Cuba, Stronghold of American Steam

American-built engines operating in Cuba during the sugar cane rush in 1996. Great action lineside photography with the engines working very hard. You’ll enjoy heavily loaded cane trains on both standard and narrow gauge lines. These are some of the best steam lines in Cuba. These engines give us plumes of steam and smoke high into the sky, and great sound too, from the exhaust as they struggle to pull the heavy trains. You’ll see some interesting things… like a big ALCO 2-8-2 with a cow racing it, and a train that breaks apart as it is moving.

We see and hear a thunderous train through the F.C.C. station at Carlos Rojas. Our visit to the Boris Louis Santa Coloma Mill shows how Cuban steam engines can be thrashed on this line with stiff climbs. The Ifrain Alfonso has the only active big American 2-8-2’s which are well covered here, and Luis A. Bergnes is a small mill but has attractive engines, and a cart of sugar cane being pulled by oxen. The narrow gauge served mill of Obdulio Morales gives the viewer some superb shots as we see a train struggling back to the mill. Last, but not least, is the fantastic long line of the Mal Tiempo (also narrow gauge) Mill consisting of dramatic scenes with locomotives making more racket and smoke than one can imagine. The sugar harvest in Cuba has greatly declined and today is operated by diesels making this steam show all the historical. See several Baldwin and Alco built U.S. Steam engines at work while the sugar harvest was still busy in 1996.

See the complete “Steam around the World” series.