The 'DIY Spacecraft' Designed to Explore Mexico's Abandoned Rail Lines

It looks like a bit like something out of The Road Warrior, only far sleeker and with no makeshift gun turrets. Ivan Puig and Andres Padilla Comene, the artists who built this custom railway vehicle, call it the SEFT-1.

They built the cruiser as a way to explore the hundreds upon hundreds of miles of abandoned passenger railways that wend across Mexico and Ecuador. The system was originally intended to link Mexico City to the Atlantic Ocean, and was laid with help from British rail companies during the 19th Century. Over time, the rail grid, which cuts though largely-forgotten rural communities, was entirely privatized. Soon after, it fell into disuse.

Today, many of the former tracks are largely overgrown, quiet. And yet, they're still there, just a bit rusty. So between 2010 and 2012, Puig and Comene logged an epic tour of Mexico's ghost railways in their silver vehicle—fittingly, the artists describe it as a "spacecraft."

Here's the initial concept for their cruiser:

Here it is in the shop, taking shape:

And here's Puig and Comene, cruising along in a fun little video profile by BBC Magazine:

Along the way, the artists documented their trek by interview locals and taking their own photos and videos.

In the end, "The artists’ journeys led them to the notion of modern ruins: places and systems left behind quite recently, not because they were not functioning, but for a range of political and economical reasons," per Furtherfield.