Allen Morrison
is a small town in Puebla state, 47 km south of Puebla city, on the Ferrocarril Interoceánico route to Mexico City. The Ferrocarril Urbano de Atlixco opened a standard-gauge horsecar line in 1898 from the railroad station westward through the village of Gamboa to a textile mill near Metepec. Length was 8 km. The tramway continued operation until at least 1944. Here is a scene at Gamboa. That's Popocatépetl, Mexico's fiercest volcano, basking in the morning sun [postcard, col. AM]:
is the capital of Morelos state, just south of the Federal District. Beautifully set in the mountains, Cuernavaca was long a hideaway of the rich and famous - Hernán Cortés, Emperor Maximilian and Carlota, Benito Juárez, Porfirio Díaz, to name a few. More recently it has attracted Mexican and foreign tourists and acquired a million residents. The Anuario Estadístico first recorded a tramway in 1900 and listed 5 km of 3 ft gauge track in its last edition of 1907. The line is not mentioned in the Estadística de Ferrocarriles y Tranvías of 1922, so probably expired during the Revolution. The photo below shows a great variety of cars. The meaning of the "O" in "T O C" is unknown [col. AM]:
is a port in Sonora state, on the Gulf of California. This "photo postcard" has no inscription and puzzled the author for many years. Language on the signs is Spanish, but there is no city in the Spanish-speaking world called La Aurora. Someone scribbled "Panama City" on the back of the card, but there is no mountain like that in Panama. It was only after pictures were found of other trams marked "La Aurora" that the location was finally nailed. A Sonora history explains that the tramway ran from the railroad station to La Aurora plantation, a distance of 4 km. It operated from 1888 until 1917 [col. AM]:
is a busy port and vacation resort in Sinaloa state, on the Pacific Ocean. Mazatlán boasts that its beach is 26 km long. The Ferrocarril Urbano de Mazatlán built one of Mexico's first street railways in 1876, and had 6 km of 3 ft gauge track by 1905. Small steam locomotives replaced some of its mules in 1908, but the system closed in 1913, another victim of the Revolution. The postcard below was mailed in 1914 [col. AM]:
is the capital of Oaxaca state, center of the Olmec civilization of 1000 B.C. The Ferrocarril Urbano y Agrícola, shown in the postcard below, opened about 1890 (A.D.). Six other tramway companies connected neighboring towns by 1905. Track gauge of all lines was 3 ft/914 mm and rolling stock came from American Car Co. in St. Louis. The Ferrocarril Urbano de Oaxaca y Oriente was still operating seven horsecars in the 1930s [col. AM]:
is in Veracruz state at the foot of eternally-snow-covered Pico de Orizaba (a.k.a. Citlaltépetl), Mexico's highest mountain (5,610 m/18,700 ft). The city's first tram lines opened in 1878 and extended to neighboring towns - Río Blanco, Nogales, Santa Ana, Santa Rosa and Cerritos. A hydroelectric plant at Tuxpango powered the trolleycars in nearby Puebla. Orizaba's mulecars were rebuilt with gasoline motors in the 1920s, but the street railway closed in 1933. The caption on this postcard, mailed to France in 1907, says "Avenida de la Libertad" [col. AM]:
is in Michoacán state, near Lago de Pátzcuaro, said to be one of the world's highest navigable lakes (2,210 m). Its tramway line, which used cars purchased from Brill in Philadelphia, opened in the 1880s and closed during the Revolution. The postcard below was mailed from Pátzcuaro to Mexico City in 1908 [col. AM]:
is Mexico's southernmost city, in the southern corner of Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost state. It is only 20 km from the Guatemalan border. Government surveys recorded tramways in other Chiapas towns around 1900, but none in Tapachula until 1922. The line must have opened earlier for the postcard below was mailed to Canada in 1913. Its caption says "Calle Zaragoza" [col. AM]:
is a small town in México state, 59 km northeast of Mexico City, on the railroad line to Veracruz. The famous archaeological site nearby dates to 150 B.C. and attracts visitors from around the world. The Ferrocarril Urbano de Villa de Teotihuacán ran from the railroad station through town to the pyramids. A 1927 survey reported one employee, one gasoline car and 3 km of 3 ft gauge track. Judging from this undated photograph, the company also owned a few trams pulled by wayward mules (or are they horses?) [col. AM]:
is a small city in Michoacán state. Tranvías de Jacona y Zamora ran an interurban tramway from Jacona across country to the railroad station in Zamora. Distance was 5 km, track gauge was 3 ft and there were 5 passenger cars. The postcard below shows an unusual type [col. AM]:
Mechanically-Powered Tramways
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