Nights in Monterrey

Three years  makes plenty of difference, especially when a worldwide economic recession is added to the mix.

Here in this post, I present two images that I took at the Kansas City Southern de México’s locomotive facility at its headquarters in Monterrey, two images taken almost three years apart.

Smurfs!

The first image shown here was taken in January of 2007 just before I returned to the USA.  KCS was yet to introduce its Heritage paint scheme and was yet to take delivery of large orders of new locomotives.  Consequently, especially on the Mexican part of the system, there were still plenty of locomotives running around in the two-tone blue paint scheme of Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México, the national railroad that ceased to exist more than a decade before in the privatization of Mexico’s national rail system.

The headline above is a reference to the fact that many Mexican railroad enthusiasts – ferroaficionados – refer to the FNM two-tone blue paint scheme as Pitufos, or Smurfs.

Permisión de KCSM

In case anyone out there in foamland is wondering, I did have express written permission to be on the property and get these shots.  You can’t just walk around there!  There’s a security gate at the entrance to the yard.

Belles

Nearly three years later, and it’s December 2009.  There is hardly a Smurf in sight.  Much more is the presence of newer locomotives with the KCS Southern Belle paint scheme, like these SD70ACes shown below.

Notice the switcher in the background by the sanding tower wearing the TFM dark grey paint.

Alea Iacta Est

In other news, the die is cast, and there’s no going back now.  Actually, the die was cast a month ago.  It is only that tomorrow, I climb the southern bank of the Rubicon.  Yes, parts of the journey will indeed be illustrated here.  Stay tuned!

With gratitude, mes amis,

Jimbaux