MINAZ Meanderings

The 160 + sugar mills situated throughout Cuba were nationalised by the  Castro regime in 1960 and in 1964 the Ministerio del Azúcar was created, commonly known asMINAZ.  MINAZ also took over the running of  the associated very extensive railway systems of various gauges. MINAZ cane trains and associated products such as molasses were also worked over the public lines of the FCC, Ferrocarriles Cuba.

It is worth mentioning that Cuba had a greater density of railroad tracks than virtually any other country - and that was due to the sugar industry.

Talking of the FCC,also  fully nationalised in 1960, it was largely dieselised before the events of 1959 and quite a number of ex main line steam locos had been sold off to Centrals in earlier years. After the Revolution more redundant FCC steam locos were made available to the sugar industry.

Most sugar cane railways around the world are narrow gauge which of course adds to the interest. MINAZ had its share of these but in the 1980s they were outnumbered by standard gauge systems. The more modern mills, particularly ones which came into being around and after the First World War - to make up for sugar beet shortages in Europe and elsewhere - had standard gauge systems. And over the years, as production increased, numerous older mills which started with narrow gauge were converted to standard gauge. This process continued after the 1959 Revolution with Russian assistance.

It was around 1974 before a common numbering system was introduced for locos used by the sugar Centrals (many of which had been renamed after revolutionary heroes, not necessarily just Cuban ones.) The renumbering did not cover locos which were already out of use or dumped and presumably were not considered as being capable of resurrection.

Looking at the number series used for steam locos gives a rough maximum of 600 engines on the working roster at that time. (For comparison, an American State Department survey in the latter part of 1931 claimed there were 1187 industrial locos in Cuba - most of those would have been steam and mainly in the sugar industry.)

Very approximately, about ten per cent of MINAZ steam  had originally worked for Cuban main line /common carrier railroads, both standard and narrow gauge. There were also a few imported secondhand from the USA in earlier years, though hardly any of those were still working by the 1980s.

Basically, small engines were in the 11XX series, then there were 12XX,13XX,14XX,15XX,16XX,17XX,18XX and 19XX, the latter being for the biggest locos.

Diesels were numbered in separate series. Some shunting locos in the 4XXX series were converted from steam locos.

When new diesels came from Russia, there were numbered 37XXX, 38XXX and 39XXX. Some diesels also arrived secondhand from other countries.

As mills requirements changed and new diesels arrived, workable steam locos were moved often long distances from their original mill to other mills in need of engines, Sometimes narrow gauge locos became surplus when a mill's railway was converted to standard gauge.

Minaz 1154, a 30 inch gauge Baldwin 2-6-0, slowly disappearing in the undergrowth in 1994 at Central P G Toro where the narrow gauge lines were converted to standard in the 1970s. Being fairly small 1154 did not get snapped up by another narrow gauge mill, but in 1997 it had gone. During a brief visit that year, the shed staff said 1154 and another(?1240 ?1155), which had also been here, had moved, one to Havana province and one to Ciego province. Can't vouch for the truth of that statement though - has anyone seen them anywhere?

While most Centrals in the eastern part of the island were dieselised by the end of the 1980s, a few carried on with steam. It seemed to be down to individual mills as to whether to dieselise or not. I believe there may well have been a regular meeting of MINAZ loco chiefs at which such things as transfers of locos between those with a surplus and those in need was discussed. We saw one locomotive with the legend 'LOCOMOTORA 1V CONGRESO' on its tender, which hints at such an event. Transfers of steam locos were still taking place in the late 1990s, possibly into the 2000s.

A big contraction of the sugar industry happened after the 2002 season. This is from a website on Cuban sugar mills:

According to Reference 1, in 2002 the Castro government activated a plan for the reconversion of Cuban sugar mills. The Ministry of Sugar decided that, of the 156 mills that existed at that time, 71 would produce sugar, 14 would produce sugar and molasses destined as cattle feed, and the remaining 71 would be deactivated. Of these remaining 71, 5 would be converted into museums, 5 would be held in reserve and the remaining 61 would be dismantled.

The many closures hastened the end of steam workings, which were much reduced in 2003 and 2004 and sparse after 2004, often locos were basically steamed for visiting groups and might trundle along the line for photographs. My own last sight of real working for MINAZ steam was in March 2006 at Gregorio Manalich where one standard gauge loco was steamed to bring in full cane cars from an acopio close to the mill, the line having been converted from narrow to standard gauge after 2004, which  proved to be the last year of real narrow gauge steam at this or any other mill. We just missed the last steam working at Rene Fraga, the loco was still warm, but a diesel had arrived to take over the day before our visit in 2006. 

As far as I am aware, MINAZ never had any central workshops for overhauling steam locos, this was undertaken at individual mills, with some appearing to contract out the heavy work to another mill. Locos could be under overhaul for years, probably longer than they ever worked, at least in latter times. Facilities at smaller mills were often rudimentary, engines were out in the open with boilers perched on piles of sleepers with work proceeding at a very slow rate. 

Though most diesel locos only worked four or five months a year during the Zafra - the sugar cane cutting season which usually ran between December and May - there didn't seem to be any attempt to use them on the nationalised public state railway services operated by the Ferrocarriles de Cuba, FCC, despite the latter's seemingly permanent shortage of operable motive power. This has changed in very recent years  - the reduction in the number of Centrals, shrinkage of sugar lines mileages and more use of road transport during Zafras has led to big sugar industry diesels surplus to requirements being used on FCC trains. And MINAZ itself was disbanded in 2011, after the previous year's sugar harvest was the worst in over a hundred years.

Alco 2-8-0 MINAZ number 1594 is said to be former FCC loco 10501, one of only three steamers known to receive an 'All Cuba' five digit number around 1974. So it would seem to have been a relatively recent transfer to MINAZ, pictured while working for mill 318 Victoria de Yaguajay, Matanzas Province, in 1992. 

Another aspect which changed over the years was loco liveries. Most mills displayed their name on an loco's tender or tank, but sometimes the province or district name was shown. While some mills took care to keep locos looking smart, with silver painted smokeboxes for instance, others were downright scruffy. In the late 1990s, greater effort was made to smarten up locos as more and more enthusiasts arrived taking pictures.

Locos came to be seen as an attraction which could earn precious tourist dollars and loco parades started to take place.

It was a surprise in 1999 to find 1661 with this livery at Diez de Octubre! Far from being an exhibit, 1661 was quite active up to 2001, having done not a lot in prior years visits.

This was a far cry from the situation in the 1980s when taking pictures of a steam loco could lead to arrest and detention in a police station - though I am not aware that anybody ended up in court and got locked up for a long period. Some mills were very anti photography and their security would chase away anybody attempting it even in the canefields well away from the mills. Others were not concerned and offered footplate rides to visitors, again it seemed to be down to individual mill management.

It wasn't only locos that had prolonged overhauls - Centrals were refurbished and modernised too, and closure might cover two or three seasons. Acopios normally serviced by the closed mill often still operated with cane being transported elsewhere in the area, sometimes by the closed Central's locos, sometimes by the recipient mill's motive power.

Dusk is taking over as sunlight drops rapidly at Carlos Balino. The mill was closed in the 1994 season, cane cut in the area being transferred to Central George Washington, with this train headed by the latter's Baldwin 2-8-0 1820. That was only a run of about 9kms, but some of it on FCC tracks not normally used by steam. 1820 had difficulty getting the load of 23 fulls and a caboose on the move so Balino engine 4-6-0 1555 banked it away. Two days later 1555 took a fulls train to George Washington, en route picking up four more wagons brought to Santo Domingo station by a 34XXX diesel from the small mill at Veintiseis de Julio. On this occasion at least 1555 used the new FCC high speed main line from Santo Domingo to George Washington!

In the late 1980/1990s steam worked at four mills in Granma province in Eastern Cuba, including Central Jose N Figueredo. 1455 was built by Vulcan Iron Works as recently as 1942 for the Nicaro Nickel Co, a USA wartime enterprise started from scratch in this part of the island. This loco was one of four supplied by VIW all constructed as 0-6-0ST, so has changed quite a lot to become a 2-6-0 tender engine! A similar convert at the same mill was MINAZ 1674, but only bits remained in 1989. Industrial concerns have often rebuilt locos using their own resources.

There is archive film of the Nicaro Nickel Co including glimpses of railway action https://archive.org/details/nicaro_nickel_company

Working steam in the former Oriente province of Eastern Cuba was relatively sparse, but mill 601  Salvador Rosales, near Santiago de Cuba,  had 1592 at work in the 1990s. It is 2-8-0 Baldwin 53993 of 1921.