various mining companies. However, great opportunities await those willing to travel a bit off the beaten path.
Rise and Fall of Jamaican Railways Railways in Jamaica date a century
before the discovery of bauxite. In fact, the island had some of the first lines outside Europe and North America with the initial one opening in 1845. At its height, the Jamaica Railway Corp. op- erated more than 200 miles of standard gauge track and carried more than one million passengers a year. The mainline
ran from the capital of Kingston on the south coast to Montego Bay and Port An- tonio on the north coast. Motive power during the steam era included Baldwin and Canadian Locomotive 4-8-0s. Num- ber 54, built by Canadian Locomotive in 1944, gained minor celebrity status in the late 1960s when it was pulled from the deadline and rebuilt for charter ser- vice, photo specials, and used in the film Dark of the Sun. It remains stored in the Kingston trainshed and is occasionally pulled out for display. Diesels came in the form of two Alco
DL532 export locomotives; 18 Canadi- an-built MLW RS8 (DL532B) models in three batches between 1971 and 1976; British Metro-Cammell self-propelled railcars from 1962; and 14 750 h.p. En- glish Electric end-cab locomotives. The fleet included several small switchers, including one General Electric 44-tonner left over from the U.S. Army, assigned to the Kingston terminal. By the early 1970s, the govern- ment-run railway was in the red. Hurri- cane Gilbert, the most destructive storm in the island’s history, devastated the
ABOVE: The morning West Indies Alumina Co. (Windalco) freight between the smelter at Ewarton and Port Esquivel passes the 1880s-era station at Old Harbour, Saint Catherine Parish, Jamaica. This line is a remnant of the once-extensive Jamaica Railway Corp. trackage that served the island from Kingston to Montego Bay and Port Antonio.
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