The December-2006-January-2007 Northern Mexico Visit

This page is a host to links to 11 posts, each for a day that Jimbaux spent in northern México in late 2006 and early 2007, where I got some great photographs, including many linked in this page.

After having spent the summer of 2004 in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, while going to school at ITESM, I returned in late December 2006 for a 10-day visit to Monterrey and environs.  The area has and always will have a special place in my heart.

In the fall of 2011, as the five year anniversary of that trip was approaching, I decided that when the time came, on each date, I’d post a five-years-ago-today post for each day’s pictures.  So, each post below, each being for photos of a particular date, was posted to Jimbaux’s Journal five years to the date after the pictures in them were taken.

28 December 2006 – Returning To Mexico

A scene from the flight itself, a few scenes at the Monterrey airport, a scene on the ITESM campus, and a visit to my host family, which was my place of residence for two months in 2004.

29 December 2006 – First Full Day Back In Nuevo León

Train-chasing, Mexico-style, particularly KCSM style, and particularly north of Monterrey followed by a few scenes of an industrial spur in the city itself, and a few non-railroad city scenes.

30 December 2006 – KCSM Yard In Monterrey

As the title implies, primarily a look inside the KCSdeMéxico yard in Monterrey, something you’re not likely to see much anywhere else.

31 December 2006 – Photos of Nuevo León And KCSdeMéxico

Víspera de Año Nuevo (New Year’s Eve) in Nuevo León, with scenes of railroads and mountains on and near the KCSdeMéxico in the deserts and mountains north of Monterrey, showing the rugged terrain, the old passenger station at Villaldama, some night scenes at Monterrey Yard, the crew-change spot of Leal, and more.

1 January 2007 – Conexión Sur And Paredón

A confrontation with the Mexican army to start off the new year, meeting three friends so we can go chase trains, learning about a really neat place called Conexión Sur on the KCSM, visiting with a train crew there waiting on maintenance crews to clear the junction because of a derailment that happened the night before, and entering the state of Coahuila to a really neat place called Paredón to do my first and still only photography on Ferromex, the other major railroad of Mexico.

2 January 2007 – Fog And Clouds

A visit to the ITESM campus, where Jimbaux attended class in the summer of 2004, a visit to Parque Chipinque, and a look at Mexico’s history of Arab immigrants, all on a foggy, cloudy day.

3 January 2007 – Clouds And Locomotives

Some night shots of locomotives at KCSM’s Monterrey Yard, and a few cloudy scenes of other parts of the city.

4 January 2007 – Conexión Sur, Ramos Arizpe, And Monterrey

Plenty here!  A new shot at Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila, preceded by a revisit to Conexión Sur with some scenes of mountains and trees and rivers nearby, the stunning cemetery in García, a pair of smurf SD40-2s on the Monterrey-García Local train, a scene of a derailment, night pictures of blue GE locomotives at the yard, and a telephoto highway view of Monterrey.

5 January 2007 – Monterrey, Cañón Huasteca, García, And Ramos Arizpe

A visit to the fabulous Cañón Huasteca, the slums of García, several great views of trains and mountains at Ramos Arizpe, several night views of locomotives at Monterrey, and some goats!

6 January 2007 – Monterrey

A few pictures of trains, automobiles, and some buildings.

7 January 2007 – ¡Adiós, México!

A few more night shots at the yard before returning to los Estados Unidos Americanos.

Mainly because I want a picture to show when I share this article on Facebook and other such sites, I will give one sample picture, this one from the January 5 offering, a KCSM train in Coahuila, even though most of the images in this series are from Nuevo León, as that is where I spent the most of my time.

Three years later, in late December 2009 and early January 2010, I returned to Monterrey and Saltillo for yet more visits with my friends there and to explore the area.  Two weeks after I left Mexico on 2 January 2010, the terrorism situation with the drug war spread to Coahuila and Nuevo León, rendering many of the places seen in these images (and those yet-unpublished images from my 2009-2010 trip) too dangerous to visit.  My Mexican friends who took me to some of the rural areas shown in these pictures no longer feel safe visiting there.

I hope that you have enjoyed this series and have somehow learned and/or benefited from it.  This experience cost me handsomely; although I was able to be paid by one of the railroad companies a small amount for some of the images that I made on this trip, when it comes to money, I am definitely in the red from this trip; so, if you have benefited from all that you have seen here, and if you have enough disposable income or cash to spare, please consider becoming a patron of this publication, which you can do for as little as $1 per month by following the simple instructions on the Patreon page.

Feel free to post comments in the comment section here or in any of the linked articles.

Merci et-y gracias.

Jimbaux