7 January 2007 – ¡Adiós, México!

[Jimbaux will . . . .  fly away again.]

Man, do I really miss Monterrey.

This has been fun, and I do appreciate all the posted comments and the private e-mails (few of which I have yet had time to which to make replies), but I’m glad that this series is coming to an end.  The recent, sudden, unexpected death of a friend and former colleague made me realize that all of what we have can be gone in an instant in time.  I could drop dead tomorrow, and nobody would ever see any of these pictures or gain what one can gain from them.

Unfortunately for me, I won’t really make any money off of these posts — 10 cents of advertising revenue for two hours of work? not to mention the time and money spent over there when I took these pictures? — but at least I have shared knowledge and gifts with the world, have entertained and educated, and have forced people to think, to reassess their preconceived notions about a land and a nation . . . . and, therefore, their preconceived notions about themselves, for learning anything is ultimately a form of self-discovery, as it has been for me.

My Last Efforts In Mexico For The Next Three Years

I would return to Mexico in December 2009 (and in my own truck, instead of via airplane and rental car as I did on this 2006-2007 trip), but just past midnight on 7 January 2007, just a few hours before I was to head to the airport and fly out of the country back to the USA, back to Louisiana, I’d get a few more pictures at the KCSM yard and shops, a place that would look very different when I returned three years later.

I love the “Super Siete” locomotives.

The “Heritage” or “Southern Belle” paint scheme had yet to arrive, but it soon would, and new locomotives intended to be painted in nothing but the new scheme were already on the scene, operating in primer paint.

Many of these cool “Super 7” GE locomotives, like those seen below, would leave the property, and most of the few that have remained have been repainted.

For our last look at the railroad scene in Mexico in the wee days of 2007, we see the future.

The operating-in-primer-only would not last long, as this locomotive, like all of its sisters, was soon painted in the Heritage colors, displacing both the FNM-two-tone-blue locomotives as well as those in TFM-grey and KCS-grey.  It’s so different now; I’m grateful that I went when I did, and I do sincerely hope that all of you have been both entertained and educated by these glimpses into a world where most of you do not see and never will see.  If these posts have been beneficial to you, please show others.

Returning To The USA

It’s time to go home, back to life, back to reality, but, in many ways, Monterrey will always be like a second home to me.  For now, though, we have some legal concerns to which to attend, and I wish I had photographed the Mexican counterpart to this form upon my entry into that great country.

Until I processed this picture, I had never even heard of the Paperwork Reduction Act; apparently, I didn’t look closely at the form at the time.

Thanks for following this series.  I appreciate it.

Saludos,

Jimbaux