The Mexican International Railroad (''Ferrocarril Internacional Mexicano'') was one of the primary pre-

nationalization Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

s of

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 ...

. Incorporated in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

in 1882 in the interests of the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

(SP), it opened a main line from

Piedras Negras Piedras Negras may refer to: * Piedras Negras, Coahuila, a city in the state of Coahuila, Mexico ** Piedras Negras Municipality, a municipality in Mexico, with the center in the eponymous city * Piedras Negras (Maya site), an archaeological site of ...

(across the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

from Eagle Pass, at the end of an SP branch line) to

Torreón Torreón () is a city and seat of Torreón Municipality in the Mexican state of Coahuila. As of 2021, the city's population was 735,340. The metropolitan population as of 2015 was 1,497,734, making it the ninth-biggest metropolitan area in the ...

, on the

Mexican Central Railway The Mexican Central Railway (''Ferrocarril Central Mexicano'') was one of the primary pre-nationalization railways of Mexico. Incorporated in Massachusetts in 1880, it opened the main line in March 1884, linking Mexico City to Ciudad Juárez, ac ...

, in 1888, and to

Durango Durango (), officially named Estado Libre y Soberano de Durango ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Durango; Tepehuán: ''Korian''; Nahuatl: ''Tepēhuahcān''), is one of the 31 states which make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico, situated in ...

in October 1892. Branches extended from Durango to

Santa Catarina de Tepehuanes Santa Catarina de Tepehuanes is a locality of Tepehuanes Municipality in Durango, 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 t ...

and Reata to

Monterrey Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is anchor ...

. The

National Railroad of Mexico The National Railroad of Mexico (''Ferrocarril Nacional de México'') was one of the primary pre- nationalization railways of Mexico. Incorporated in Colorado in 1880 as the Mexican National Railway (''Ferrocarril Nacional Mexicano''), and head ...

gained control in 1901 after the death of

Collis P. Huntington Collis Potter Huntington (October 22, 1821 – August 13, 1900) was an American industrialist and railway magnate. He was one of the Big Four of western railroading (along with Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker) who invested ...

of the SP, and in June 1910 the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

-owned

Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (better known as N de M and especially in its final years as FNM) was Mexico's state owned railroad company from 1938 to 1998, and prior to 1938 (dating from the regime of Porfirio Díaz), a major railroad con ...

(''National Railways of Mexico'') took over the property. The line between Sauceda (west of Reata) and Matamoros (east of Torreón) was soon abandoned, as it was parallel to two ex-

and National Railroad of Mexico lines. On the other hand, construction of a branch from Allende north to the border at

Ciudad Acuña Ciudad Acuña, also known simply as Acuña, (originally Garza Galán, later Villa Acuña) is a city located in the Mexican state of Coahuila, at and a mean height above sea level of . It stands on the Rio Grande (locally known as the Río Br ...

, which had begun in 1911 and been suspended in 1913, was resumed in 1919, with the intent of connecting to a planned (and never-completed) branch of the

Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway The Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway, started in 1900 by American railroad entrepreneur Arthur Edward Stilwell, was the predecessor of the Chihuahua al Pacífico railroad in Mexico. It was intended to reach the Pacific Ocean at Topolobamp ...

from

San Angelo San Angelo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Tom Green County, Texas, United States. Its location is in the Concho Valley, a region of West Texas between the Permian Basin to the northwest, Chihuahuan Desert to the southwest, Osage Plai ...

to Del Rio.Powell, p. 10 During the

privatization Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

in the 1990s,

Ferromex Ferromex ( syllabic abbreviation of Ferrocarril Mexicano or "Mexican Railway") is a private rail consortium that operates the largest (by mileage) railway in Mexico with combined mileage (Ferromex + Ferrosur) of and is part of the North Americ ...

acquired the line between Piedras Negras and Monterrey. The branch to Ciudad Acuña was abandoned and removed. The remaining western piece from Torreón to Durango is part of

Línea Coahuila Durango :''LFCD'' is also the ICAO code for Andernos-les-Bains airfield in France. The Línea Coahuila Durango RailincSearch MARKs accessed September 2009 is a short-line railroad company operating between the states of Durango and Coahuila in Mexico. It ...

References

{{reflist Defunct railway companies of Mexico Railway companies established in 1882 Railway companies disestablished in 1910