Cuban Steam part 2 - Cardenas

Once we got the beach-side resort of Varadero I really though my chances of any seeing any more railways were pretty much nil.

So I was pleasantly surprised to open the list of excursions available from our holiday company to discover that there was a trip that included both a visit to the railway at the Jose Smith Sugar Mill and also a visit to the breeding centre for Cuban crocodiles. Well, OK, I wasn't that bothered about the crocodiles to be honest.

On the way to the mill we came across a typical level crossing

I missed the first couple of locos that were plinthed on the approach road because I was on the wrong side of the coach, but pretty soon the sound of a loco in stream met us

After that there seemed to be more locos where ever you looked. I will at some point get around to adding some meaningful captions

After a quick look around the mill itself...

...tt was time to catch the train for the short ride. As far as I can make out this actually appears to include reversing along a line still in use by Cuban railways.  A lot of Cuban poverty was on display along the lineside.

If we hadn't been on an organised tour I could happily have spent another couple of hours here, but we had to head off south. En route I missed a couple more locos at the erstwhile Australia mill, but did manage to snap some shots of a typical Cuban station that shared a name with my wife.

I wouldn't be so obvious as to use "snap" as a pun to lead in a  photo of a crocodile, would I?

"For goodness sake he is still talking about his holiday in Cuba!"

We came back a different route which meant I missed my chance to take photos of the locos I'd not been able to get on the way down, and this turned out to by my last view of a Cuban railway. At least for now.

The full set of Cuban steam photos are here

None railway photos are here and here and finally I took some photographs whilst following in Hemingway's footsteps

Cuban Steam Part 1 - Havana

My expectations of Cuba were low. Once upon a time I know it was one of the places to go for steam, but since they fell out with Russia the sugar industry has been in decline.

In fact rather stupidly in retrospect I presumed that going to Havana and the beach resort of Varadero meant I wouldn't see any railways at all, so doing any research in advance would be pointless.

Post event I discovered  this site which has proved to be very useful in making sense of what I saw.

So where do I start? well the San Jose  Craft Market by the harbour is where I got my first shock. I believe up until 2011 tourist trains ran here. As it is there were several static locos on display of both standard and narrow gauge.

More photos are here though I've scattered them, through the text where I can.

To be honest I didn't have time to absorb everything I was seeing, especially since American loco design is a very peripheral interest .

I had quite a shock on the Sunday when wandering though the middle of  Havana, literally a few hundred feet from our hotel, I suddenly came across what I believe is the main restoration centre for steam locos.

An excursion in a 1958 Studebaker  gave me the only glimpse I got of the Hershey Railway

but also alerted me to the locos preserved around Havana's Central Station

Parque de los Agrimensores

And finally we stumbled over this coach.

Part 2 - The Sugar Mill