By Porter Lang
Start with a count that should be simple. How long did it take to build El Chepe? Mexico News Daily says 63 years, from 1898 to 1961. The Christian Science Monitor says it began in 1885 and finished in 1961. A tourism site for Creel says construction began in 1902. Three sources, three starts, one finish.
What the line is
The railway’s formal name is Chihuahua al Pacífico, nicknamed Chepe, according to the Monitor. Mexico News Daily says it connects Los Mochis in Sinaloa to Chihuahua city, and that the scenic Chepe Express runs from Los Mochis to Creel. The line is “over 650 kilometers” long, it says. The Creel tourism site gives 653 kilometers. American-Rails, a rail-enthusiast site, gives 406 miles, from Chihuahua to Los Mochis, with about 248 miles through Copper Canyon. The numbers agree once the units are converted.
Tunnels and bridges
All the sources give 86 tunnels. For bridges, they differ. Mexico News Daily and the Monitor say 39, the Creel site 37, and American-Rails 36. We show each and do not pick one.
American-Rails names some structures. It says Tunnel 86 is bored through a mile of solid bedrock, La Pera tunnel has a horseshoe curve, and the Chinipas Bridge is 335 feet long. It gives the longest bridge as Agua Caliente, at 1,637 feet. We have not checked the lengths against a second source.
The highest point
Mexico News Daily says the line climbs to nearly 2,500 meters above sea level. It says the Chepe Express ride from Los Mochis to Creel takes nine hours, with about six more hours to reach Chihuahua. The Monitor, writing in 2001, gave eight hours for the same stretch. The two figures come from different years and we do not expect timetables to match.
Who dreamed it up
Here the sources disagree, and we show each. American-Rails says Arthur Edward Stilwell conceived a transcontinental line from the Midwest to the Pacific. His Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railway was incorporated on 30 April 1900, with the aim of building port facilities at Topolobampo in Sinaloa. The Monitor credits Albert Kinsey Owen, a utopian dreamer, who envisioned a 1,600-mile rail link between Topolobampo Bay and Kansas City. Our reading is that the two accounts describe different stages of the same long project. We have not found a source that reconciles them.
The long delay
American-Rails says the Mexican section was hard because of the rugged Sierra Madre Occidental. It says the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe acquired the American portions in 1928, and that Mexico’s government took over the Mexican section in 1940. The program that finished the work, it says, began in 1958, and the line was completed on 20 November 1961. The Creel site gives a slightly different date, 23 November 1961, for the inauguration of the hardest section between Creel and San Pedro. It says about 20,000 workers were employed, and that the line met difficulties from terrain, deep canyons, steep ravines, limited technology and the unrest of the Mexican Revolution era. It is a tourism site, and the labor figure is its own claim.
Mexico News Daily also mentions delays during the Revolution.
The canyon
Mexico News Daily describes Copper Canyon as a system of twenty interconnected canyons carved by six rivers, and says it is four times larger than the Grand Canyon. The Monitor says it is deeper than the Grand Canyon and four times as vast. American-Rails says it comprises six separate canyons and drops nearly 6,200 feet. The Monitor says it plummets more than 8,000 feet. These claims do not match and we do not choose among them.
The name, Mexico News Daily says, comes from the greenish, copper-like sheen of the canyon walls, not from copper mining.
Who runs it now
American-Rails says Ferromex, a large private railroad, operates the line, and that the Chepe Express debuted on 17 May 2018 with executive and tourist class on six cars including dining and dome cars. The Monitor said in 2001 that Ferromex had recently taken over from the government. Mexico News Daily says stopovers can be booked in advance at no extra cost, up to three. We have not checked current operations, schedules or fares.
Stations
The Mexico News Daily article names El Fuerte, Bahuichivo, Posada Barrancas, Divisadero and Creel as key stations.
The dates in order
Laid out in order, the sources give this. Albert Kinsey Owen’s project began in 1885, per the Monitor. Mexico News Daily gives 1898 for the start of construction, and American-Rails says Stilwell’s company was incorporated in 1900. The Creel site says construction began in 1902 under President Porfirio Díaz. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe bought the American portions in 1928, Mexico took over the Mexican section in 1940, a finishing program began in 1958, and the line was completed in November 1961. Ferromex took over operations by 2001, and the Chepe Express began in 2018. Each date comes from one source and we have not cross-checked them.
What we left out
Three of the sources give construction costs. We left them out, since figures from different decades in different currencies tell the reader little.
What it means for a traveler
Our reading is that the railway is best understood as an engineering story first and a scenery story second. The numbers (86 tunnels, a few dozen bridges, 650 kilometers) are a record of work done in difficult country over many decades. The scenery follows from the route.
Check current service, timetables and any closures before you plan. We have not.
Where sources differ, we show each: the start year, the bridge count, the canyon claims and the ride time. We list them in the check file.
Roam first. Shop later.