southern switchers in tropical paradise

[Kentucky & Indiana Terminal RR]

I recently posted a question about Georgia and Florida railway diesels that may still survive in the motive power section.  The only survivor I knew of was the dismal looking 1004 one of the gf's three sw1's they owned that lives in a wye in wadley georgia.  (coincidentaly these are the only sw1's I've ever seen that had mu capabilities)  The G&F also had several gp-7's which I thought may have had at least one survivor.  Well weeks of research have yielded no gp survivors that I can find but strangely enough another of the sw1's still exists and boy did this apple fall faaaaaaaaaaaar from the tree.  On the island of puerto rico is a small railroad that boasts a quarter mile of trackage.  It consists of 8 yard tracks and a barge loading facility, obviously ocean going barges.  Its owned by Chemex and is call the Port of Ponce railway, its puerto rico's only frieght railroad that I'm aware of.  Most islands had their share of small railways for the sugar crops but most have long vanished.  This is some sort of chemical place and they ship tank cars via ocean barges to the united states either in alabama or louisiana I cant remember and the cars are shipped back.  This little railroad has two switchers, one is a sw9 and the other is a sw1.  The sw1 is the former G&F 71, later the Southern 1005.  Who wouldve thought a former southern unit would be in a tropical paradise over sixty years after it was built and so many of its siblings have gone on to that big hump yard in the sky!!  What a rare situation this must be?  The railroad only has one engineer on the whole island, and from what I read they are very proud of their little engines.  It just goes to show, little engines can dream big too ;D               http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1851408

[E.M. Bell]

looks better than the 1007 we had on the LXOH for awhile.

[lwjabo]

I saw some tracks last year in the Domenican Republic. I heard a train and saw the cars but never saw the engine. We had docked a short time earler and being my hearing is terrible but the train moving slow was hard to miss. They must have hauled sugar cane. Looked like flat cars with fence wire on the sides. There was some years ago a freight line at San Juan. At least from memory. I don't remember seeing the train but were some tracks near where we docked. My Battalion came from Camp Garcia to San Juan for some R&R. The only other place in the area I saw tracks were in Panama next to the canal. I can't say I saw any at the Navy base at Coco Solo or Ft. Sherman. Then again we were very limited where we could go on the two bases.