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How far south did the north america rail network go ? I understand that railroads in USA and Mexico were (and still are, but without passenger trains today) connected, but after that ? Were there rail lines going further south ? And what is the situation today ? Any specialists of this part of the world around ?
This is pure curiosity . I don't plan to travel there.
As far as I can see lines once reached as far as Cutuco on the Gulf of Fonseca in south-east San Salvador. A long ago plan to extend east into Honduras doesn’t seem to have been carried out. Honduras may have been connected to lines in Guatemala with a break of gauge.
EDIT: It looks as though Guatemala and El Salvador are/were 914 mm. gauge, but it is not clear on which side of the Mexico-Guatemala border the change of gauge takes place as there may have been a bit of regauging in recent years. There probably never was a link to Honduras.
The Mexican standard gauge once extended into Guatemala. In the border town of Ciudad Tecun Uman it connected with the 914 mm (3 feet) network in Guatemala and El Salvador. These lines were closed decades ago, including most of the standard gauge on the Mexican side of the border.
As far as I can see lines once reached as far as Cutuco on the Gulf of Fonseca in south-east San Salvador. A long ago plan to extend east into Honduras doesn’t seem to have been carried out. Honduras may have been connected to lines in Guatemala with a break of gauge.
EDIT: It looks as though Guatemala and El Salvador are/were 914 mm. gauge, but it is not clear on which side of the Mexico-Guatemala border the change of gauge takes place as there may have been a bit of regauging in recent years. There probably never was a link to Honduras.
On the "non-Pacific" side of the isthmus: Guatemala's 914mm gauge extended to the Caribbean at Puerto Barrios. I'm as certain as can be, that there was never any "official / public" rail link between there and Honduras; gather that Honduras's railways were pretty "disorganised" -- had various lines essentially on the Caribbean coast, some 914 mm, some 1067 mm gauge: mainly in the interests of the fruit industry -- parts thereof, thought to have at one time had passenger services of sorts -- if anything crossed the border into Guatemala, it involved no systematic link with that country's network.
The Mexican standard gauge once extended into Guatemala. In the border town of Ciudad Tecun Uman it connected with the 914 mm (3 feet) network in Guatemala and El Salvador. These lines were closed decades ago, including most of the standard gauge on the Mexican side of the border.
Per attempted research by me on this area, some while back: for a long time after rail -- Mexican standard, and Guatemalan 914 mm -- reached the above border settlement (early 20th century, I think): there was no direct physical rail link -- connection (transfer of freight managed "in whatever way") was by ferry across the intervening river. It was only in the World War II era, that a bridge was built: standard gauge across said bridge, trans-shipment facilities on the Guatemalan side.
Indeed -- sadly, the once rather splendid interconnected 914 mm system of Guatemala and El Salvador is reckoned now totally defunct, or almost so.
Heading south from Mexico, the line to Ciudad Tecun Uman just inside Guatemala was reopened in 2019 as standard gauge.
Beyond there you could get, as posted above, to Cutuco in El Salvador. All 914mm gauge.
Within Guatemala United Fruit Company lines ran on the north side of the Rio Motagua. One branch parallel to the river to La Inca (15°41'28.1"N 88°21'06.1"W) and possibly a further 10 km to El Quetzalito.
On the south side of the Rio Motagua, lines of the Cuyamel Fruit Co ran through what was Honduras but is now Guatemala to Jimerto and on to El Cacao (15°34'48.3"N 88°26'33.7"W) and possibly to Base West (15°34'00.7"N 88°27'40.1"W).
There was, as far as I can tell, no connection across the river linking the two networks.
The above lines (or abandoned routes) are shown on the maps held in the Perry-Castañeda Library (PCL) Map Collection within the University of Texas. The map set is Texas Honduras 1:50,000 and the specific sheet is Cuyamelito (topographic) Sheet 2562 IV, 1:50,000 (6.7MB) [GeoPDF].
The Cuyamel Fruit Co ran east to Omoa on the coast. From there there is a gap to the main Honduras network south and east from Puerto Cortes.
Thank you all. I will now try to figure out how all this information materializes on a map. I'm not familiar with that part of the world and most of the locations you mentioned are unknown to me, so sone work ahead. Thanks again !
In addition to the Texas University maps I mentioned (which take a lot of piecing together), there are various other historical maps. There is a map held by the Library of Congress (USA): Economic Survey in parts of Guatemala and Honduras. American Geographical Society 1919.
There are various ones prepared historically by the Department of commerce (again USA).
Your 'starter for ten' will be to search under IRCA (International Railways of Central America).
I had all of the above from the internet, possibly the Wikipedia pages for each country.
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A collection of railroad pictures including Southern Pacific, Denver and Rio Grande Western, DRGW, narrow gauge, steam, diesel, Cumbres Pass, Chama, Durango, Silverton, Antonito, and so on.
Thank you all. I will now try to figure out how all this information materializes on a map. I'm not familiar with that part of the world and most of the locations you mentioned are unknown to me, so sone work ahead. Thanks again !
I have no idea how accurate it is, but if you zoom in far enough on Openrailwaymap (an amazing resource) you can see abandoned railway lines in Guatemala and Honduras
News reports at the time, including ones by Friends of Latin American Railways stated that to be the case.
26.04.2022
Ciudad Hidalgo - Tecún Umán
Early April construction of the freight railway started over the border from Ciudad Hidalgo (MX) to Tecún Umán (GU). It is the Mexican firm Remed which will invest at all US$700mio. The sum includes also the section further to Puerto Quetzal, at all 235 km. (Source: Volta o Trem 26-1)
The Los Angeles Times reports the same $700m in an article here dated 14 March 2025.
Something which I have referenced as 'FCNews 72' on 8.08.2023 states (my bold):
Reconstruction
The Mexican company Remed is working hard to rebuild the about 230 km railway line from Tecún Umán to Puerto Quetzal (near Puerto San José). US$150 million will be investedduring 2023. Of this, US$6 to 7 million are accounted for improvements for the international section from CiudadHidalgo (Mexico) to Tecún Umán (Guatemala), which, however, is used regularly.
I took the re-instatement of the international link to be probable and the remainder with a pinch of salt.
Google Streetview at this location (14°40'38.1"N 92°09'06.7") inside Mexico would suggest the line was not in use by 2023 even if it had been re-instated and operational relatively recently. The clue I normally take to confirm recent use is flange ruts in the dirt at road crossings, those are not present.
However, if you look off the bridge here (14°40'41.2"N 92°10'09.6"W) a couple of tank wagons are visible in 2023 (and on aerial) which were not there previously.
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I have no idea how accurate it is, but if you zoom in far enough on Openrailwaymap (an amazing resource) you can see abandoned railway lines in Guatemala and Honduras
What appears on Openrailwaymap tends to be reasonably accurate (but has errors) but can be very incomplete. It's a starting point for research rather than the entirety of research.
What appears on Openrailwaymap tends to be reasonably accurate (but has errors) but can be very incomplete. It's a starting point for research rather than the entirety of research.
I wasn't commenting on Openrailwaymap in general (I find it to be pretty accurate but not completely so), just that as I have absolutely no knowledge of Guatemalan railways I had no idea if I was pointing out a useful resource or a pile of nonsense.
The nature of open source mapping is that the accuracy in general doesn't have much bearing on the accuracy of what somebody might have added in an area where quite likely few people have an interest.
If I started making up old railway lines in the Welsh valleys and adding them to Openrailwaymap I expect someone would remove them fairly quickly. But maybe less so if I had some fun in a country without any extant railways.
I wasn't commenting on Openrailwaymap in general (I find it to be pretty accurate but not completely so), just that as I have absolutely no knowledge of Guatemalan railways I had no idea if I was pointing out a useful resource or a pile of nonsense.
The nature of open source mapping is that the accuracy in general doesn't have much bearing on the accuracy of what somebody might have added in an area where quite likely few people have an interest.
If I started making up old railway lines in the Welsh valleys and adding them to Openrailwaymap I expect someone would remove them fairly quickly. But maybe less so if I had some fun in a country without any extant railways.
As far as Guatemela goes, Openrailwaymap shows the mainline network and most of the major branches of that network. It omits a number of branches such as the Ferrocarril de Los Altos (an electrified line of 45 or 60km but with a very short life). It omits the Ferrocarril de Verapaz, a network isolated from the remainder of the system and all of the plantation railways - which were substantial.
In Honduras, it is reasonably good for the main network out of Puerto Cortes but weakens as you head east. Sections of the Tela Railroad are missing and the Truxillo Railroad (390km) is not shown.
As far as Guatemela goes ... It omits a number of branches such as the Ferrocarril de Los Altos (an electrified line of 45 or 60km but with a very short life).
Offering the following: rather diffidently, because of my unfortunate ineptitude with all but the most very basic of "computer stuff". However -- the abovementioned line, strikes me as one of the more "fascinatingly mad" things ever to happen on the railway scene. Of the American "electric interurban" quasi-tram genre: 44km by my understanding, in the far west of Guatemala, connecting with that country's main line at San Felipe, running to Quetzaltenango; and -- get this -- uniquely (I think) between Mexico and Peru, 1435mm gauge (in an otherwise all-914mm country). It was utterly "too late on the scene, and too odd" (albeit highly steeply-graded and spectacular) to make any sense: indeed, a very short life -- three and a half years, encompassing 1930 to '33.
There is an interesting and informed, illustrated article on this line: I've a potential link; but my computer-cluelessness is such that links which I try to furnish, seem never to work. Can't hurt to try -- http://www.tramz.com/gt/q.html. Otherwise -- the site International Steam Locomotives 2025, run by Rob Dickinson. Googling said site, should lead to its section "Travellers' Tales"; and -- via lots of seeking-and-searching thereon, I'm afraid -- to a series of three articles by Robert Hall (me -- my name); about essentially, 914mm gauge lines in the Americas: under titles Thirty-Six Inches Apart; The End of the Line (Central American version); and Where the Three-Foot Ruled. The middle one of these three (The End of ...) is about Guatemala / Salvador; and includes mention of the Los Altos line; with link to above-told-of article: which link I found, as of a few minutes ago, still to work. The abovementioned articles of mine on said site, touch on my own modest researches re some of Central America's railways -- a region which I find fascinating: I suspect that in said articles, I may have a lot of stuff wrong; but, at all events ...
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Gracias a Dios, as they say in those parts -- the basic link actually seems to work.
Offering the following: rather diffidently, because of my unfortunate ineptitude with all but the most very basic of "computer stuff". However -- the abovementioned line, strikes me as one of the more "fascinatingly mad" things ever to happen on the railway scene. Of the American "electric interurban" quasi-tram genre: 44km by my understanding, in the far west of Guatemala, connecting with that country's main line at San Felipe, running to Quetzaltenango; and -- get this -- uniquely (I think) between Mexico and Peru, 1435mm gauge (in an otherwise all-914mm country). It was utterly "too late on the scene, and too odd" (albeit highly steeply-graded and spectacular) to make any sense: indeed, a very short life -- three and a half years, encompassing 1930 to '33.
There is an interesting and informed, illustrated article on this line: I've a potential link; but my computer-cluelessness is such that links which I try to furnish, seem never to work. Can't hurt to try -- http://www.tramz.com/gt/q.html. Otherwise -- the site International Steam Locomotives 2025, run by Rob Dickinson. Googling said site, should lead to its section "Travellers' Tales"; and -- via lots of seeking-and-searching thereon, I'm afraid -- to a series of three articles by Robert Hall (me -- my name); about essentially, 914mm gauge lines in the Americas: under titles Thirty-Six Inches Apart; The End of the Line (Central American version); and Where the Three-Foot Ruled. The middle one of these three (The End of ...) is about Guatemala / Salvador; and includes mention of the Los Altos line; with link to above-told-of article: which link I found, as of a few minutes ago, still to work. The abovementioned articles of mine on said site, touch on my own modest researches re some of Central America's railways -- a region which I find fascinating: I suspect that in said articles, I may have a lot of stuff wrong; but, at all events ...
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Gracias a Dios, as they say in those parts -- the basic link actually seems to work.
Well I wouldn't worry about that. One can only do ones best with the information available at the time. I find lots of conflicting information out there. The opening dates for stages of the principal route between Puerto Barrios and Guatemala City for example. Just think how difficult it was to get this type of worldwide information, say, 30 years ago.
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@Baxenden Bank -- my thanks -- wasn't planning to trumpet my envisaged erudition; just -- "belt and braces": take it for granted, and it'll fall through -- take all possible precautions, and they'll prove unnecessary; what's the Spanish for "you can't win"?
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