Sinaloa’s Tacuarinero, a memory that remains alive

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Despite its disappearance, the Tacuarinero train continues to live in the memory and hearts of the inhabitants of Navolato.

Ferrocarril pasando por puente en Culiacan Sinaloa Mexico | Culiacan,  Lugares hermosos, Paisajes

It was the year 1880 when the government of Agustín Martínez de Castro granted a concession to New Yorker Edward B. Adams to establish his company in Sinaloa called the Sinaloa and Durango Railway.

To start its work, the laying of the road between Culiacán and Altata was carried out. It took the effort of two hundred workers who in those days obtained a salary of 75 cents per day worked.

ALTATA

On May 5, 1882, the official inauguration of the first 2.5 km of railway was made.

It reached the town of Bachimeto, where the governor and his entourage moved, also accompanied by the patriotic meeting of Culiacán.

There, together with the patriotic meeting of Altata, they boarded locomotive number 1, called Agustín Martínez de Castro; named in honor of the governor. It was the first machine to arrive in Sinaloa.

By February 11, 1883, the work was done. Altata and Culiacán were united by means of the great iron serpent.

In those days the Tacuarinero station was located at Gabriel Leyva Solano y Andrade. Right in the place that occupies the monument to the unknown soldier.

Over the years, the Tacuarinero became the means of transport for hundreds of people who came and went from Navolato to Culiacán. There were sellers of tacuarines, nopales, chickens and everything that could generate income for family spending.

Contempla Navolato antigua estación de 'El Tacuarinero' | Reporte18

According to the voice of Carlos Leonel Urías Taboada, one of the many passengers on the train, the Tacuarinero left his station at 12:00 hours. “Several times I had the privilege of going to Culiacán with the stoker“ El chimuelo ”and Don Fidencio Medina el Maquinista. I remember stopping in San Pedro for lunch. A very good person ”.

The memories of the people from Navola are still valid, all in some way feel identified with “their train.”

In his last years of service, he transported, among other things, sugar and tank cars with honeys, which were produced at the sugar mill to send them to Culiacán and other states of the country.

Just eight years ago, Leoncio Lerma Carrillo, the last machinist of El Tacuarinero, died at the age of 79. Don Leoncio remembered his soul Tacuarinero with eagerness. That little train that in May 1975 made its last stop in the yards of the Western Railway of Mexico. Where he still stands as a faithful witness to the best years of Navolato and its people.

Source: tusbuenasnoticias.com

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