Thomas Kautzor has been to several Caribbean islands to check out what is left
of their railways and industrial heritage.
For the full general index, see Railway Relics
(and more) in the Caribbean,
Thomas Kautzor visited the Dominican Republic with Torsten Schneider from 24th February to 14th March
2014, the other reports are:
Falconbridge Dominicana CporA (FALCONDO), Bonao (77 km north of S.D.):
(March 5th)
Opened in 1972 and initially a subsidiary of Canadian mining company Falonbridge Ltd., FALCONDO was acquired by Switzerland’s Xstrata Nickel in
August 2006 and absorbed into GlencoreXtrata in May 2013.
While trucks have always been used to move the ore from the mine to the smelter, two internal standard gauge railways were in use at the nickel smelter: an electrified line was used to transport
calcined nickel ore between the shaft furnace and two electric furnaces, and
diesel locomotive-operated lines to transport refined metal between the electric furnaces and the refining stations, as well as slag to a dump. The slag railway was closed recently, but the locomotives and rolling stock are still stored on site. Four 80-ton GE Bo-Bo DEs were in use: No. 1 ARCHIE (37611 6/1971), No. 2 CHRISTIAN (37643 6/1971), No. 3 (37644 6/1971) and No. 4? (38489 8/1971). These were later replaced or supplemented by five Trackmobile (LaGrange, GA) TM3050 four-wheel road-rail tractors No. 1 to 5 for use in the smelter complex. Slag was transported in 18 30-ton wagons.
Operations at the mine were shut down at the time of our visit and although someone tried to organize a visit for us, this did not take place for organizational reasons.
FC Cruz de Manzanillo, Pepillo Salcedo (278 km NW of S.D.):
(March 6th)
This 1067 mm gauge plantation railway, formerly owned by the U.S. Grenada Fruit Co. and later by the Dominican Government (Proyecto Cruz de Manzanillo), was opened in the 1940s/50s to serve plantations (mainly bananas and corn) between Pepillo Salcedo (Manzanillo until 1949) and Guyabin. There were
ca 30 km of main line and ca 13 km of branches. The system started to decline in the 1970s and finally closed in c.1996. All of the lines have been lifted, but at Pepillo Salcedo the railway’s workshops as well as the banana conditioning plant and some warehouses are still in place. On the nearby pier (the D.R.’s closest port to the U.S.), the tracks are still in place. Bananas and other fruits are now exported in refrigerated containers transported by road to the port.
In 1978 the railway had three Plymouth 27-ton 6wDH diesels numbered F.60-F.62 (5914/56, 6029/57 and 6030/57) as well as 63 banana wagons and a tank wagon. Two of the locos and most of the remaining rolling stock were scrapped
October 2008, but F.61 has been retained for a planned museum and is stored in the loco shed. Also retained for the museum are banana box car FG-27 and bulk grain car 1054/1170 (Magor Car Co.), both stored on a short piece of track in the yard.
Sal y Yeso Dominicanos, Barahona (185 west of Santo Domingo):
(March 3rd/4th)
Opened in the 1920s, this company’s metre gauge railway was closed in the late 1990s. It used to transport salt and gypsum from a loading point connected to the mine by a chute 4 km west of the village of Las Salinas, to the port of Barahona, an approximate distance of 30 km. The track has been lifted except on the pier at Barahona. According to port employees the line was connected to the Barahona sugar railway only by a spur, but the main lines of both railways run separately inland. Today the loading facility at Las Salinas is in ruins and the gypsum is transported directly to the port by truck.
Sal y Yeso is known/suspected to have operated the following locomotives, among others:
- 3x H.K. Porter steam locomotives built in the 1920s;
- GE Bo-Bo DE 45 ton 33708 3/61, new to Sal y Yeso;
- GE Bo-Bo DE 45 ton 34618 2/64 ?
- GE Bo-Bo DE 45 ton 38387 2/72 ?
Salinas de Bani (26 km southwest of Bani & 88 km southwest of S.D.):
(March 3rd/5th)
The salt pans are owned by the provincial government and the railway serving it has a gauge of 600 mm. The short double-track mainline from the base of the incline up the wooden unloading trestle fans out into four single-track branches (one of which was being rebuilt when we visited). From
the base of the incline another branch continues to the small one-track loco shed. The track continues behind the shed as another branch into the salt pans, but that section is disused because the basins have been contaminated.
Operations take place from Monday morning to Saturday mid-day. The people who shovel the salt out of the basins are Haitian day laborers, who work every day as they are paid by weight.
The workers believe that their diesel loco is of German build, but it is actually a Plymouth, one very likely candidate being 600 mm gauge 4wPM Type 4-ton No. 5647/1952 (thanks to John Middleton for this!).
Its original Continental F126 has been replaced by another engine. There are ten tipper wagons.
The train in the pictures is actually a charter. When we visited on the way to Barahona on Monday, we were told that while the train should have normally been operating, it did not because too much salt had been stockpiled and not been picked up during the previous week. We informed the worker who showed us around that we would
return on our way back to Santo Domingo two days later. That day, we were told that after the 1st train of the day had run the workers had gone on strike because they had not been paid for 3 months. We were, however, able to convince them that a charter would not be breaking the strike, to which the manager also agreed.
Museo Nacional de Historia y Geografia, Plaza de la Cultura, Santo Domingo:
(February 25th)
This museum has been closed for renovation since 2007. An unidentified 762 mm gauge 0-4-0WT used to be in display here, almost certainly a 20 h.p. Krauss built c1890-1910 and possibly regauged from 500-600 mm gauge. It carries a “Porvenir 1880” plate, however that doesn’t necessarily mean much. We stopped at the museum office to ask if we could see it, but were told it was “empacada”
(under a tarpaulin).
We were, however, allowed to photograph Trujillo’s bullet-ridden armored Oldsmobile limousine. Outside the museum we found this sculpture made of scrap. Was the author inspired by a locomotive or a rotary snowplow?
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