Re: Cuba-US relations thawing - NG impact?

I was there on tours in 2002 & 2003, two of the last good years for sugar trains and steam. Both tours were permitted under State Department special permits. We had the option to have the passport stamped or not. If you chose not, a visa card was stamped instead and returned at departure.

Both were raifan tours. These were the last two good years for steam operations. By 2005, few steam operations were available. In a discussion in RYPN it has been pointed out China's scrap merchants have laid waste to mills, railroads and rolling stock. This since 2011 and with Cuban Government's laws enacted to preserve steam have not been followed. Over 200 sugar mills have dismantled and scrapped as well as the rail networks that served these industries. At one time the island hosted standard gauge (the most common), 3 ft gauge (maybe all gone by now), 30 inch gauge (more common at sugar mills) and the odd 27 1/2 inch gauge on several connected lines. Some of the odd narrow gauge equipment has been moved to Havana. The Hershey Electric operates with cars from Barcelona, Spain and had only two Brill Cars that were available for service as well a few old GE steeple Cabs.

Steam is preserved at few Sugar Mill railroads that operate for tourists. It is nothing like real operating sugar trains. Many Locomotives have been rounded up and moved to unborn railroad museum's in Havana. Many of these locos are sitting out in lots and are in disrepair. A visit to Cuba to see railroading today would be much different with former European, Mexican and now Chinese diesels invading.

Dale Brown
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