People usually associate the IRCA with United Fruit. This is true only after 1936. The original Guatemala Central had more to do with the Central Pacific and the Huntington interests in California. After 1906 the major player was Minor C. Keith, who was also a founder of United Fruit, but also dreamed of a Pan American railroad that had little to do with United Fruit. His dream was a railroad from North to South America.The building of the IRCA connection between Guatemala and Salvador in the 1920's was costly, and the IRCA was headed for bankruptcy. This is when United Fruit stepped in and took effective control. But even though they had effective control of management, they never owned more than 47 percent. IRCA stocked publically traded on the New York Stock Exchange until 1965. Bob Richardson was proud of his one share of IRCA stock because it entitled him to all the annual reports. The good times ended with, among other things,an anti-trust suit and a shareholders suit. All quite interesting if you're into that kind of arcane stuff.
But back to the interesting stuff. The mikes were not all alike. The Porters were the heaviest (about 700 pounds heavier than the Baldwins), and were generally assigned as helpers on Palin Hill. The Krupps were the lightest, about 5000 pounds lighter than the Baldwins. But so far as I'm aware, the Krupps were used interchangeably with the Baldwins. The Krupps had a number of detail differences. I believe they had copper fireboxes....Tom, do you remember that? And the cabs were somewhat "Germanic" in appearance. Visually you knew immediately whether it was a Nazi (as the called the Krupps) or a Baldwin.
Yes, a very interesting railway.
John
