St. Nicholas Abbey Heritage Railway
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St. Nicholas Abbey Heritage Railway (SNAHR) is a long
heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset is a preexisting thing of value today ** Cultural heritage is created by humans ** Natural heritage is not * Heritage language Biology * Heredity, biological inheritance of physical c ...
narrow gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...
with a gauge, in the parish of
Saint Peter Saint Peter; he, שמעון בר יונה, Šimʿōn bar Yōnāh; ar, سِمعَان بُطرُس, translit=Simʿa̅n Buṭrus; grc-gre, Πέτρος, Petros; cop, Ⲡⲉⲧⲣⲟⲥ, Petros; lat, Petrus; ar, شمعون الصفـا, Sham'un ...
on the Eastern Caribbean island of
Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...
.


History

The railway was conceived and financed by Barbadian architect Larry Warren, the current owner of the
St Nicholas Abbey St Nicholas Abbey is located in Saint Peter, Barbados, and is a plantation house, museum and rum distillery. Colonel Benjamin Berringer built the house in 1658. This house is one of only three genuine Jacobean mansions in the Western Hemispher ...
estate, and completed in 2018. Operations were inaugurated on 21 January 2019, with a diesel service, the steam locomotive still undergoing a major rebuild and overhaul at that time. The formal opening ceremony was performed on 11 March 2019 by the
Prime Minister of Barbados The prime minister of Barbados is the head of government of Barbados. The prime minister is appointed by the President of Barbados, president under the terms of the Constitution of Barbados, Constitution. As the nominal holder of executive aut ...
,
Mia Mottley Mia Amor Mottley, (born 1 October 1965) is a Barbadian politician and attorney who has served as the eighth prime minister of Barbados since 2018 and as Leader of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) since 2008. Mottley is the first woman to hold ...
, who ceremonially tolled a locomotive bell preserved on the site, and originally attached to one of the
Baldwin Locomotive Works The Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) was an American manufacturer of railroad locomotives from 1825 to 1951. Originally located in Philadelphia, it moved to nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania, in the early 20th century. The company was for decades t ...
steam engines which operated the national
Barbados Railway The Barbados Railway was a -long narrow-gauge railway on Barbados with a gauge of initially 1,067 mm (3 feet 6 inch) and later 762 mm (2 feet 6 inch). It had 98 bridges, very tight radii and a steep incline. It was used from 1883 to 19 ...
network following its re-gauging to gauge, and which operated from 1883 to 1937, but was dismantled during the second world war. SNAHR has the same 2ft6in gauge as the earlier Barbados Railway. It was built in a project with a budget of 2 million
Barbados Dollar The dollar has been the currency of Barbados since 1935. Globally its currency has the ISO 4217 code ''BBD'', however, unofficially in Barbados the International vehicle registration code code BDS is also commonly used, a currency code that is ...
s (1 million
US Dollar The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
s, 0.86 million €). It employs up to 15 full-time staff, for which 700 applications were originally received.


Route

The heritage railway runs on a balloon-shaped track from
St Nicholas Abbey St Nicholas Abbey is located in Saint Peter, Barbados, and is a plantation house, museum and rum distillery. Colonel Benjamin Berringer built the house in 1658. This house is one of only three genuine Jacobean mansions in the Western Hemispher ...
to the panoramic view point
Cherry Tree Hill Cherry Tree Hill is a village in the parish of Saint Andrew in Barbados. It is approximately 850 ft. above sea level. It is believed that cherry tree A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy dru ...
. It offers locals and tourists, including cruise ship passengers, a ¾ hour long train ride, including a stop to enjoy the panorama overlooking the sea. The railway is designed to provide a family day-out for general tourists, but also a specialist experience for railway enthusiasts, with short lectures on Barbadian railway history offered (as an optional attraction) during the stop at Cherry Tree Hill, where volunteers are also recruited to assist in turning the locomotive on the manually operated
turntable A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
.Sharika Griffith
''New Attraction Coming to St. Andrew.''
CBC News, Barbados
The main loop encircles an ornamental lake. The loop and the incline up to Cherry Tree Hill are connected by a triangle of track, permitting various permutations of operational route. The main engineering and stock storage sheds are located alongside St Nicholas Abbey station. There are three stations on the line: * St Nicholas Abbey Station, with shop, toilet, catering, car-parking, and engineering facilities; * Cherry Tree Hill Station, with run-round loop, and platform with access to the road; * Croquet Lawn Halt, adjacent to the lake and estate house (alight only) for passengers visiting the rum distillery.


Rolling stock


Locomotives

Most of the tourist trains are hauled by one of the railway's historic steam locomotives. No 5 is a
Mallet locomotive The Mallet locomotive is a type of articulated steam railway locomotive, invented by the Swiss engineer Anatole Mallet (1837–1919). The front of the locomotive articulated on a bogie. The compound steam system fed steam at boiler pressure ...
(a type of steam engine with an articulated main frame, enabling operation on tight radius track), built in 1914 by the Arnold Jung locomotive works in Germany, and operated as No. 5 at the Ceper Baru Sugar Mill in
Central Java Central Java ( id, Jawa Tengah) is a province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogyakarta in t ...
,
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
. From there it was sold to Graham Lee at the
Statfold Barn Railway The Statfold Barn Railway is a narrow gauge railway based near Tamworth, Staffordshire and partially in Warwickshire, England. Founded by engineering entrepreneur Graham Lee and his wife Carol at their farm-based home, they originally designed wh ...
.Rob and Yuehong Dickinson
''The St Nicholas Abbey Sugar Mill, Barbados.''
/ref> After a complete overhaul and rebuild it was delivered to Barbados on 7 February 2019. The Jung maker's build number is 2279, but it also carries maker's plate number 651 of Statfold Engineering Limited, having been comprehensively rebuilt in 2018. It is normally pre-heated using a coal fire in the morning, but fired with both coal and wood during operation. No 6 is an 0-4-0T locomotive built by La Meuse (works number 3243 of 1926) which was constructed for light industrial shunting on the internal rail network of SA Hoboken in Antwerp, Belgium. The engine moved in preservation to the
Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway The Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway (W&LLR) ( cy, Rheilffordd y Trallwng a Llanfair Caereinion) is a narrow gauge heritage railway in Powys, Wales. The line is around long and runs westwards from the town of Welshpool ( cy, Y Trallwng) ...
, and later the
Statfold Barn Railway The Statfold Barn Railway is a narrow gauge railway based near Tamworth, Staffordshire and partially in Warwickshire, England. Founded by engineering entrepreneur Graham Lee and his wife Carol at their farm-based home, they originally designed wh ...
. From there it was sold to St Nicholas Abbey Heritage Railway, being relocated to Barbados in 2020. Additionally two historic
Hudswell Clarke Hudswell, Clarke and Company Limited was an engineering and locomotive building company in Jack Lane, Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. History The company was founded as Hudswell and Clarke in 1860. In 1870 the name was changed to Hu ...
0-6-0DM diesel locomotives are in service, hauling passenger trains in low-season service, or when the steam locomotives are unavailable. The Hudswell Clarke diesels provided all motive power when the line was first opened for several weeks, until the first steam locomotive was available for service. For track inspection a smaller
Simplex In geometry, a simplex (plural: simplexes or simplices) is a generalization of the notion of a triangle or tetrahedron to arbitrary dimensions. The simplex is so-named because it represents the simplest possible polytope in any given dimension. ...
diesel-mechanic locomotive is available.


Passenger vehicles

For passenger transport three wheel chair accessible railway carriages are in use, which have verandahs at both ends, and a loudspeaker system through which the conductor provides a live commentary on the outward leg of the journey. The sound system can also play a pre-recorded multi-lingual narrative when non-English-speaking passengers are carried. Each of the carriages can accommodate up to 40 passengers. * Bogie passenger saloon carriage ''Quinn Byron'', built 2018 * Bogie passenger saloon carriage ''Arthur T Henry'', built 2018 * Bogie passenger saloon carriage ''George Larry'', built 2018


Engineering vehicles

A number of freight vehicles are available, chiefly for engineering purposes. These include: * 4-wheel high-sided
open wagon Open wagons (trucks in the UK) form a large group of railway goods wagons designed primarily for the transportation of bulk goods that are not moisture-retentive and can usually be tipped, dumped or shovelled. The International Union of Ra ...
* bogie
flat wagon Flat wagons (sometimes flat beds, flats or rail flats, US: flatcars), as classified by the International Union of Railways (UIC), are railway goods wagons that have a flat, usually full-length, deck (or 2 decks on car transporters) and little ...
incorporating hydraulic lift arm * 4-wheel workshop flat wagon


References


External links


www.snahr.com
(official Website) * Ben Schaffer
''Rum and Rails in Barbados.''
9 October 2018. {{DEFAULTSORT:Barbados Railway Rail transport in Barbados 2 ft 6 in gauge railways in Barbados Railway companies established in 2018