Earlier this month, three locomotives and 11 wagons that the Mexican Navy purchased from the English company Angel Trains to integrate the Interoceanic Corridor passenger railway arrived in Cotzacoalcos, Veracruz, already “tuned” to be available soon would service.
These are three high-speed diesel locomotives from the Class 43 fleet Great Western Railway (GWR). The first example, model 43022, was built in October 1976 and entered service on January 21 that year as part of a program to modernize the UK’s rail fleets.
The second, also Class 43 and model 43158, was built in April 1981 and was also in GWR service. It was decommissioned in May 2023. Meanwhile, GWR’s Model 43170 was withdrawn from service in August 2023.
In various photos owned by formula group, You can see that the locomotives were “dressed” in the symbolic colors of the Interoceanic Corridor. Their new colors went from the black and yellow they ran in the United Kingdom to the Navy’s assigned colors of white and turquoise.
On the pages there is the legend “Government of Mexico”, “Interoceanic Corridor”, accompanied by two prints with women in typical costumes of the Oaxaca and Veracruz region.
This coloration was also observed on Union Pacific’s SD70M locomotive, built in 2001 and recently decommissioned by the company, with which President Andrés Manuel López Obrador made an inaugural tour between the ports of Coatzacoalco last Sunday, September 17th and Salina Cruz in Oaxaca.
Also observed on the presidential tour were cars used by Amtrak Amfleet to Railexco.
The expansion of the Interoceanic Corridor will extend 309 kilometers from port to port.
