Guatemala
Guatemala had 200 miles (322 km) of operating 914 mm (3 ft) narrow gauge railroads between Guatemala City and Puerto Barrios, managed by US-based Railroad Development Corporation as Ferrovías Guatemala. They ran regular freight trains and occasional charter steam trains for tourists from 1999 until September 2007, when all operation was suspended following a conflict with the Government of Guatemala. (June 2011) Most of the rail and steel bridges have now been dismantled by thieves meaning there now no possibility that service can be reinstated without millions of dollars' worth of investment in rebuilding it.
Railroads have been built in Guatemala since 1884. In 1912, the network was acquired by United Fruit Company, named IRCA and developed to connect Guatemala City with the Pacific coast (Puerto San José), Atlantic coast (Puerto Barrios), El Salvador (Anguiatú), Mexico (Ciudad Tecún Umán - change of gauges 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)/914 mm (3 ft)) and other places. In 1950s, the railroads went into a decline, resulting in nationalization (1968, new name was FEGUA - Ferrocarriles de Guatemala) and suspension of all services in 1996. In 1997, the government gave a fifty-year concession to the Railroad Development Corporation, which then resumed operations on one line in 1999 and abandoned operation on September 30, 2007.
Apart from this main network, there were two other local railroads - Ferrocarril de Los Altos from Quetzaltenango to Retalhuleu and Ferrocarril Verapaz to the North-West of Lago de Izabal. They were closed in 1933 and 1963, respectively.
Read more about this topic: Rail Transport In Central America