Nostalgia & History > Hershey Cuban RR, 1983

I was part of a group that visited Cuba in April, 1983 to observe rail operations on the sugar mill railroads. The first day out was a visit to the former Hershey electric line which ran 65 miles from Casablanca (across the harbor from Havana) to Matanzas. We had a chartered interurban car and visited the shops at Hershey. Over the following six days we visited 9 steam operated mills and I'll post some of those shots on the steam page in the coming days. Here are some slides from the Hershey trip.
-JH

1. A regular train and our chartered car at Casablanca.
2. Photo stop en-route.
3. A regular train at Hershey, bound for Matanzas.

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4. Basic transportation for the track inspector at Hershey.
5. A bus inside the shop. Under rebuilding or just stripped?
6. GE steeple cab at the shops.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/17 14:01 by Panamerican99.

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7. A Russian diesel inside the shop.
8. One of the Brill interurbans which I think dates from 1921.
9. Shop tracks. The mill was processing sugar cane so there was much smoke from the stacks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/17 14:01 by Panamerican99.

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7. Another steeple cab, moving to pick up the caboose in the background.
8. The cane moved by more methods than just trains.
9. Another photo op.

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10. Crossing the Cuban RR main line, not sure just where it was.
11. In the hole for a freight.
12. Line car.

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13, 14 Two more of the line car.

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neat look

What a collection of traction "treasures"!
Bob

That line car is really cool.

Wow! Great look at the forbidden fruits Cuba, so close but oh so far away.

Andy

Wonderful posts.much appreciated!

Out

Thanks for test photos.

In bad shape today.

Thanks for posting! You were there before the good stuff was either scrapped, rebuilt or put on display. And the team of oxen is a real "time warp" shot. That Russian diesel looks like a copy of an Alco RS-1 (or maybe an RSD-1).

Fascinating photos, I didn't realize they had such an extensive electric operation. I remember seeing photos of the various steam engines. But I don't recall ever seeing photos of electrics. Thanks for posting.

Nathan

Any of that stuff left, or has it all been scrapped?

Fascinating photos! I didn't know there was electric powered freight. Also, I think the Russian engine is a TEM2.

See the youtube video narrated by Englishman Chris Tarrant Extreme Railway Journeys Guantanamo Bay. He goes to Hershey in it, known also by another name probably for political reasons. The town and houses are laid out in an American style. Thanks for sharing, these are amazing photos.

Great photos! Thank you for sharing them.

I think most of the stock was replaced with second hand "modern" (1938 Barcelona) suburban MU's . Some of the Brill's were retained & rebuilt with ac and sealed windows for tourist charters.
The GE 45 ton steeple-cabs were rebuilt with large sand boxes and storage batteries which altered their appearance significantly. The collectors, trucks, control boxes and grids from some of the older condemned 1921 Cincinnati cars were salvaged and installed in some East German diesel railcar bodies, two of which appear in photo#9; one under the shed and the other to the far left.
These are great photo's, as an aside there is great selection of Cuba photos, especially the old Hershey lines over on Railpictures.net

>The GE 45 ton steeple-cabs were rebuilt with large sand boxes and storage batteries which altered their appearance significantly.

According to the GE locomotive serial number listing, Hershey Cuban's 20- 26 were built in 7/1920 (probably the date they were shipped), weighed 60 tons, and were designed to operate on 1,200 v DC.