El Tren Fantasma

Available for over a year

Ride the Ghost Train from Los Mochis to Veracruz, and travel across country, coast to coast, from the Pacific to Atlantic. It's an acoustic journey through the heart of Mexico, on board one of the most exciting, beautiful and dynamic engineering projects the country has ever known, but which has now passed into history. It's more than a decade since the Mexican State Railway System operated its last continuous passenger service across the country. Sound recordist Chris Watson spent a month on board the train with some of the last passengers to travel this route. In this sound portrait, based on his original recordings, we recreate the journey of the 'ghost train'; evoking memories of a recent past, capturing the atmosphere, rhythms and sounds of human life and wildlife along the tracks of one of Mexico's greatest engineering projects. The recordings used in this programme were originally made by Chris Watson whilst in Mexico with a film crew for BBC TV's Great Railways Journeys: Mexico. Narrated by Chris Watson Producer Sarah Blunt First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2010.