This car is painted to honor Mexico City, which ran PCC streetcars from 1947 until 1984. The Mexican capital’s first PCC was the only one ever bought new in Latin America.

Dubbed ‘La Bella Rosa’, it was placed into premium fare service on the route to the famed floating gardens at Xochimilco. No more PCCs joined the Mexico City fleet until 1954, when 91 PCCs, identical to this car, arrived from Minneapolis-St. Paul, followed in 1955 by 183 more from Detroit.

Left-side doors were installed on all these cars to serve center platforms on several routes. By 1957, the entire Mexico City streetcar system was PCC-operated, but tracks and cars gradually deteriorated and new subway lines offered faster service.

In the 1980s, the last PCCs were replaced by homebuilt trams which themselves used some PCC parts. Mexico’s port city of Tampico also ran PCCs from 1958 to 1974.