RIGHT: Along Calle 13, an Incofer commuter train has made its stop and continues toward the Pacifico station. The coaches are a mix of cars from various builders and eras. MIDDLE: Calle 13 features narrow side of the street and sidewalk running. Commuters have disembarked because of an accident up ahead and will walk to their final downtown destinations — a way of life on a system that is working to modernize and upgrade. BOTTOM LEFT: The 1908 Estación Atlántico, built by Ferrocarriles de Costa Rica, is the busier of the two downtown terminals. BOTTOM RIGHT: In stark contrast to its crosstown neighbor, Estación Pacifico was built in the Mid-Century Modern style with glass block windows and sleek curves.
a ticket. Across from the station are the main Incofer shops, with locomo- tives and freight cars in various states of decay and refurbishment, including a line-up of electric motors built by Alstom as recently as 1981. There are a handful of morning and
early evening trains that run the line between the Atlántico and Pacifico stations. Detailed schedules can found on the Incofer website, and unless there is a major service disruption, the trains typically run on time. Deadhead moves to reposition equipment also occur on a regular basis. The lines are not signaled and there are no warning devices at most of the grade crossings, other than a few yellow crossbucks. The engineers blast the horn all through town, leaving no doubt that the train is on its way. Power for the commuter trains includes more than a dozen Apollo diesel multiple-unit cars in the 2400-series purchased secondhand from the Spanish state railway. The two-unit sets were regauged and refurbished before being shipped in several batches to Costa Rica. But the real prizes are the export baby U-boats that came new from the General Electric factory in Erie, Pa., in the form of U6B (Nos. 50-59), U10B (Nos. 75-79) and U11B (Nos. 80-89) models with Caterpillar engines painted in an attrac- tive blue, white, and red scheme. Some of these locomotives were originally built for the country’s banana hauling lines and delivered before the state took over operations. These compact and robust locomotives in the 750- to 1,100- h.p. range were once commonplace all over Latin America, including Brazil, Nicaragua, Colombia, Guatemala, and Honduras. A handful can be found in the U.S., including two U6Bs at the George- town Loop in Colorado. The locomotive models are significant because they laid the groundwork for General Electric’s successful line of “Universal” series loco- motives that followed in later years and allowed the company to compete with rival EMD. The Incofer coaches are a mix of
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heritages, with some built locally. Trains can be a healthy seven cars in length, putting the locomotives to heavy use on the stiff grades. There’s a lot of street running between
the two stations. From the Pacifi- co station, the tracks run through the median of busy Avenida 20 (20th Avenue), past a few homes, schools, and large warehouses. This is a section where the tracks were covered following
abandonment of the system and simply cut out of the asphalt when the line was reopened without raising the track bed to the height of the road surface. At Calle 11, the line curves north through a park and crosses a hectic intersec- tion following a narrow path between the street and sidewalk of Calle 13. The next “station” is the stop for the Nation- al Museum in the middle of the inter- section of Calle 13 and Avenida 6. After
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