Yucatan Steam Train and Roadways

This old narrow gauge steam train that proudly pulled the products that made Yucatan the richest state in Mexico around the time of the First World War now quietly rusts away on a rail siding in downtown Mérida and is unnoticed by speeding highway traffic.

Not all was lost from those glorious days of Yucatan’s steam train travel.

Back in the early 1970s Walt Disney came to Mérida and purchased the last serviceable narrow gauge steam locomotives and transported them to his new Florida amusement park.  Four of these engines were restored to a state of better than new and two were used for replacement parts in a special machine shop designed exclusively for that purpose.

This photo was taken at Disney World in Florida. The painted and polished Baldwin locomotives spent a very hard life toting cargo and passengers through the jungles of Yucatan and was restored by Disney.  Jane and I had an enjoyable time at the Florida amusement park conversing with the engineer and crew that kept the rail equipment rolling. The engine in the photo is named Mérida. 

The Yucatan is full of many relics of those bygone years from the ancient Maya and the conquistador Spanish. These include sacbe roads, pyramids, and haciendas.

Pictured in this recent photo is a well worn wooden cargo cart with its tire tread wheels, wooden  saddle and henequin harnesses that will keep on pulling when this world runs out of gas.  

YUCATAN’S MAGIC –MÉRIDA SIDE TRIPS, read this fascinating book and discover the roads that evolved over the centuries beginning with the Mayan sacbe infrastructure, and visit the places the tourists miss most.

For more of Yucatan Roadways, click here.