Barbados Railway
| Bridgetown – Belleplaine | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Barbados Railway at Barcleys Park
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 A. Aspinall: The Pocket Guide to the West Indies , 1923
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| Route length: | 38.6 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | Up to 1898: 1067 mm from 1898: 762 mm |
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The Barbados Railway was a 38.6 km long narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of initially 1,067 mm ( Cape gauge ) and later 762 mm (2 feet 6 inches) on the island of Barbados . It operated from 1881/83 and was shut down in 1937 .
history
construction
On June 23, 1877, the governor of Barbados, George Strahan , opened the construction work for the railway with the groundbreaking ceremony . The first section of the line from Bridgetown to Carrington was opened on October 20, 1881. The first train took about 40 minutes for the one-way trip.
Due to derailments , passenger traffic was discontinued after a week, as operational safety first had to be established through further construction work. The public was informed that it had previously only been a trial run.
In 1883, the route to Belleplaine was officially opened with a banquet . During the opening trip, the local dignitaries were a bit surprised why “ the train ended so suddenly between barren sand hills ”, but they were impressed by the prepared feast.
Infrastructure
The railway had a total of 98 bridges and numerous curves. After the Three Houses stop , there was a 30 ‰ gradient in Consetts Cutting from the layer level down to sea level . The speed driven was low.
First years of operation
Initially, the railway was operated successfully due to the high volume of sugar and other freight and passenger traffic . However, the owners failed to invest in maintaining the railway infrastructure, so that the line was in great need of repair as early as the 1890s due to corrosion, rain, flooding and wear and tear.
During severe storms in December 1896, long sections of the coast were destroyed by the storm surge and had to be completely rebuilt. The line was within two years until 1898 by Everard Calthrop at a track width of 762 mm (2 feet 6 inches) umgespurt . New Baldwin locomotives were procured from the United States . However, the operator became insolvent and the state was not prepared to subsidize the railway. The railway was therefore temporarily shut down in 1904 while the insolvency administrators were looking for a buyer.
Barbados Light Railway Company
In 1905 a new railway company called The Barbados Light Railway Company Limited was established and took over operations. They decided to expand the offer by building a branch line to Crane . The Crane's Hotel advertised passenger trains from Bushy Park that stopped near the hotel. As early as 1906, the railway ran into financial difficulties again, as there was hardly any passenger traffic and freight traffic was not sufficiently profitable. In 1914 government subsidies were canceled and the railway company insolvent.
State railway
The government of Barbados nationalized the railway operation in 1916. After an overhaul of the system, this state railway first resumed freight traffic and from 1917 also operated passenger trains again. Over the years, however, it continued to deteriorate. A new train was purchased and the existing ones were overhauled. But the infrastructure was dilapidated and this led to derailments. The railway buildings in Bridgetown were also in dire need of renovation.
In the early 1930s, the poor condition of the facilities was renewed concern. The locomotive sheds and wagon sheds were already irreparably dilapidated. The poor condition of the tracks and points endangered operational safety. The locomotives should have been completely dismantled and overhauled. The cars had worn wheels, and the brakes only worked unreliably. All of the cars needed a new coat of paint. Neglected painting shaped the appearance of the entire system. The traffic continued to decrease.
Passenger traffic was discontinued in 1934 for safety reasons and there was only limited freight traffic until the railway was shut down on October 12, 1937 . The railway tracks were dismantled and scrapped in 1938 or used as telephone poles.
vehicles
Locomotives
There were initially five steam locomotives:
- A tank locomotive of the wheel arrangement B, St. Michael of Black Hawthorn , no. 575, which originally belonged to the construction company
- Two 1C1 wheel arrangement tank locomotives from Vulcan Foundry , No. 951 and 952, with a wheelbase of 5.68 m (18 feet 8 inches) and a service weight of 27.3 t (27 tons 6 cwts)
- Two smaller tank locomotives with a 1C1 wheel arrangement from the Avonside Engine Company , No. 1286 and 1287.
Two new heavy steam locomotives with the wheel arrangement C were procured in 1891 by W. G. Bagnall in Stafford . Their weight was distributed over a wheelbase of only 2.7 m (9 ft), which caused significant damage to the tracks. The locomotives were sold overseas in 1898.
After re-gauging to 762 mm (2 feet 6 inches) gauge, a number of tank locomotives were procured: two 1D1, one 1C, and one C from Baldwin Locomotive Works . These were named Alice , Beatrice , Catherine and Dorothy . They were converted from coal to oil firing in 1920.
dare
There were initially six mixed cars 1st and 2nd class , in Großraumwagen American-style, five 3rd grade, ten open freight wagons and 20 tank cars for molasses .
Regulations
The railroad company's regulations required drivers and locomotive drivers to do their
- "Keeping trains well under control" and
- "To make every effort that is necessary to stop a driverless vehicle that has detached itself from a train on an uphill journey, before the impetus has become too great."
- If the “locomotive fails, stop the train as soon as possible”, and
- "If a vehicle derails, the rear brakes must be applied immediately."
- The conductors should “place people suffering from mental illness not with the other passengers, but in a separate compartment” and
- "Take cautious measures to avoid the nuisance of drunk or improperly behaved passengers."
literature
Web links
- Andrew Gibbs: Old Barbados - The Barbados Railway (1881-1937): A trip on the Barbados Railway - Bridgetown to Belleplaine . 2011, Youtube video with historical photos from the book Barbados Railway by Jim Horsford.
- OD von Engeln: NN: A Ride on the Barbados Railroad . The Rotarian, Nov. 1922.
- Bajan Girl ( pseudonym ): The Barbados Railway 1873-1937 , accessed April 4, 2017.
See also
Remarks
- ↑ At the banquet, according to a contemporary report, “ nothing was audible except the clatter of knives and forks and the popping of corks from soda water and ginger ale bottles, with a good sounding claret and a small bass , cooled by a large crowd Ice that formed the basis of drinks ”(Pilkington).
- ↑ Locals believe the curves were built because the English construction company didn't build rail lines that were shorter than 21 miles. If so, it would be more of a reason why the railway line had been extended into the sandy hills of Bellplaine (Bajan Girl).
- ↑ Ernest Biffin, the railroad's general manager, claimed in the 1920s that the railroad was unique for two reasons: It had the tightest curve he knew and one of the steepest inclines of any railroad in the world (Bajan Girl). At about 30 ‰, this is not the steepest railway, not even the steepest adhesion railway in the world.
- ↑ A train driver reported: "About 45 m before the siding in Carrington I noticed that the turnout was half straight and half turned into the siding." Then he gave counter-thrust and was able to stop the train (Pilkington).
Individual evidence
- ^ The Barbados Railway 1873-1937. July 24, 2010.
- ^ A b c d e f G. Pilkington: The History of the Barbados Railway. 2007.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Barbados Pocket Guide: Railway , accessed March 26, 2017.
- ↑ a b c d e f Peter Murphy: The Barbados Railway, 1881-1937, "The old time people used to say that the Barbados Railway was mentioned in the Bible, among the creeping things of this earth." Canadian Rail, No. 403, 1988.
- ^ Jim Horsford: From the Caribbean to the Atlantic: a brief history of the Barbados Railway . Locomotives International, 2004.
- ^ Barbados Railway Timetable.
Coordinates: 13 ° 5 ′ 45.3 " N , 59 ° 36 ′ 44.1" W.