The San Luis Potosí to Tampico railway

On 29 November 1877, the San Luis Potosí Congress authorized the Executive by means of decree núm. 40, to obtain from the Federal Government the concession of a railroad between Tampico and the state capital.

Construction began on 5 May 1878 and took several years. The official inauguration was on 17 April 1890, with the attendance of Carlos Pacheco, the Secretary of Development, and Pedro Hinojosa , the Secretary of War, and other personalities

The train left San Luis Potosí at midnight and arrived in Tampico at five in the afternoon, whilst on the return journey, the trains would depart from the port of Tampico in the morning, to arrive in the capital of San Luis Potosí almost at the end of the day.

To pay for the work, in 1878 the state government of San Luis PotosÍ issued paper currency in denominations of one centavo to five pesos which had to be used for payment of a special ten percent capitation tax surcharge imposed on all male citizens. New paper issues were printed in 1879 and 1880.

The purpose of the tax was inscribed on each note: "Ferrocarril de San Luis a Tampico."^{Antonio Kalixto Espinosa, "Emision de Billetes del Ferrocarril San Luis Potosi-Tampico, Años 1878-1880," in Archivos de Historia Potosina, 1:4 (April-June 1970), pp. 219-223}.