Eastern Railroad Discussion > Rail service from Palm Beach to Havana

Until about 1959, a car ferry transported rail cars from Palm Beach to Havana on an overnight
schedule. The next evening the ferry returned from Havana to Palm Beach. How long will it
take for this or a similar service to be reestablished? Does anyone know if the aprons for
loading freight cars onto ships are still operational in either Florida or Cuba. Is there,
potentially, a great deal of rail traffic from the US to Cuba and from Cuba to the US? Will
the FEC or CSX get lucrative business for this nation's new relationship with Cuba?

I'm not sure if the ramps with rails are still there or not but there were ramps for loading drive on truck onto barges or ships with drive on capabilities. I'm pretty sure the rails still go right down to the slips at Port of Palm Beach. As a kid I remember seeing the ships heading south to Havana in the afternoons. They ran what seemed like close to shore to avoid bucking the Gulf Stream which from Palm Beach south is only a mile or so off the coast. It would be nice to see that traffic startup again.
Another thought on this, I wonder how many cars were left in Cuba when the embargo started. They have a lot of automobiles from the 50s down there.
Mike

1) Ferrocarriles de Cuba (FCC) has existed in a time warp since 1959; it "still is" 1959 on FCC in terms of infrastructure (track, bridges, etc). I seriously doubt that FCC could move any freight cars bigger or heavier than what has existed there for the past 55 years.

2) Take a look at photos of typical American freight trains in 1959 and what you'll find are plenty of 50- and 70-ton box cars. The only 50- and 70-ton box cars in existence in the US today are ... in museums. Most cars back then had friction journal bearings, not rollers.

3) What lucrative business would FEC or CSXT have hauling 50- and 70-ton box cars to and from Miami?

4) Interesting thought, however, that ex-NdeM C30-7s are co-existing with MLWs, and Soviet and Chinese locomotives.

Labiche Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 1) Ferrocarriles de Cuba (FCC) has existed in a
> time warp since 1959; it "still is" 1959 on FCC in
> terms of infrastructure (track, bridges, etc). I
> seriously doubt that FCC could move any freight
> cars bigger or heavier than what has existed there
> for the past 55 years.
>
> 2) Take a look at photos of typical American
> freight trains in 1959 and what you'll find are
> plenty of 50- and 70-ton box cars. The only 50-
> and 70-ton box cars in existence in the US today
> are ... in museums. Most cars back then had
> friction journal bearings, not rollers.
>
> 3) What lucrative business would FEC or CSXT have
> hauling 50- and 70-ton box cars to and from
> Miami?
>
> 4) Interesting thought, however, that ex-NdeM
> C30-7s are co-existing with MLWs, and Soviet and
> Chinese locomotives.

I doubt very much you would see much carload freight moving by ferry (at least any time soon) but one would think the opportunity
Y for container freight is enormous.

Probably would be easier to use "today's" 40-50' boxcars as in 40-45'containers. Some of the system could be upgraded to transport container for local distribution.
Mike

lapklub Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Probably would be easier to use "today's" 40-50'
> boxcars as in 40-45'containers. Some of the
> system could be upgraded to transport container
> for local distribution.
> Mike

Quite possibly.

There are a lot of folks looking at the business opportunities in Cuba. With the loss of sponsors in USSR and Venezuela, Cuba is being strangled on much higher energy costs. But it would be wonderful if there were a few old Hershey Railways steam engines, mill engines, Brill buses, etc tucked away in the barns.

Cuba could turn itself into a version of the East Broad Top Railroad, but with palm trees...

< 3) What lucrative business would FEC or CSXT have hauling 50- and 70-ton box cars to and from Miami? >

Could we have said similar for East Germany right after The Wall fell ?
Cuba can catch up, but with tourist embargoes from the US still in place, it will take a long time.

I just did a quick glance and did not see anything about rail service. Crowley is the big player in that area and I would think if there was rail service they would have it.

http://www.crowley.com/Where-We-Work/Cuba