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The Narrow Gauge Railways of Panama Ferrocarril Nacional de Chiriquí On the basis of a concession by the Republic of Panama dated 19th February 1913 the firm of R.W.Hebard (Heabord according to other sources) and Co. carried out studies for the construction of a railway through the province of Chiriquí and from there to the Caribbean coast. In 1914 the Minister for Development of the Government of Panama conceded this firm the right to construct the planned railway, and in 1914 work started on four railway lines: Ciudad David - Pedregal, 6,5 Kilometres, opened at the end of 1916 Ciudad David - La Concepción 29 Kilometres, opened in February 1916 Ciudad David - Boquete 45,1 Kilometres, opened on 15th April 1916 Dolega - Potrerillos 12,1 Kilometres, opened on 15th April 1916 The official opening ceremony for the Chiriquí Nacional Railway System took place in the presence of the president of Panama, Dr. Belisario Porras on the 22nd April 1916 with strong participation of the inhabitants and of guests from Panama and other countries. In spite of the fact that the railway bore the name of "National Railway of Chiriquí" it was a firm under private right and without financial support of the state when service started. Only 5 pct. of the shares were owned by the Republic of Panama, 95 pct. were owned by the National City Bank of New York. In 1924 the government of Panama granted the concession for the extension of the railway line from La Concepción to Puerto Armuelles. Work on this line of 51 Kilometres started, however, only in October 1926, and at the end of 1928 regular traffic started. At this time again there was a discussion about the extension of the line from Boquete to Almirante on the Caribbean coast, but this was never built. Between 1926 and 1931 a new and much larger station and new workshops were constructed at Ciudad David. By decree dated 10th February 1945 the FNC (Ferrocarril Nacional de Chiriquí) was converted to a parastatal firm after all the remaining shares were purchased and divided between the Republic of Panama and the Province of Chiriquí In 1947 the branch line to San Andrés opened, and thereby the system, with all the loading tracks etc., reached a length of almost 200 Kilometres. Already in the twenties of the last century the Edwards Rail Car Company, founded in 1921, delivered ten diesel motor coaches which supported the locomotives in passenger traffic. Passenger traffic was for the FNC always more important than goods traffic. The railway lines all had a track gauge of 3 feet (914 mm). The original rails had a weight per metre of 27,3 Kilogram per Metre which were replaced from 1945 to 1965 by rails of 34,7 Kilogram/Metre. The sleepers, originally of various types of wood, were during the years replaced by impregnated hard wood sleepers. Up to the 1960s the relatively low ballast bed was well maintained, but sections of tracks which lay in walking paths, streets or squares were never ballasted, the underground was only considerably compressed. The largest inclination was 3 pct and the minimal curve radius 146 Metres. The rolling stock at the beginning of services consisted of 12 steam engines, all from the USA, presumably from Baldwin. As the goods traffic was always very low, the steam engine roaster was reduced when the first diesel motor coach was delivered. In 1954 the railway had the following rolling stock: 6 steam engines (two in daily use) 2 diesel locomotives 2 petrol locomotives 14 diesel motor coaches 10 passenger coaches 145 goods wagons In that year 690'000 passengers and 35'670 tons of goods were transported. On the 1st of August 1969 FNC was definitively taken over by the state, as road traffic started to become a serious competition. At that moment the railway had only 2560 Balboas in its cash box. The government increased this to more than 100'000 Balboas. With this, the salaries of the staff were increased to the average national level. In addition the bridges and certain sections of the line where there had been several derailments since 1967 had to be repaired which work was started immediately. In 1971 operations were again without problems. At the end of 1970 the section of the Panamericana road between Ciudad David and Puerto Armuelles was opened. In 1970, the railway owned 6 steam engines (rarely used), 6 diesel locomotives, 14 diesel motor coaches, 36 passenger coaches and 427 goods wagons. In that same year 543'551 passengers, 8'061 tons of goods and 10'194'873 banana stalks were transported, the goods and banana trains worked 11'800 Kilometres and the passenger trains (motor coaches and locomotive drawn trains) 183'299 Kilometres. In 1973 446'282 passengers were transported, 3'344 tons of goods and 10'890'808 banana stalks were transported. At the end of the seventies (between 1977 and 1979) passenger transport on most of the lines out of Ciudad David was stopped as private bus lines were competing strongly, and the goods traffic suffered from the competition by lorries and the recession of the banana transport in the immediate neighbourhood of the FNC lines. As railway transport offered lower fares than the buses, the trains were for many years a welcome way of travelling for the rural population with low incomes. From 1980 on bus transport increased sharply; often the buses operated every 15 to 20 minutes. In 1982 the rail transport was stopped on all lines, except between Ciudad David, La Concepción and Puerto Armuelles, goods trains operated only on demand. Seven motor coaches were still in operating condition, some goods and passenger coaches were sold to the railways of t he United Fruit Company, as well as to the Ferrocarril del Sur in Costa Rica, in this case after adaptation to the track gauge of 1067 mm. For many years there was a connexion to the Golfito network of the Ferrocarril del Sur in Costa Rica; because of the different track gauges passengers had to change trains at Empalme station (also known as Kilometre 12,7), north of Puerto Armuelles. In 1948 this connexion was daily except Saturday possible, shortly after mid day. Because of the competition of the Panamericana this connexion stopped around 1983, in 1988 the Golfito network was anyway closed for public transport. In 1986 passenger traffic on the line from La Concepción to Puerto Armuelles was reduced, there were only two motor coaches in each direction, from Concepción and Armuelles each at 08.30 h and 13.30 h, running time was 3 hours, the parallel bus line required 75 minutes and operated every 15 minutes. The lines from Ciudad David to Potrerillo and Boquete and the branch line to San Andrés were closed. Passenger transport still operated until 1988 and was then stopped (the exact date is not known). The regular goods traffic, banana transport, survived only for a short time and was merged with the transport of the United Fruit Company. At the beginning of the 1990's traffic of the FNC stopped, the infrastructure, however, was not dismantled for a long stretch of time. Level rail crossings were asphalted and station buildings transformed to libraries or schools or private housing, this even without the agreement of the railways, as the railways administration continued to exist. In the late 1990's even the FNC became victim of rail thefts, and at the same time some communities of the region between Dolega and Boquete who did not dispose of strong roads decided that the existing rail alignment and the still intact bridges should be rebuilt to roads. Even in 2002 there existed a project to rebuild the line Puerto Armuelles - Ciudad David - Boquete as a railway and restart passenger operation, but the state government was not convinced about these plans. In 2005 and 2006 former employees of the FNC became once again active; they received in the form of a working contract of 15 months the task to dismantle the remaining tracks of the railway. In a newspaper report it was stated "that the rails could only remain where there were no access paths, and that this made the work of the men very difficult, the pieces of rail had to be carried away over long distances". Per 31st December 2008 the concession of the FNC was extinct and the railways was declared closed by the administration. Chiriquí Land Company These railways were during their entire existence owned by the United Fruit Company in Boston USA. Around 1900 United Fruit Co. (UFCO) purchased extended grounds in the province of Chiriquí on the Pacific and Bocas del Toro on the Caribbean coast. The first banana plantations were situated right at the coast which allowed the fruit to be carried by ox cart to the ports, but soon the plantations had to be increased and thereby reached further away places. Still before the First World War UFCO started to construct railways for the banana transport. Exact years of opening are not known, but in a report it is stated that in 1911 the first banana transports to Almirante took place. The railway network consisted of two parts: Chiriquí Land Líneas del Sur This network started in Chiriquí province and partially overlapped the above mentioned FNC. The UFCO tracks of the same gauge of 914 mm reached Puerto Armuelles port even before the FNC. UFCO also owned a through going line of 36 Kilometres to Laurel and Coto in the southernmost part of Costa Rica. In the long term the United Fruit Co. planned a through going railway of 914 mm gauge from New Jersey (south of New York) to Ciudad de Panama of which, however, only the connexion from the Mexican - Guatemalan frontier (Tecún Umán to the port of La Unión in El Salvador was realised. The rail network in Chiriquí province reached at the end of the 1920's around 165 Kilometres, and in 1953 there were still 147 Kilometres and in 1970 still 140 Kilometres in service. Although principally built for the transport of bananas and plant workers, from the middle of the 1930's on both networks also other goods and passengers were transported. From the 1950's schoolchildren's transport became more important. The southern network owned in 1953 11 diesel electric locomotives, 39 motor coaches of various types (Edwards, Brill and home made), 2 passenger coaches and 561 goods wagons of which only 44 were destined for the public goods transport. According to the line rails with meter weights of 14,9 and 29,8 were installed, the lines were, if at all, only ballasted with gravel, the permitted maximum speed for locomotive operated trains was around 24 Kilometres/Hour, for motor coaches 35 Kilometres per Hour. In Puerto Armuelles, Progreso and La Concepción there were direct connexions to the FNC, and according to the quantity of goods to be transported even through going trains from one to the other railway. Also in passenger transport there shall have been good connexions between the two railways, according to traveller's descriptions of the 1960's. The public passenger and goods transport on these lines ended, according to information from the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Panama in a report from 1973, in 1971; bananas were still being transported up to the beginning of the 1980's on certain sections; in part FNC shall have carried out transports on behalf of UFCO. When exactly United Fruit stopped transport is not known, but it was during the 1980's, whereas according to the Costa Rican Ministery of Finance the track across the frontier and the customs office connected to it was officially closed per 1st May 1988. Chiriquí Land Líneas del Norte or División Bocas Even before the construction of the southern network the construction of the first lines in Bocas del Toro province began, and the first line went from the port of Almirante and through the town of Almirante to the rural areas behind it. Rapidly the rail network developed in the direction of Guabito, Changuinola and the Rio (river) Sixaola at the frontier to Costa Rica. The "Panama Illness" of the banana plants, which lets the roots not take up any water and thereby letting the plants die, resulted in a strong reduction of banana production in this region from 1929 onwards which forced United Fruit to plant bananas on the other side of the Rio Sixaola in Costa Rica, for which a large steel grid bridge crossing the river and 8 Kilometres of main line in Costa Rica were built. With the extension of banana production in Costa Rica many mostly short branch lines were built to the fincas (plantations). From the middle of the 1930's banana plantation in Panama increased again, and further lines along the Rio Sixaola, on the Panamanian side were built, including the construction of a further bridge over the frontier river. In 1951 the network of the Bocas division had a length of 142 Kilometres and owned 1 steam engine, 10 diesel locomotives, 38 motor coaches, 4 passenger coaches and 144 goods wagons. By 1955 the railway had been completely converted to diesel operation and owned then 15 diesel locomotives. On the lines in Costa Rica the very restricted passenger transport ended already in 1956, plantation workers and their families were still being transported. Between Almirante and Changuinola goods and passenger transport was very lively, in 1960 on the line even 502'000 passengers were transported, but on the size of the banana transport there are no exact data, in a typical year 11'000'000 banana stalks shall have been transported. In the late 1990's goods transport in Costa Rica reduced considerably, and around 1998 inundations had destroyed the line to the bridge and obviously also destabilised the bridge which meant that traffic across the frontier ceased. The upper bridge was already in the late 1960's destroyed by inundations. The remaining operation continued over the change of the century, and from 2005 onwards the branch lines and from 2008 onwards tracks of the main line were dismantled, but the last trains operated until a few weeks before being dismantled. Further railway projects In 1920 the Government of Panama let elaborate a project for a railway from Ciudad de Panama through Cocle and Veraguas provinces to Ciudad David, both for the cheap 914 mm gauge as for the 1524 mm wide gauge. It was planned that the Panama Canal Railroad would build and operate the line. But both variants were to expensive for the government and still 40 years should pass before the Panamericana road through the two cities was asphalted and an all year connexion beween them was possible. Sources: World Railways, various editions Bolletin del A.C.P.F.C. No. 239 of 1975 Thomas Cook Overseas Timetable of 1987 Newspaper Clippings from Costa Rica (Nación, without date) and Panama Notes from the archives of the Fahrplancenter
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