Former heritage railway in Fajardo, Puerto Rico
The Historical Railway of Puerto Rico — or Ferrocarril Histórico de Puerto Rico in Spanish — was a historic narrow gauge heritage railroad operating within Puerto Rico, an Insular area of the United States. It was located in Fajardo between 1971 and 1975.
History.
Jorge Wirshing (grandson of sugar-cane growers, with a bachelor and master in Business Management and work experience for Serrallés Distillery in Ponce) first bought in 1937 the Glover-2-6-2T locomotive from Mercedita Sugar Mill at Ponce for US$581.25 and later the Baldwin 2-8-0 locomotive in 1967 from C. Brewer of Puerto Rico (after withdrawn from service in sugar-cane hauling railway between Pasto Viejo Sugar Mill (Humacao), Juncos Sugar Mill and Santa Juanita Sugar Mill (Caguas), where it was finally stored) for purpose of developing an heritage railroad to attract tourists on steam engine railroading in a time when steam-powered locomotives in Puerto Rico's sugar-mill railways were replaced by diesel-powered ones.
Meanwhile, in 1970, Mr. Wirshing got a loan from Fomento (Puerto Rico Economic Development Administration) and permits from Land Authority of Puerto Rico for using the Paraiso branch (southwest of Fajardo Sugar Mill) of the former Fajardo Development Company Railroad now owned by the Puerto Rican Government attached to Central Fajardo operations.
In April 1971 started the construction of the spur for storage of Glover and Baldwin locomotives, water and fuel tanks and the station building for Ferrocarril Histórico office, ticket window, washrooms, souvenir shop and cafeteria. After months of trial runs and refitting five Gregg cane cars to passenger wagons, the tourist train started passenger rides on September 4, 1971. Because the sugar harvest, from January to June the Ferrocarril Histórico operated Sundays only; the rest of year it operated on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and certain holidays. The adult fare was US$1.75 and the ride took about one hour. The scheduled ride hours are: 11:00am – 12:30pm – 2:10pm – 3:40pm – 5:00pm.
Engine Roster.
In 1972, the locomotive inventory in the Ferrocarril Histórico consisted of eight steam engines:
Closure and fate of steam engines.
As result of flood damages on October 25, 1974, the Ferrocarril Histórico facilities were damaged, forcing its permanent closure for a lack of financial help from insurance, the government, and banks. To liquidate debts from operations, the two Glover 2-6-2T Locomotive and Baldwin 2-8-0 Locomotive steam engines were sold and sent on April 9, 1976, to the Museo del Transporte (Transport Museum) in Caracas, Venezuela, where are in exhibition with the historical locomotives stock of the museum.
References.
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