The Last Railway in the West Indies

Author: Jeff + Claude AI

Genre: Rail Train Transport Tourism

Date: 25th September 2026

Description: Journey through the forgotten railways of the Caribbean, from the sugar-hauling steam engines that once threaded Jamaica's hills to the enduring lines still crossing the Cuban countryside. This richly detailed history traces the rise of tropical rail engineering, the distinctive challenges of building track through cane fields and mountain passes, and the golden age when locomotives connected island communities. As diesel, decline, and the motor age took their toll, only fragments of this iron heritage survived — and this book follows that story to its haunting present, exploring the rusting relics and living memories left behind.

Summary

Ch1. Iron Roads to Sugar Fields

Ch2. Gauge, Gradient and the Tropical Engineer

Ch3. The Lines of Jamaica

Ch4. Trinidad, Barbados and the Lesser Antilles

Ch5. Cuba's Enduring Rails

Ch6. Decline, Diesel and the Motor Age

Ch7. The Final Trains

Ch8. Rust, Memory and What Remains