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Ma Ao Sugar Central |
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There were many contenders for the title of worst run sugar mill on Negros as most were owned by absentee landlords who were only interested in removing as much cash as possible and had no long term interest. Of those with railway systems, Ma Ao was by common consent among visitors some way ahead of the rest. Being somewhat remote from Bacolod, the roads in the cane fields were in poor condition. To make matters worse, the mill did not own the land the railway ran on and had poor relations with those that did, no doubt because they didn't pay their bills. Eventually, the mill was obliged to abandon the railway at the end of the 1982 season - Wilson Lythgoe was possibly the last enthusiast to visit and see normal working. A TEFS visit in late 1982 had a special steaming but no more.. Colin Garratt wrote about his experiences in the book 'Iron Dinosaurs' which included frequent derailments, a terrifying runaway and a system held together with wire and string. I was here in 1979 and can concur although it was only an order of magnitude worse than Java at the time. What the two islands did have in common was an extraordinarily friendly and resilient population which cheerfully bore life's little difficulties. |
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