are looking for a lot of cheap steel to feed the furnaces of PRC. Like in Nicaragua a Congressman, Senator, Minister will look at the instant windfall profits of scrapping the unproductive railroad and how it will look to the Public generating money!!!
John, you are right their is many successful preservation groups in Latin America. However El Salvador is a very poor country and the need to find more money for the Government can lead to the wholesale destruction of the FENDESAL system. Let's hope that clearer thinking heads will prevail and preserve the railroad till a solution to using it again can be found.
I am hoping that a RDC or other private organization can come in and turn the railroad around. Just heard that Honduras is shutting down it's narrow gauge (42 in.) system in a few months. I was able to ride the line in 1998 and hoped to be back again. Unfortuately Trains Unlimited Tours or any other tour operators have not been able to reschedule a return.
John, after all on the other forum, I am El Sub Comandante Rojo, Chief Gringo Looter? Besides now days I wish I had the money to get a narrow gauge coach or loco back to the US.
Dale Brown