Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán
Railroad company that operated in Mexico

Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán (UdeY) was a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge railroad that operated in the states of Yucatán and Campeche in Mexico from 1902 to 1975.
History
The Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán (United Railways of Yucatan) was founded on November 1, 1902, by the merger of three railroads; F. C. Merida a Valladolid, F. C. Merida a Calkini, and F. C. Merida a Peto, operating in the Yucatán Peninsula.
The last two 4-4-0 steam locomotives (Nos. 80 and 81) built by Baldwin Locomotive Works were made for this railroad in 1946. Locals nicknamed its locomotives as toros de fuego (bulls of fire).
Other than a standard gauge line between Yucatán's capital city of Mérida and the port of Progreso, all lines in the Peninsula were narrow gauge.
In 1950, rail lines were finally connected from the rest of Mexico, which used 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge. After the rail unification, the FUdeY line between Merida and Campeche and thence the rest of Mexico was converted to standard. In 1975, the company was merged into Ferrocarriles Unidos del Sureste.
Disney connection
Five of the railroad's steam locomotives were bought by Roger Broggie on behalf of The Walt Disney Company in 1969.
“Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán” enters the record as railroad company that operated in Mexico. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ferrocarriles, Unidos and Yucatán can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Ferrocarriles, Unidos and Yucatán provides the most credible route into that argument.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 11, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q5445421. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1902, 1975, 1946 and 1950.
Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán primary sources, Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán archive and Ferrocarriles research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán”?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Ferrocarriles Unidos de Yucatán” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.