Sugar And Railroads

Though Cuba was among the first countries in the world to utilize rail transport, the history of its railroads has been little studied. This English translation of the prize-winning Caminos para el azucar traces the story of railroads in Cuba from their introduction in the nineteenth century through the 1959 Revolution. More broadly, the book uses the development of the Cuban rail transport system to provide a fascinating perspective on Cuban history, particularly the story of its predominant agro-industry, sugar. While railroads facilitated the sugar industry's rapid growth after 1837, the authors argue, sugar interests determined where railroads would be built and who would benefit from them. Zanetti and Garcia explore the implications of this symbiotic relationship for the technological development of the railroads, the economic evolution of Cuba, and the lives of the railroad workers. As this work shows, the economic benefits that accompanied the rise of railroads in Europe and the United States were not repeated in Cuba. Sugar and Railroads provides a poignant demonstration of the fact that technological progress alone is far from sufficient for development.

The United States Sugar Corporation owns and operates two different railroad operations in the Lake Okeechobee area of South Florida. One is the South Central Florida Express, a shortline railroad that operates between Sebring and Fort Pierce, Florida. This railroad includes track once owned by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, and trackage leased from the Florida East Coast Railway. This route hauls tens of thousands of railcars annually for about two dozen shippers, plus even more carloads of sugarcane for U.S. Sugar. The second railroad operation is a series of lines that directly serve the miles of sugarcane fields in the area. These private industrial lines make up the heart of the U.S. Sugar rail operations, and are often the mysterious element of any visit to the Clewiston area. Both sets of lines can have dozens of daily train movements during the winter sugarcane harvest season. A large fleet of clean and modern diesel locomotives are used to move these trains, which often consist of some of the approximately 800 cane cars that are unique to the system. The start of the construction of these lines took place almost 100 years ago, but new rail lines are still being built and completed. This book is written for those who want to know more about the various railroad routes owned and operated by the United States Sugar Corporation. It provides a history of the sugar company and the various rail lines, plus a detailed guide of each route, helping to answer the questions of "Where are we and what once happened here?" Enjoy this review of the railroads of U.S. Sugar, a unique opportunity to experience the history of the Lake Okeechobee and South Florida areas.

History of Hawaiian Island plantation railroad development from 1876.