Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán (UdeY) was a

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

railroad that operated in the states of

Yucatán Yucatán (, also , , ; yua, Yúukatan ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán,; yua, link=no, Xóot' Noj Lu'umil Yúukatan. is one of the 31 states which comprise the federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 106 separate mun ...

and Campeche in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

from 1902 to 1975.

History

The Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán (United Railways of Yucatan) was founded on November 1, 1902, by the merger of three railroads; ''F. C. Merida a Valladolid'', ''F. C. Merida a Calkini'', and ''F. C. Merida a Peto'', operating in the

Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula (, also , ; es, Península de Yucatán ) is a large peninsula in southeastern Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north ...

.. The last two 4-4-0 steam locomotives (Nos. 80 and 81) built by Baldwin Locomotive Works were made for this railroad in 1946.. Locals nicknamed its locomotives as ''toros de fuego'' (bulls of fire).Broggie, Michael. ''Walt Disney's Railroad Story: The Small-Scale Fascination That Led to a Full-Scale Kingdom'', 4th ed., pp. 316-325, The Donning Company Publishers, 2014. . Other than a standard gauge line between Yucatán's capital city of Mérida and the port of Progreso, all lines in the Peninsula were narrow gauge. In 1950, rail lines were finally connected from the rest of Mexico, which used . After the rail unification, the FUdeY line between Merida and Campeche and thence the rest of Mexico was converted to standard. In 1975, the company was merged into

Ferrocarriles Unidos del Sureste Ferrocarriles Unidos del Sureste was a company that operated a railroad in southeastern Mexico. In the 1930s the Mexican government decided to build a railroad into the Yucatán, connecting the national system with the isolated Ferrocarriles Uni ...

. Five of the railroad's steam locomotives were bought by Roger Broggie on behalf of

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Stud ...

in 1969. Four of them built by Baldwin Locomotive Works between 1916 and 1928, were completely rebuilt and significantly altered to resemble locomotives built in the 1880s.. Additionally, their fireboxes were modified to burn ultra-low-sulfur No. 2 diesel fuel as opposed to

bunker oil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bun ...

and

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...

. They are currently operating on the

Walt Disney World Railroad The Walt Disney World Railroad (WDWRR) is a 3-foot () narrow-gauge heritage railroad and attraction located within the Magic Kingdom theme park of Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida, in the United States. Its route is in length and encir ...

(WDWRR) circling

Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, ...

Magic Kingdom Magic Kingdom Park, previously known as Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom (1971–1994) and The Magic Kingdom (1994–2017), is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando, Florida. Owned and operated by The ...

park in Bay Lake, Florida. The remaining locomotive built in 1902 by

Pittsburgh Locomotive and Car Works The Pittsburgh Locomotive and Car Works was a railroad equipment manufacturing company founded by Andrew Carnegie and T.N. Miller in 1865. It was located in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh and since 1907 part of that city. It repa ...

, was not restored due to its poor condition and was sold to an unknown locomotive broker.. Some of its parts were salvaged to repair the four Baldwin locomotives.

References

Bibliography

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External links

Museo de los Ferrocarriles de Yucatán
(Yucatán Railway Museum, in English and Spanish) 3 ft gauge railways in Mexico Unidos de Yucatán {{Mexico-rail-transport-stub

History

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links