St Nicholas Abbey Heritage Railway BARBADOS 2019

BARBADOS RAILWAY THEN AND NOW – A BRIEF HISTORY

Following an absence of over 80 years, BARBADOS once again has a passenger railway.

The newly constructed ST NICHOLAS ABBEY HERITAGE RAILWAY opened on 21 January 2019.

This video was shot during my recent visit to Barbados between 27 February to 2 March 2017.

In 2017 Larry Warren, the owner of St Nicholas Abbey Plantation started construction of the St Nicholas Abbey Heritage Railway. The new railway was built to a track gauge of 2ft 6 Inches (as was the erstwhile BGR).
The railway is now a major heritage attraction and it operates steam or diesel trains between the estate and the terminus at Cherry Tree Hill, a return run of just under 3 Kilometres in length. At Cherry Tree Hill passengers can participate in turning the locomotive on the turntable and then take in what I consider to be the best view in Barbados, looking down over the east cost.

The steam locomotive is a 0-4-4-0T ‘Mallet’ (articulated for the tight curves) built by Arnold-Jung of Germany in 1914 (works number 2279, formerly a tank engine). The engine originally worked on the Ceper Baru sugar mill in central Java, Indonesia. The mill closed in 1997.

Locomotive No.5 ‘Tjepper’ was rescued by the Statfold barn railway and shipped to the UK for preservation. In 2017 ‘Tjepper’ was sold to St Nicholas Abbey and rebuilt to working order at Statfold Engineering during 2018 (rebuild works number 651/2018). The newly restored engine now carries a tender and has been turned out in a smart blue livery. No.5 arrived at St Nicholas Abbey on 7 February 2019.

After an absence of over 80 years, the staccato bark of a steam locomotive charging a gradient may once again be experienced on the island.

Well done to the entire staff at the Railway and thanks for hosting me last week.

Glen Beadon 8 March 2019