All aboard! Well, not quite yet. But after a year-long wait, an old caboose gifted to Chapala by the Ferrocarriles Mexicanos (Ferromex) Foundation was finally delivered Friday, September 23 for installation outside the Centro Cultural González Gallo, the town’s former train station.
The rear-end railway car arrived from the Guadalajara train yard in deplorable condition, with its metal parts badly rusted and most of the yellow exterior covered in graffiti. Weighing in at close to 24,000 kilos, it took three tow trucks and two hours of labor by a large work crew to set it in place.
The donation was promoted by Juan Diego Castro Ramírez, president of the Amigos de la Estación de Chapala Máquina 245, a model train enthusiasts’ club, with approval of the municipal government. His idea was to house the caboose on the cultural center’s grounds. That option was ruled out by officials at the Jalisco Ministry of Culture who deemed it more appropriate to keep it out in the street in the exact spot where the Chapala line rolled back in 1920.
Last fall, the city demolished part of the median strip running down the middle of the avenue to make space for two segments of new rails put in represent the original trajectory.
The caboose itself, a model from the 1950s, is out of historical context for the site. But Castro is proud of lining up an arrangement with Ferromex in what has been touted as the organization’s last donation of out-of-use railroad cars.
He is determined to have it fully restored and converted into an auxiliary museum to display vintage photographs and artifacts that will be ready time for the train station’s 100th anniversary.