Few railway enthusiasts reached Cuba in time to see or ride behind the Clayton locomotives in regular service, but visitors in the 1990s saw the locomotives stored out of use. Clayton number 52504 was in the yard at Central Camilo Cienfuegos on March 10, 1995. The similarity with British Railways’ Class 47 is obvious. The undergrowth masks the central coupler, one of the distinctive features of the Cuban locomotives. This view makes an interesting comparison with the picture of the body structure photographed 30 years earlier at Loughborough –see p17.
ALL PHOTOGRAPHS BY AUTHOR UNLESS STATED.
DURING the 1990s Cuba was a popular destination for British railway enthusiasts hoping to photograph American-built steam locomotives at work. A few of those enthusiasts found that Cuba was also home to some British-built diesel locomotives Readers of The Railway Magazine will have seen some of those in a feature on the Clayton Equipment Co. in the September 2015 issue. Here is the story of British diesel locomotives and the Cuban Revolution.
Before the Revolution
Until the late 1940s most of the railways in the east of Cuba formed the Consolidated Railroads, a company largely backed with American capital, while the United Railways of Havana, a British company, was the dominant operator in the west. However, despite being British, the United Railways, like the Consolidated Railroads, bought most of its locomotives and rolling stock from the United States. A trade treaty which saw Cuban raw sugar refined in the United States also ensured American railway equipment was imported into Cuba with minimal duties, while equipment from Europe suffered high import tariffs.
Things were changing; financial difficulties saw the Cuban government intervene in the management of the United Railways in June 1949 and in 1953 the company’s railways were nationalised, becoming the Western Railways. At about the same time, a new trade agreement reduced tariffs on British goods, which saw Leyland enter into a £10 million contract for buses – paving the way for British locomotive builders to enter the Cuban market.
Latin American Tour
During 1954, Sir George Nelson, chairman and managing director of English Electric, toured Latin America in the hope of drumming up business. From April 12 to April 22, Sir George was in Cuba, where he met with Dr Martinez Saenz, the chief administrator of the newly nationalised Western Railways, to discuss a five-year rehabilitation programme.
The programme included the supply of new diesel locomotives for which English Electric duly tendered, but when the offers were considered, the favourites were General Motors, which had won an order for more than 50 locomotives for the Consolidated Railroads a year earlier; Baldwin, which had already supplied two diesel locomotives to the Western Railways; and the French.
The order was signed on July 29, 1954, and went to the French firm of Brissonneau & Lotz, which committed to shipping six locomotives that November; a short delivery time English Electric could not match. The design offered by the French was, except for a few minor modifications, identical to more than 100 locomotives already ordered by the French State Railways (SNCF).
English Electric was not discouraged by this disappointment. In September 1954 a small team of British experts from three UK firms – English Electric, United Steel and Westinghouse – went to Cuba to study the rehabilitation of the Western Railways. Their report was submitted in February 1955, but they found there were many competitors for Cuban business.
In 1955 the British firms invited Dr Saenz to visit Britain. On August 3, he and dictator Fulgencio Batista’s 21-year-old son were entertained to dinner at Claridge’s. Over dinner, the British industrialists learned the Germans were sending equipment to Cuba on approval so it could be tried. The German firm MaK had sent a locomotive to Cuba, which it had flatteringly called Presidente Batista, and was rewarded with orders for more than 70 of its diesel-hydraulics.
Railways had a significant role in the Cuban Revolution. In the late 1950s the Batista regime constructed an armoured train, known in Spanish as“El tren blindado”, which was powered by two General Motors diesel electric locomotives. An armoured railcar, numbered 810, ran ahead of the train. This much-published photo shows the railcar on its side, having been derailed at Santa Clara by revolutionaries led by Che Guevara.
AUTHOR’S COLLECTION