The date is January 6, 1996, in Saltillo, Coahuila, but it could just as easily have been 20 years earlier. By 1996, most Mexican motive power has been repainted into FNM two-tone blue, but NdeM SDP40 8530 still looks resplendent in its traditional NdeM orange, yellow, and ultimately dark green. The locomotive, built in June 1968 with a steam generator for passenger train heating, still survives today as KCS 3057.

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Photo © 1996 Chris M. Palmieri