On September 3, 2001, MEXLIST member Ricardo Hernández-Lecanda took three of his HO-scale Alco diesel locomotives to the beautiful mountain layout of his friend Luis Jáuregui-Zepeda in Pacifica, California, USA. The photos indexed below are the result.

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Here, we see all three NdeM Alco locomotives: RS-11 7200; C-424 8141; and C-630 8321, rebuilt from a C-628. The first two engines are from Atlas, and the last one is a Stewart. In this scene, maybe in 1978, the three locomotives negotiate a grade in Cumbres de Maltrata, starting the descent toward Orizaba on the former Ferrocarril Mexicano.

This is RS-11 7200 from Atlas, weathered by Ricardo Hernández-Lecanda and Luis Jáuregui-Zepeda.

The very versatile C-424's were very common locomotives on the former Ferrocarril Mexicano, where they were as popular as GP35's were on the Querétaro, San Luis Potosí, and Guadalajara Divisions. The C-424's were used on the famous trains 49 and 50 (México-Mérida), the 51 and 52 (day trains, México-Veracruz via Orizaba and Córdoba), and the 53 and 54 (same as 51 and 52, but by night with sleeping-car service). The horsepower, the four-axle trucks, and the very well known Alco system, made this locomotive, like the C-628's and the M-630's, a favorite of the Mexicano Division.

C-628's were the successful predecessors to the C30-7's on the Mexicano Division, where they were commonly put in charge of heavy freights, often in conjunction with M-630's. The heavy weathering seen here is due the multiple tunnels and heavy grades between Esperanza, Paso del Macho, and Córdoba. Later, C-628's transformed into C-630's saw more action on the former Central Mexicano and Nacional Mexicano. By the early 1980's, it was very common to find solitary C-628/630's pulling small "turnos" between Valle de México and either Querétaro or Huichapán. Their last assignments were on work trains on the "Juárez" and "Morelos" electrified lines and on the hump in Valle de México Yard.

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