Belize Trains & Railways
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Currently, Belize does not offer any
rail transport. Historically, Belize had 3 mayor railway Lines, but
there was
never a railway connections to other countries. The planned FERISTSA
Railway would connect Mexico with Panama with 1,435 mm (4 ft 81⁄2 in)
gauge but would bypass Belize unless branches were built.
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Click any Pictures to enlarge
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Railroads
were once used for sugar cane, logging or to haul bananas, both within
the farms and from
the plantations to the ports, but today trucks handle most of the
business to dockside, where palletized or containerized banana boxes
are loaded on reefers for the water journey to overseas markets.
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There
were a few short railway lines, one in Orange
Walk, a other one along the Monkey River
and one near Punta
Gorda. |
Stann Creek Railway
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The
construction of the Stann Creek Railway started in 1907. The British
Honduras Syndicate build the railway with wooden trestle railway
bridges and concrete steel bridges from Dangriga
over Melinda to Middlesex Estate trough the wild jungle along the Stann
Creek
Valley.
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In Dangriga, facilities including the
Commerce Bight Pier
with rail tracks on it where the banana
boats tied up where build. The original estimate, twenty miles with a
36-inch (914 mm) gauge, was
carried out by a resident engineer under the supervision of consulting
engineers in England. |
Some
of the building was done by immigrants from
the West Indian islands, who came to the Stann Creek area between 1880
and 1890 attracted by the prosperity of the banana plantations in the
area. The Stann Creek Railway, subsequently increased their track to
twenty-five miles till the 31st March, 1911. |
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Trough considerable
with
in the construction the railway was roughly £123,000 and way over
budget.
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In
1911 the fruit industry looked so promising that the United Fruit
Company from the United States of America bought the Middlesex Estate,
one of the most productive grape-fruit valleys in the British Colony.
The United fruit Company used the Stan Creek Railway from 1913 till
1937. |
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But plant disease, poor production
methods and marketing problems
were major obstacles to the success of this project. By the 1930's
production of Bananas stopped in the Stann Creek Valley. |
That railway, however, has never been a
paying proposition, and 1937
decided the hon. 1452 members of the British Empire, after an expert
inquiry, to scrap the railway and build in its place a motor road. Many
remains are still visible along the Hummingbird Highway (between Dangriga
and Belmopan).
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This road uses some of the old railroad
bridges, though they are gradually disappearing due to modernization
effort in the years to come. |
United Fruit Company
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The
United Fruit Company was founded in 1899 by the merger of the Boston
Fruit Company and several other companies producing and marketing
bananas from the Caribbean islands, Central America, and Columbia.
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By the early 1930s,
the company had absorbed more than twenty rival
firms making it the largest employer in Central America. United Fruit
cleared and planted undeveloped tracts of land, created extensive
railroad and port facilities, and operated a large steamship unit known
as “The Great White Fleet.” |
The
company had a
deep and long-lasting impact in the economic and
political development of several Latin American countries. Critics
often accused it of exploitative neocolonialism and described it as the
archetypal example of the influence of a multinational corporation on
the internal politics of the so-called "banana republics". |
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After a
period of financial decline, United Fruit was merged with AMK in 1970
to become the United Brands Company. In 1984, transformed United Brands
into the present-day Chiquita Brands International.
Today the most of
the Bananas from Belize are exported trough Fyffes
witch build the Big Creek Port.
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Vaca Falls Railway
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The
steepest railway was the Vaca Falls railway between Vaca Falls and
the Chiquibui Forrest and was used to logging mahogany trees.
The 15-mile long Vaca Falls Railway line, in the Mountain Pine Ridge
was also owned from the Belize
Estate and Produce Company Ltd. and
ran for the last time in 1952.
In the
area around Arenal, south of Benque
Viejo del Carmen, on the way to the Mollejon Power Station are
still remains
and skeleton from the Locomotive. |
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The Gallon Jug Hillbank Railway
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The logging
operation depended on the transfer of logs first of all from the bush
to the river, which was usually accomplished by oxen. These same oxen
when old or wounded were used to feed the workers. Because the absence
of a river in the west through Sierra de Agua are between Hill Bank and
Gallon Jug a small rail line were built.
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The
Belize Estate and Produce
Company Ltd. B.E.C. used the Glikston Group of England for the Railway
construction. The construction started with the
railway with tracks and the buildings in Hill Bank on the New River
Lagoon, just 10 miles south of Lamanai. |
The US Company C.
C. Mengel & Brothers Co, from Louisville, Kentucky,
build 1905 the first Shay Steam Locomotive together with trucks. A
train station
was constructed after 28 miles in Gallon Jug around 1910. In the
following years, Mengel & Brothers also delivered 3
more the last
1910.
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Trains delivered to B.E.C. in Belize
Nr.
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Shop
Number
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Built
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Type |
#1
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1640
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12-23-1905
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Class
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A
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15-2
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#2
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1872
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04-23-1907
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Class
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B
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32-2
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#3
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1142
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1908
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Class
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B
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#4
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2372
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08-31-1910
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Class
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B
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20-2
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This four locomotive where delivered for
logging of mahogany to B.E.C. in Belize and used for the Gallon Jug
Hillbank Logging Railway and the Vaca Falls Railway.
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The Shay
locomotives were built to the patents of Ephraim Shay, The
Class B Shay geared steam locomotive was a low locomotive with ample
starting tractive effort for loggings operations. All 4 Locomotives
where built in licence from the C. C. Mengel & Brothers in
Louisville.
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The last delivered locomotive #4 2372 was
a Baler, B 20-2, with a
weight of 32 Tons, 2 Trucks, and 1000 gallons water boiler with
160
psi. The hauling capacity for this logging Locomotive was 1736 Tons. |
Shay geared Locomotives
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Shay locomotives
had regular fire-tube boilers offset to the left to
provide space for a two or three cylinder "motor," mounted vertically
on the right with longitudinal drive shafts extending fore and aft from
the crankshaft at wheel axle height. These shafts had universal joints
and square sliding slip joints to accommodate motion of the swiveling
trucks. Each axle was driven by a separate bevel gear, and used no side
rods.
Driving all wheels, including those of the tender, together with small
diameter wheels were the strength of these engines, their entire weight
developing tractive effort. A high ratio of piston strokes to wheel
revolutions allowed them to run at partial slip, where a conventional
rod engine would spin its drive wheels and burn rails, losing all
traction.
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Around
1940, heavy trucks starting to replaced the small rail lines for
transporting logs from Gallon Jug to Hill Bank. The last years, a
diesel propelled passenger car was used to carry loggers and passengers
till late summer 1956. |
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Some parts of the Railway found the way
back to the
U.S., other parts just left abandoned in the Belizean Jungle. A few
lighter pieces also found the way to Guatemala and Mexico to be
smelted. |
Belize Estate and Produce Company Ltd.
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Forestry dominated the economy of
British Honduras. Initially, the focus was upon logwood, which was used
in dye manufacture. Falling prices for logwood in the 1770s led to a
shift toward logging mahogany. The British Honduras Company began
operations in 1858 and was a major force in the country.
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This company's name was changed
to the Belize Estate and Produce Company in 1875. To finance there
operation, the B.E.C. sold shares to Londons Investors.
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Serpon Sugar Mill Train
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Hidden
in the jungle one mile in on the access road to the village of Sittee
River are the remnants of the steam powered Serpon Sugar Mill which was
established in 1865 and marked the start of Belize’s industrial era.
The Serpon Sugar Mill used 0-4-0GTVB Steam Trains to carry the
sugarcane along the Sitter River.
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Estimates are that
at its peak, the Serpon Sugar Mill was producing and
shipping 1,700 pounds of sugar a month. In the late 19th century,
Serpon was a technological marvel with a 3-wheel main crusher, still on
its original foundation; the boilers that created the steam needed to
power the equipment and the beam engine, which dates back to the
1940’s. There was an evaporating furnace measuring 75 feet in length, a
hot air exchanger, which was used as an exhaust for heat travelling the
length of the furnace, Steam Trains witch where used to run sugar
around the mill and the tredegar engine, which pumped water from the
river. |
But
at the turn of the 20th century, sugar production became more
profitable in the northern districts and by 1910 the Serpon Sugar Mill
was abandoned. While the majority of the machinery is still in place,
not all of it was salvaged, but the railway tracks are missing.
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The Serpon Sugar
Mill is easy to visit, by using the Southern
Higway, and take the road to Sittee River.
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Please contact
us if you have further train related infomation or pictures.
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