A brief history of the Guatemalan Railway, told by a living legend from the banana era. скачать в хорошем качестве

A brief history of the Guatemalan Railway, told by a living legend from the banana era.

The Guatemalan Railway Museum (FEGUA) opened its doors to the public on January 8, 2004, after a long and thriving railroad era in the Republic of Guatemala. #tourism #train #withEduardoAmador #travel #news #locomotives #museum #fegua #guatemalacity #guatemala #history #locomotive #capital #railway #railroad #mexico #honduras The Guatemalan National Railway (FEGUA) has its origins in the 19th century, as it was at the end of the century that the project had its first facilities and machinery. In 1880, the first section of the railroad, connecting Puerto San José and Escuintla, was inaugurated. In 1884, the first locomotive entered Guatemala City. In 1908, the line to Puerto Barrios, known as the Northern Railway of Guatemala, was completed. The network was soon acquired by the United Fruit Company and renamed the International Railways of Central America in 1912, also known as IRCA. The railroad prospered until 1957. In 1954, United Fruit was forced to disband following an antitrust lawsuit, and in 1959, a parallel highway created serious competitive pressure. In 1968, the company was taken over by the government and renamed Ferrocarriles de Guatemala, also known as FEGUA. The condition of the tracks continued to deteriorate, and all traffic was shut down in 1996. Only nostalgic tourist trains (run by Trains Unlimited) ran on parts of the network in 1997 and 1998. Currently, the largest repository of Guatemalan railroad memorabilia is the Railway Museum in Guatemala City. In the FEGUA Museum, you can find many historical pieces related to the history of the Guatemalan National Railway, including several antique steam locomotives and several diesel-electric ones. The list of artifacts and historical pieces in this museum is extensive, and the tools used to maintain the railroad tracks are almost as they were originally. The best place to learn about Guatemala's trains is the capital's museum, located at 8th Avenue 4-52 in Zone 1 of the historic center, where the roundhouse and central train station of Guatemala City once stood. In order to enter the city's railway museum it is necessary to make a payment of 10 quetzales for parking and 30 quetzales to enter the interior of the machine room for each person, this varies a little if you are a foreigner or a local Guatemalan but the experience is worth it because inside the roundhouse there are ancient wonders, at first glance there are the old steam locomotives that were property of the IRCA of the UFCO in the middle era of the train which was from 1930 to 1960 but these machines were the last to be removed from the tracks after 2,000 because the true story can be heard from men who lived through that banana railroad era who are in the museum giving every detail with dates and names of everything that is seen in the museum, these men were drivers, assistants, machinists, firemen and train brequeros most of their lives and now they cause emotion and sensations in the visitors of the museum when they tell their experiences as employees of the FEGUA railroad. At the entrance to the museum facilities there is a very large parking lot that could hold thousands of cars, since from its beginnings trains required large spaces to park the many wagons and locomotives, but currently they are large parking lots for personal cars. In these yards there are many abandoned machines and I was prevented from documenting that perhaps for political reasons because these valuable historical pieces are abandoned in the open air and the damage that time is causing them is evident. As for the tracks, these are more durable and apparently are in good condition or so they seem. The Guatemalan Railway Museum is located in the center of the capital city of Guatemala and is a very well-stocked museum because there are hundreds of objects and pieces to admire. In terms of old locomotives and wagons, it is very varied. There are wagons for the transport of cargo and passengers, suitable platforms so that visitors can travel seated inside the wagon in very comfortable leather lungman seats, and there are platform wagons with seats for passengers who want to travel outdoors and be able to better observe the landscapes. The museum is well decorated with the oldest steam locomotives that were of greatest importance in the train for decades of work traveling to the main seaports of Guatemala and El Salvador as well as to the main cities and banana fields that were key for Guatemala to take for granted the railway transport at a national level, these locomotives pulled important wagons that are exhibited in this museum, there is a very notable one and it is the presidential wagon that was where the president of Guatemala traveled in his