See an 1882 steam locomotive come to life in Cuba in 2024!

[@ianjeffery6744]

Wonderful video! These lines would make fascinating models - either in the garden, or in a smaller scale (HOe).

[@charonsferryold]

Being an American train enthusiast and watching Cuban rail footage is fascinating, this is all stuff that would be in museums here but for much longer than there, like their cars you can tell this is all stuff from before the revolution and subsequent American blockade. I would love to know how tours of these places are arranged, to see what steam looks like when it hasn't been dressed nicely.

[@harrikolanrailways9829]

There are still quite a few left of the steam locomotives that were in use until the sugar industry was reduced around the year 2000. Many are in poor condition, some have been restored externally and put on display as historical monuments, but very few steam locomotives are operational today. Last year, a group tour for railway enthusiasts from England was planned, but it was canceled due to the lack of places where one could be sure to experience steam locomotives in operation.

[@vahe2391]

Cuba was the only country in the Western Hemisphere still operating steam locomotives before the end of the 1990s. The collapse of the USSR and the decline of Cuban sugar (thanks to Fidel Castro's desire to shift his island's economy away from overdependence on sugar to emphasis on different fields like healthcare, nickel production, et cetera) meant that Cuba's age-old sugar carry locomotives saw the twilight of their career.

[@erikverghese898]

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