Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

**Guest** · 12-14-2003, 12:45 PM

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

Better still, if there were more eyewitness accounts (with dates and such) before the topic is archived. There must be plenty boardites who remember the train. Not all of us were born after 1985.

**mountaingal** · 12-14-2003, 01:27 PM

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

I haven't followed all your links yet, MissB, but I will. I used to love taking the train when I was in Jamaica working in the 1980s - only thing was it took almost a whole day to get from Kingston to MoBay. But if you had the time it was a beautiful trip, especially leaving the "concrete jungle" of Kingston and making ones way up into the cool and rustic interior. I always perked up when we reached Maggoty, in my home parish of St. Elizabeth. You feel like you're in a different time zone up in the hills there and the train just chugging along, and when it stops to hear the drawl of the country folk as they got on and off the train.

I remember once I was travelling first class and I heard some drumming going on in the regular class section, and I longed to get up and go see what was going on, but didn't.

My favourite stop was Montpelier just before the descent into MoBay. you could see MoBay and the sea spread out below in this breathtaking vista from high up in the mountains. I would gasp in awe each time.

I've been told that a great-great-granduncle was an engine driver and may have been driving the train that crashed in Kendal, not sure if that was true.

**britisha** · 12-14-2003, 03:01 PM

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

Originally posted by MissB:
[qb] What a wonderful collector's item.

Source [/qb]

This looks rather suspicious; well unless someone can decipher for me how much was each worth. If I am not mistaken, the sterling (pound) was the currency then and this lists the share at ..sumting annadda.. .25...the system was not decimalised yet. The question is, is this an American certificate, and if so why is it dated in London? [img]/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

**Gen** · 12-14-2003, 03:09 PM

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

britisha

it looks like 40,000 shares at 25 pence each ?

and the deposit was one pound, 7 shillings and 6 pence......

**Guest** · 12-14-2003, 03:10 PM

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

Anything's possible. The web site selling it says "Certificate for 20 shares of 25 pounds each". The text in the certificate says something about 7 shillings, 6d per share.

**britisha** · 12-14-2003, 03:10 PM

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

Originally posted by MissB:
[qb] Here are a couple of links to railway stations in JA (some aren't on Magic's list):

- http://wayhoo.com/index.php?a=sgns&r...ry=JM&dsg=RSTN

- http://wayhoo.com/index.php?a=sgns&r...ry=JM&dsg=RSTN [/qb]

I noted Greenvale on the list. Wanted to mention this but Magic said he had already finished his report. I don't think some stns like Orange Bay, Stonehenge, Albany nor Windsor Castle were stns in use when I learnt about the railway stns.

For clarification I am speaking of the Kgn to Mobay line; maybe they were on another line.

**Gen** · 12-14-2003, 03:17 PM

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

well that makes sense....40,000 shares were the total shares issued at 25 pounds each (which seems a lot...25 pounds per share back in 1845 ?) to raise a total capital of 1,000,000...

but this person/entity only purchased 20 shares and deposited....1.7.6.....

actually I would love to have that document...but I cannot afford it...

**britisha** · 12-14-2003, 03:37 PM

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

Originally posted by geneva:
[qb] britisha

it looks like 40,000 shares at 25 pence each ?

and the deposit was one pound, 7 shillings and 6 pence...... [/qb]

Oono eyes bettah dan fi mi..forgive mi puhleese. Mi barely got a shut eye in the last 48 hours. Thanks.

**barosa** · 12-14-2003, 05:06 PM

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

Originally by MissB

Jamaica's railway service was the first to be
opened outside of Europe and North America. It was opened in November 1845. However, many farmers objected to this new endeavour as they said it would cause a shortage in the amount of fertilizers they would receive. You see, before the trains, mules and horses were the more popular means of transportation. Besides that fact, they also provided a very useful by-product, Manure.

MissB, I re-pasted the above because it should bring home to us the historical importance of the Railway to Jamaica and to Jamaicans. IMO, we have destroyed a National Legacy. ..I did browse through here once before, and was satisfied that the research up to that time was right on target. There was very little I could have added except having worked there and my personal experience. That would have been all I could really add, but time constraint for me, and the deadline of the paper being written mitigated against my involvement.

It is very interesting to see the volume of information that can be retrieved on line. Every bit must have helped and I am sure Magic has all the igredients to produce a formidable paper. I am not sure at this stage my recollections will mean much, as it is after the fact.

Briefly, I will state that before I went to work with the (JGR) the Jamaica Government Railway, I was sort of introduced to the Railway by the happening known as "The Kendal Crash". I am still shaken by the experience, even after these many years. I was working at ALCAN, Kirkvine Works, near Shooters hill at the time and was comming off shift at mid-night. We were told by incomming shift workers about the de-railment at Kendal.

A group of three of us decided to miss our bus and walked the distance to Kendal to see for ourselves the extent of the de-railment. We had already knew of the excursion from Kgn to MoBay and heard this was the return journey, which made us more determined to be there. Needless to say it was not what we expected, it was much much worst than I could ever have imagined.

It was pitch black at around 1.00AM in the morning and the closer we got is the more we heard the sounds of groanings, moanings and cryings of the wounded and dying. It is not something I like to remember, hence my reluctance to re-visit it. Most of the wreck was down in a valley or what is known as a cutting. You could stand on the edge and look down on the roofs of some cars, others were broken and stuck up above splintered in some places. All I had was a flash light which was a rare commodity at the site. I eventually gave it to a nurse, many of whom came down from Mandeville to lelp out.

There were many people, children wandering around and about dazed, some crying, others in obvious shock. I must have spent a couple of hours or more when I decided to do the long walk heading home shocked as many who were victims of that disaster, and saddened by it. I eventually went to work with the JGR Engineering H/Q about 2years after that. So folks!, I am sorry I could not have presented this before his deadline. But who knows? Magic may do another paper. ...Nuff for Now. I have awhole heap a snow fi go shovel.

---------------------------------

**Guest** · 12-14-2003, 05:32 PM

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

Originally posted by barosa:
[qb]MissB, I re-pasted the above because it should bring home to us the historical importance of the Railway to Jamaica and to Jamaicans. IMO, we have destroyed a National Legacy. [/qb]

It's a real shame that successive Jamaican governments let the train system fall into its current irretrievable state and not even a transport museum so that people can remember it.

Please come back with more personal experiences. I absolutely love trains and am really chuffed by JA's contribution to the history of railroads.

**Magician** · 12-17-2003, 02:45 AM

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

Got the grade!

Numeric grade: 98 Letter grade: A
Comments:
Outstanding understanding of Jamaica politics and economy. Excellent country research and idea to operate a rail transportation system. Excellent project. However, the project should be double spaced.

The man tek off for not double spacing [kissteeeeeeet]!!! :verymad:

But the grade did nice still. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Keep on coming with the stories though man.
It's interesting even though the paypa finish.

**Guest** · 12-17-2003, 05:21 AM

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

Good job, Magic. Three cheers!

**Sinco01** · 12-17-2003, 01:48 PM

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

Good job Magic !.... well done.

Had a professor once who gave mi a 97% on a Geography paper...her comments "Not good enough" [img]/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

**Guest** · 12-23-2003, 12:49 PM

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

In 1845, the Illustrated London News (pictured above) described the JRC's ceremonious opening on November 21 of that year in detail. On that morning, the first leg Kingston to Spanish Town was opened at approximately 11:30 a.m by then colonial governor, the Earl of Elgin and attended by numerous influential colonists as well as members of the general public climbed aboard. The 10 carriage train pulled out of the Kingston terminal to the sounds of the 1st West India Regiment, beginning the first railway excursion in the British West Indies.

The £222,250 railway, a feat of engineering, was built soon after the first public railway in England, making it one of the first in the world. It owed its development to two pioneers, William and David Smith, merchant/landowner and planter respectively.

In 1869, the Spanish Town to Old Harbour extension opened, but the greater part of Jamaica's railway was constructed between 1885 and 1896 Spanish Town to Ewarton (1885), Porus to Montego Bay (1894) and Bog Walk to Port Antonio (1896).

In 1879 the railway system was taken over by the government for a 10 year period before it was sold to an American syndicate for £800,000. By 1900, the American company, having lost money due to low receipts, turned the system back over to the government.

In the 1920s a one-way train ticket from Spanish Town to Kingston cost a total of 3 shillings, 6 pence. Travel in a 5 seater motor car cost 1 shilling, 6 pence per mile or 21 shillings.

On July 30, 1938, 32 people lost their lives and over 70 were injured in Balaclava headed from Kingston to Montego Bay. An engine jumped the rails and embedded itself firmly into the mountainside, followed by coaches which when forced on from the rear, piled themselves one on top of the other, orchestrating chaos and death.

In the 1950s dieselisation occurred, reducing operating costs and increasing passenger comfort. However, the cost of moving freight by rail in Jamaica was still listed as among the highest in the world the system's operating deficit was in the region of £300,000.

By the 1970s, the railway extended for 333 km (224 1/4 miles) with the principal connections being Kingston and Montego Bay in the north-west, and Kingston and Port Antonio in the north-east, with a junction at Spanish Town.

Today, the Government is conducting discussions with a team from the Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES) regarding the long-delayed resumption of the national rail services. The first phase, commuter services, between Kingston and Spanish Town then Kingston to Linstead, was expected to be up and running by January 2001 but there have been delays. The initial investment required for the first phase is set at US$8 million. The Government is said to be considering an initial 40 per cent shareholding, to be used for improving infrastructure, loading stock and the purchase of new trains. Doesn't seem likely to happen though. Check out this thread for more information.

Having run for over 150 years, the railway ceased operation in 1992 except for sections on which bauxite is drawn.

Throughout the railway's history it provided a means of transportation for people of many races and classes, it afforded more people the chance to engage in islandwide travel and because of the relatively low rates, more people from lower socio-economic classes were able to participate.

Source

**Marilyn** · 12-23-2003, 01:29 PM

Re: Anybody memba the TRAIN in JA ???

I'm so proud. My baby made an A.