Cinco de Mayo Trains

Today is Cinco de Mayo, which commemorates the day the army of Mexico won the war against the French Empire on May 5, 1862. Despite this historical conflict, Cinco de Mayo became a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage, especially in the United States, where Mexican-Americans celebrate. In honor of this holiday, let’s discuss some unique things about the railroads of Mexico. You might have heard of some road names like NdeM, FCP, TFM, Ferromex, and Ferrosur (to name a few). Kansas City Southern also has a Mexican subsidiary named KCSM and has been the only North American Class I railroad to include trackage south of the U.S. border. However, Canadian Pacific announced last month that it is going to merge with KCS, but Canadian National is also competitively making efforts to purchase that company. In either case, the merger will become the first railroad to run through Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

Let’s talk about some diesel locomotives used in the Spanish-speaking country. For example, General Electric built 20 U36CG’s for the National Railways of Mexico (NdeM). The U36CG was one of GE’s three Universal diesel models equipped with steam generators primarily for passenger services. The other two “U-boats” were the U28CG and U30CG, which were built exclusively for the Atchinson, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway in the U.S. GE also rebuilt some six-axle U-boats and Dash-7’s into what became Super 7 locomotives for Mexico. Today, the country is one of the two (the other being Canada) to receive locomotives that are not compliant to the Tier 4 emissions standards of the U.S. since 2015. As a result, these recent workhorses are prohibited from crossing the border into America, unless they are Tier 4-compliant or at least Tier 4 credit users.

You don’t have to be Mexican to enjoy those unique trains like the one in this video. A trio of GE ES44AC diesels, which visited Southern California for a day, are painted in the red, green, and white Ferromex paint schemes. Feliz Cinco de Mayo, amigos!