Mexico's copper canyon

[Gwizz]

I'm still looking for a good topo map.  May have to use the AAA maps.

 

Some interesting facts:

 

The railroad now runs 4 passenger trains.  2 first class with a dinner that leaves a 6:00 Am at each end of the line and arrives at the other end of the line about 10 PM. 

The number of these first class Vacationing passengers are growing.  There is a lot to see in the canyons and there are hotels at most stops.

 

The other 2 are local passenger trains, no dinner, that leave after the first class trains and make a number of stops.  I'm not sure that is exactly correct.

The railroad seems to be pushing the first class trains. 

 

The second class passengers are served food at each stop beside the train, possibly by locals. 

No food is allowed to be eaten in the passenger cars.  So passenger have to be discreate where they eat. 

The natives complain about the higher price of tickets under the new leadership. 

 

I found no information on other trains or any details on the mines or what industries the few spurs serve.

 

 

Since there is a push to stop cutting down trees the hotels are converting from wood to gas to warm the hotels. 

 

 

An interesting comment by management:  If you should get robbed, stay calm and just give them your loot.  Or something like that.

 

 

http://www.railsnw.com/tours/copper/chepe01_history.htm#copper

[Gwizz]

while looking for a better topo map in a 1922 Geology textbook,  I found of a piture of a Mexican oil train.

 

What was interesting was the tanks on the  oil cars were made of wood, with metal cables holding the staves together.

I've seen vertical staves on pickle tank cars but never horizonal staves on tank cars. 

The picture was not clear enough to see how the dome pipe on top was attached or how the tanks were emptied.

 

I did get some information on what the freight trains hauled.  

[Gwizz]

I found out my local library subscribes to mapping companies.  They are mailing some topographic maps to me free of charge. 

I felt they were too expensive, but the librarian said the price listed might be in Pecos and not in dollars? 

I checked out some books about Mexico that have in part a chapter of details on the Railroads.  No books on just the railroad are listed at the library nor are any in print that she could find.

The librarian printed 3 articles written in different magazines.  

 

I guess it is time to catch up on my reading. 

 

I did follow the railroad on Goggle maps some more.  600 miles in a long ways to both follow the track and look at industries. etc.

I found an industrial RR that only connects to the copper canyon line.  I believe it is a mine.  There are a number of spur tracks but, I didn't follow all of them.

I have looked at less then 100 miles of copper canyon rail. I keep getting lost.  I wish I had a better map of this rail line.

 

I followed the yard I talked about before, this time going west.  I have two tracks going West.  Behold another yard with a spur crossing the river forming a Y with the first yard.

Behold another yard and yet another yard all full of cars with many tracks.  Possible a passenger train or an auto hauler going East bound, when the photo was taken.

Lots of factories.  Hard to tell what kind they are.   These yards and factories are close to the border  in the US.  

I wish I had a higher Goggle power, Then I could read the names.

[Gwizz]

In doing research for the Copper Canyon RR MAP, I watched one of the Poncho Villa Movies on a DVD.   I have also speed read 4 books & studied many maps.

The movie was made during real Poncho Villa battles. It stared Poncho Villa as himself.  The killing in the movie was real. The movie was made by US movie people on site, with Villa as some kind of a Robin Hood.  Doing more research I found he was as bad as he was good.  For the good part of him the poor people still worship him.  A holiday, museums and statues still honor him today in Mexico. 

 

What I found interesting was Poncho Villa had worked on the Copper Canyon RR before the wars.  But, during the Revolutionary war, he robbed, rebuilt the track, bought rolling Stock and even did what was done in the US civil war,  he converted passenger cars into hospital cars.  He used the RR successfully, to quickly move solders and war material to help win battles.  He won 17 battles and lost 6.  This caused the US to study his battle methods.  

 

Have not figured out yet, how I will best use Poncho Villa in the map.   

[MaglevForever]

Interesting history. Good to have updates, I am looking forward to this map. Keep up the good work!

 

PS. Do you moderate the comments here? Also do you know what causes a thread to be archived?

[Gwizz]

I do watch the activity but seldom flag anyone unless there is a good reason.  Other members can flag as well. 

It has been a long time since I have flagged anyone. 

The web site owner normally moves the maps to be archived when he feels they have been completed.

I have in the past moved a few maps; but I hesitate doing it least I goof up something.  People have put a lot of time into their maps.

The site has experienced some problems (hacking I believe) and a few maps may have been loss.  I do try to back up the maps on my computer.

 

The last time there was a problem,I lost about 2500 posts.

no big deal. The posts tend to revolve with similar content being repeated.  But lately, the posts have become much more interesting.

 

Maybe we should archive the posts into a backup as well as the maps.

[MaglevForever]

Reason I asked was I noticed that new member RTTFan's first ever comment (in the US History thread) wasn't visible until just recently, but his thread was visible immediately. This was curious to me, but I just realized that this a smart idea for the moderators as a bad thread can be deleted much more easily than untangling damage to an existing good one. Sorry.

 

My question about the archiving was because no one can add to the threads that have been archived. Hence when Jeffry was trying to fix the ports in his map he couldn't post over in the Modding thread. I was wondering if there is a reason that a thread will be archived such as after a certain number of say months of inactivity?

 

Maybe what you are talking about is different to what I meant (threads becoming "locked"/archived). Making a back-up somewhere else, if that is what you meant, is a good idea. Unfortunately I don't have the resources to help with that.

 

Thanks for your efforts to help with the site! Glad you like some of the more recent comments. Hope mine have been in the "interesting" class. This is the place for RTII and I certainly don't want it to die.

[Gwizz]

Yesterday I noticed the unusual posts that had no data records.   It looked like all 3 posts were made by the same person?

Also the names could have been on the known hackers list.  

 

I did question other moderators about what was done and noticed today two of the posts were removed.   I received no replies. 

 

   "My question about the archiving was because no one can add to the threads that have been archived. Hence when Jeffry was trying to fix the ports in his map he couldn't post over in the Modding thread. I was wondering if there is a reason that a thread will be archived such as after a certain number of say months of inactivity?"

 

I don't have an answer to that question although it could have something to do with security.

 

It might be a question for Gobalopper.

 

(Added)  PS:  The threads seem to be back like they were before unless I'm missing something.  

[MaglevForever]

I was talking about RRTFan's post over in the US History thread. Notice how his post got slotted in later between some of mine and Jeffry's. No big deal though, as I said in my last post I now understand the reason for this. Sorry I spoke before I thought carefully.

 

I don't have an answer to that question although it could have something to do with security.

No worries. We can use links to reference the slightly older stuff in new threads where necessary. Thanks.

[Gwizz]

I'm glad to have forum members give me a heads up.

 

PS:  I hope no one clicked on the bogus links on these posts.

 

I plan to delete future posts that don't fit forum guidelines.