railography photo galleries : Cuba : sugar mills - narrow gauge ( 6 images )

Mills in hillier areas tended to use narrow gauge railways to access the cane fields. Many lines were 2'6" gauge but there were several other gauges in use as well. Like the standard gauge mills, most narrow gauge lines used steam locos of classic early 20th Century American design.

The vast majority of Cuban sugar production occurred in the flatter areas where huge fields could be harvested using mechanised cutters but there were also cane fields in the hillier areas where the construction of standard gauge lines was impractical. These mills often had a network of narrow gauge railways to bring in the cane. Some mills also had a standard gauge operation, or at least a standard gauge FCC connection but others were completely isolated.

The most common gauge was 2'6" but there were several mills with 3' gauge systems and a few with unusual gauges in the 2' - 3' range as well. Many of the narrow gauge line closed well before the end of steam or, if the traffic justified it, were converted to standard gauge.

There was a great variety of motive power at one time but by the 1990s, most of the surviving lines relied on similar Baldwin 2-8-0s. ( less . . . . )