NationNews.com continues celebration of Black History Month, with another article written by a student from the visual and performing arts division of the Barbados Community College. All students in that section are required to take a course in Caribbean Cultures.
THERE WERE ALSO several accidents which occurred on the railway, including one occasion when the carriages broke loose and sped back down the gradient, killing a stowaway, who unfortunately did not steal death.
There was another fatal railway crash reported to have occurred in Bathsheba, by the water tank.
There, boys liked to swing from side to side across the track. One day two boys failed to see the slow-moving train coming towards them (only God knows how this happened). As they swung across, the train caught them midway. The boys were struck and killed.
Another accident is said to have taken place one night when the train derailed and one of the carriages capsized. Many passengers received minor injuries but one girl was killed when a window came down on her and broke her neck.
It was said that on wet days passengers frequently detrained to lend a hand pushing the train along (they probably paid third-class fares) and even on a good day, the train was known to back up at Bath and take a long run to get over the incline ahead.
Deterioration
Many rules and regulations were in place to help make the service safe, but it experienced one problem after another. All kinds of adjustments also had to be made, like one reported by Messrs Law and Connell.
They stated: “In Bridgetown on a few occasions, the brakes failed and the train burst through the gates across the triangle and started going down the wharf.
Eventually when they removed sections of this track, they took the railway irons that were left, heated them and bent them up in the air for about two feet.
This primitive bumper guaranteed a safe, if abrupt stop for runaway trains.”
As profit declined, so did repairs and maintenance to the trains. The deterioration of the line was aided by the ubiquitous salt spray, landslides and slippage, especially in St Andrew, after heavy rains.
The 27-tonne locomotive was also said to be overweight for the track and the extensive corrosion caused the track to be reduced to the dangerous thickness of a knife’s edge.
Closed for a year
In 1896 the line had so deteriorated that the railroad closed for a year. When it reopened the following year, it was under new ownership – The Bridgetown and St Andrew Railway Ltd.
They regauged the railway lines from 3ft, 6in. to 2ft, 6 in. and replaced the old engine with a Baldwin one from Philadelphia. Several problems persisted as the trains had brake problems and after six years of operation, the company went into voluntary liquidation.
The third owner was the Barbados Light Railway Company. They had a few profitable years and even constructed a five-mile freighting branch from Carrington to the Crane.
By 1914, however, they were forced into liquidation as sales were down and the government subsidy stopped.
A subsidy had also been given to the first owners and was the incentive offered to the third owners.
In 1916, the government purchased the line and spent a year repairing it. The railway made profit for a few years, but for the most part, struggled with the changing times as factories preferred the use of lorries (which could come direct to the factory door) to transport their sugar.
There was an increased number of derailing and wearing-away of bridges and, with the collapse of the Long Pond Bridge, came the collapse of the Barbados Railway System in 1937. That was “the last kid that killed the mother”.
Final closure
The final closure of the railway put 106 people out of work. The railway was scrapped, iron tracks were sold and shipped away, and the remaining rails used in construction. Some of the carriages were used as accommodation at Ladymeade Gardens. These were later replaced with more permanent structures.
The first-class carriage was converted to a small guest house, which rotted away by the 1970s. All that remains of the train system today is earthwork of the lines and the remnants of track beds in a few places such as in Licorish Village, My Lord’s Hill, St Michael.
Pathways where the train once ran, no doubt now go unnoticed by the pedestrians who use them as convenient routes through communities.
There are also a few rusty stakes in the ground and even out to sea in places such as Bath. A plaque has also been erected by the Barbados National Trust in St Andrew to commemorate the Barbados Railway System.
A train crossing the bridge at Joe’s River.
There seems to be no words of celebration written about the Barbados Railway System.
On the walls of the Barbados Museum & Historical Society, the only mention of the railway is an unemotional sentence which states: “There were many changes during the 19th century, but transportation continued to revolve around sugar.”
The railway represented a big change in Barbados. Opening in 1881, it transported sugar cane and passengers between Bridgetown and the East Coast.
