DID YOU KNOW...
Railways on the Isle of Pines
It can be a surprise to many Cubans, and especially for the actual inhabitants of the isle, to know that in the Isle of Pines existed this form of transportation, documents and testimonies of confirm it. Although very few alive verify it, their ancestral spoke about it in family meetings.
The use of rail for transportation of people from one village to another is discarded, for the small size of the territory.
Today, in some places, still remain small sections of railway lines, indicating that it was once used for some productive activities.
It should be noted that during the colonial period, internal transport as a means of communication, begins as in many other countries. First with wagons, carts and carriages drawn by oxen and horses, and later, in early 1900, using the car, which was brought by the first American colonists, after 1950 began operating small buses which transported passengers between the three main towns on the island that existed in those days: Nueva Gerona, Santa Fe and Santa Barbara.
Tejar railway line
The first mention we know is the railway line from the Protectorate Tejar, founded in 1840, to small pier located in Gerona Beach. Its size was more than two kilometers. We have no information about the presence of a locomotive. It is said that this rail line was used by an iron wheeled cart pulled by oxen used to load bricks and tiles made in the tile factory and then shipped on a schooner moored at the dock.
Presidio Modelo railroad
Another sections of lines found and still remaining, started in the prison quarry, known as The Stone and located very close to the old bakery of the prison, where the locomotives store was; And on the base of Sierra Caballo it ended at about 200 meters into the water in Playa de Columpo, now known as Playa paraiso. It had another branch that came to the swamp of the Yana, where was used to carry prisoners to hard labor. Its extension of 3800 meters with a small narrow gauge locomotive named Presidio and the prisoners changed its name to Dolorita it pulled of several open and closed coaches.
Became operational in 1926 and was used to carry construction materials and goods to and from prison and, prisoners brought from different prisons of Havana.
Ceased operation in 1946. There are still and piles into the sea in Playa Paraiso. It was a very sad railway line in the history of the Island.
San Pedro rail line
Other testimonies of old citizens of the isle, confirm the existence of a small train that travelled on a line of narrow gauge railway with a length of 4 km and dragged several wagons loaded with fruit, wood and coal. Its construction dates back to 1910 when the American village was built near San Pedro.
The envasadero locomotorasalía of grapefruit, close to the small luxury hotel in San Pedro does not exit now. The Little Engine crossed the river of that name across the whole area of San Pedro and La Siguanea into the bay, where there was a small jetty schooners waiting to take products to Cuba for later to be sent to America. There are still remains of the seat rails, beams, decking and pilings of that dock.
We begin our journey, from the remains where it was located that old envasadero in the company of some old villagers, while walking through places where they sensed the presence of tracks. Some of them made the same trip, years ago, accompanying a very distinguished historian Juan Colina La Rosa (d. March 2012), He made known by different ways, the rich history of this beautiful island that it is unknown to many.
We crossed the San Pedro River through a narrow passage and walked through fields, with the pleasant conversation of the peasants. In every place we passed by, there were stories, of events of the past.
They talked about the severe drought while contemplating the barren mountain, and dried plants by the indomitable and strong sun, making only to exist and develop the ever more destructive and malevolent marabú, but under its subsoil and a few meters deep, there are strong currents of very good water.
They talked about all those areas that were once planted with grapefruit and small plots for the personal use of the settlers, the active life of those days of hard labour and low wages, the goods displayed in the holds that many could not afford, anecdotes and missing old friends, etc...
During the tour I watched my companions, simple men and work-hardened, calloused hand by the strong work, wrinkled skins and blackened by the strong sun, but positive-minded and cheerful.
I imagined these men working the land in those places now completely desolate, no grain or livestock except small parcels of private property, the little positive results obtained with very few resources and hard work.
The road is long and difficult by the influence of strong morning sun, only travel able in the footsteps of the San Pedro River and the waters Sigüaneaque down from the Sierra de La Canada, run slowly and consume their wealth in all that vast plain area, down into the Bay of Siguanea.
So we walked along the imaginary railroad imagining the little engine, dragging several open trucks packed full of boxes of grapefruit, wood and coal.
We arrived at the old pier and watched the remains of piles and planks, showing that there was life. We walked along both banks of the river, obstructing plants make it unapproachable. The river at this place is wide and deep at that time of day was high tide and a strong ocean current was rising from its bed.
The place is impressive, a magnificent natural environment and wild beauty in the midst of such dense vegetation. It seems as if time had paralyzed, interrupted only by the songs of some birds.
Well worth coming here, some of my companions had not visited the place for many years and were perplexed as children and moved by nostalgic memories. I was very pleased with the experience of visiting this beautiful place.
Other traces of railway lines
It was not the only ones mentioned above, we are told that existed others that were used in Mina de oro, near and Los Indios, which started from inside the mine and ended in a dock located at the river Los indios.
The presence of these lines as a means of transportation in the south of the Isle of Pines were present at several beaches on this coast and departing from internal sites of the Lanier Swamp for transporting coal to ships. Today it is impossible to locate and identify traces due to the expansion of the thick vegetation.
The old dwellers of the isle have memories of Long Beach, Limitete, Maracay, Carapachibey and other areas which have witnessed the use of railways.
