Virtual Railfan Tour - St. Kitts 1975

 

A train of empty cars at Boyds

I made visits to St, Kitts in the Caribbean near Antigua in 1975, 1979, 1981, 1983 and 1991. There was a railway moving sugar cane to the factory at Basseterre. This was 2' 6" gauge built in a "Q" shape around the island, about 30 miles. The factory is at the base of the "Q" with the short "tail" serving the harbor.

On my first visit we arrived at the hotel after dark,  The taxi had bumped over a rough piece of road just before the hotel entrance.  I woke up the next morning to a low growling sound. It turned out we had a view across the cane fields to the railway track. The rough road was a railway crossing.

With one man driving the train the rest of the crew were very relaxed

Cane was brought to the nearest siding and loaded into tbe trucks

There were many Hunslet locomotives. Each road locomotive was paired with a water filled tender to provide extra braking

The Davenports were a little larger and were described by the crew as "like a large, fat old lady on spindly legs"

Steam engine water tanks were quite frequent 


Goats were plwntiful

I managed a short cab ride

"Churchill" was a Davenport originally numbered 13. It gave much trouble and was continually derailing. Eventually the company removed the number and gave it a name.  It then became a model locomotive and gave no more trouble. They had similar problems with locomotive No. 4.  This was solved by renumbering it "14". This gave the company two No. 14 locomotives. Maybe the derailment devil became confused over which locomotive to haunt.

There was a marshalling yard at Basseterre switched by a tiny locomotive

Signalling at the yard

The dispatcher's panel consisted of a metal circle showing the sidings. There was a numbered magnet for each locomotive which was moved around the board as the trains progressed.  Communication was by radio.

The operating fleet was kept in a shed

There was a lot of interesting junk  at Basseterre. This is an armor plated Mororail locomotive reputed to have done service in World War I trenches

A derelict steam locomotive

A derelict Plymouth
I was warned not to get too close to the abandoned locomotives as they frequently harbored nests of hornets that could give one a severe sting.





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