Chiriquí Land Company light railways

Chiriquí Land Company light railways
Steam-powered field train, probably on a trip to a banana plantation
Route length:	300 km
Gauge :	914 mm ( English 3-foot track )
Top speed:	Locomotives: 24 km / h railcar 35 km / h

The Chiriquí Land Company's light railways consisted of two 300-kilometer-long light rail networks with a gauge of 914 mm (3 feet ) in the province of Chiriquí and the province of Bocas del Toro in Panama .

history

The Chiriquí Land Company, a United Fruit subsidiary of Banana growing and property management in Panama, also operated two railroad networks, which at their peak totaled about 300 km, longer than those of the Panama Canal Railway and Ferrocarril Nacional de Chiriquí taken together. Their main cargo was bananas, but public passenger and freight trains also ran.

These two unconnected networks were similar in size:

• The southern, Chiriquí Land Líneas del Sur , in the Chiriquí Province, was closed in 1988.
• The northern one, Chiriquí Land Líneas del Norte or División Bocas , in the province of Bocas del Toro connected Almirante , Changuinola , Guabito and parts of Sixaola and was closed in 1999, after which operations were only maintained on the bridge over the Río Changuinola . The rest were shut down between 2005 and 2008.

Rail vehicles

The railroad mainly used General Electric diesel locomotives:

No.	No. after renumbering	Manufacturer	Factory no.	Construction year	EMC no.	Remarks
6th	706	GE	10837	May 1929	C-26	35 t diesel-electric box-cab locomotive with a Winton engine. A superior diesel engine was probably installed in No. 6 around 1945-46.
7th	707	GE	10838	May 1929	C-27	35 t diesel-electric box-cab locomotive with a Winton engine
8th	708	GE	11084	January 1930	C-29	35 t diesel-electric box-cab locomotive with a Winton engine
9	709	GE	11085	January 1930	C-30	35 t diesel-electric box-cab locomotive with a Winton engine
10	710	GE	11085	January 1930	C-31	35 t diesel-electric box-cab locomotive with a Winton engine
12	712	American Locomotive Company		1937		300 hp diesel locomotive
						Number 13 was skipped as an unlucky number
14th	714	American Locomotive Company		1938		300 hp diesel locomotive

See also

• Ferrocarril Nacional de Chiriquí

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Panama - Friends of Latin American railways . Retrieved January 22, 2019.
2. ^ ^{A b c} Panama - Friends of Latin American Railways . Retrieved January 11, 2017.
3. ↑ Chiriqui Land Co. Mini Boxcabs.
4. ↑ Dan Robirds: Chiriqui Land Company.