Note 5 — Remaining Relics and Operable Replicas Representing the First Quarter-Century Of Steam Locomotives in North America

Railroads are known not to have existed in Mexico prior to 1850, and although locomotives of the 1825-1849 period could possibly have found their way into that country at some later date, none are to be found there today, according to advice from the Mexican National Railways (Ferrocarriles Nacionales de Mexico). Central America falls outside the scope of this work, as do the Islands of the Caribbean. However, a railroad was opened in Cuba in 1837, and another was started across the Isthmus of Panama in 1849 and completed in 1855 (its first locomotive was received soon after the midcentury mark had been passed), so there is the remote possibility that somewhere in this area the remains of a pre-1850 locomotive could exist.