Thirty Inches Apart - Cuba

The coastal resort of Varadero has become very popular with tourists from many countries in recent years, accompanied by the building of large hotels strung out along the sandy peninsular.

Just a few kilometres inland to the west -  close enough for tourists to hire a bicycle to get there - was a sugar mill, Central Humberto Alvarez,originally called Dos Rosas. It had a 30 inch gauge railroad system with a modest 30kms of track at its greatest extent, worked by steam and diesel.

At the end of the system as it was in 1989, big 2-8-0 1356 shunts at Camarioca with the regular driver looking out. This fine Vulcan Iron Works engine was built for a common carrier line, the FC Resulta at Sagua La Grande, where it was number 5.

At Camarioca in 1991 was smaller loco 1242, a Baldwin 2-8-0 of 1925.

There was quite a climb back to the mill and 1242 is working very hard below with its maximum load.

There were vintage diesels too, this Bo-Bo, MINAZ 2309, was from Atlas Engineering  in 1938. It worked originally in the sugar cane plantations of Hawaii, being imported to Cuba in 1959. Also here was an even older diesel, a small Whitcomb of 1936, again from Hawaii.

The third steamer was a 1905 Baldwin 2-8-0 1315 seen shunting above and below  at the Central on a sunny morning.

1315 was a Baldwin class 10-22-E which were quite common on Cuban 30'' gauge lines, albeit often with detail differences.

A view of 1356 in 1991 displaying the mill's number 10.

Last view of 1242 storming up the grade in 1991. Sadly, despite new cane growth in the foreground, 1991 was the final year for Humberto Alvarez as a working mill. Cane in the area was then taken by road to Central Jose Smith Comas.

Humberto Alvarez would have been ideal as a tourist railway, being close to a well established and growing resort and having an attractive, relatively short line. Indeed when we called in for several years after closure, there was always talk of that happening. But in 1997 the mill was demolished and tracks taken up, a great shame. And loco 1356 was cut up, a tragedy with its pedigree as a unique common carrier loco.

After it too closed Jose Smith Comas became a working railway museum for tourists from Varadero,with a good collection of locos, but it does not have that undeniable narrow gauge charm. 

One loco, 1242, did survive, albeit on a plinth in Varadero for a few years, but it was removed and in 2004 we saw it in steam at Central Esteban Hernandez, which had aspirations to run tourist trains. The mill was east of Varadero but rather further away from it than Humberto Alvarez.

In 2004, loco 1242 was in steam at Esteban Hernandez, at that time a fully operational sugar mill. It displays the mill's original name, Central Guipuzcoa, on its tender. Although brought here mainly for tourist purposes, we were told that it could work during the zafra. I had the privilege of driving it on a test run to the acopio a short distance from the mill. Despite its new livery and freshly applied number, apparently 1242 was incorrectly numbered, it was actually MINAZ 1243.

Some of the redundant steam fleet at Esteban Hermandez in the 1990s. Steam worked well into the 1980s - visitors around 1984/85 were lucky to see quite a bit of steam working including through the tunnel show below, but a quick look in 1987 found the only steam in use was one of the 0-4-0ST shunting. The big Vulcan 2-8- 0 at the front is 1616 and there was also a 2-6-2, very uncommon on 30'' gauge, sadly scrapped. One loco was plinthed at the mill in 2004.

The system included, uniquely on a sugar line, a tunnel, probably out of use by 2004.

Small diesels were adequate for work by 2004 as the acopios were close to the mill. The mill survived the 2002 closures due to the high quality of cane grown in the area and was one of the rapidly diminishing number with a functioning narrow gauge railroad in 2004. 

Another unusual loco at Esteban still at work in 2004 was 0-6-0 diesel hydraulic E4301 built by the Canadian Locomotive Co. in 1958 to a Davenport Loco design.

It didn't survive for much longer, a 2006 visit found the mill partly demolished and we were able to inspect the stationary steam engine and associated Babcock & Wilcox boilers which worked until the mill  closed. 1242 was by then out of use needing boiler repairs and was subsequently put on display at the J S Comas museum.

1329, on the right at Central Espartaco, was at Esteban Hernandez by 2006 to run tourist trains. Not sure how successful that venture was, it was a lot further from Varadero than Humberto Alvarez which was ideally located for tourists from that resort.