NICARAGUA RAILROADS

I'm Looking for info on Kukra railroad, Bluefields Steamship Company and Wawa commercial company. and the railroad at Ocotal

I have no info on them!

I do have a little info about Puerto Cavezas railroad! I found a picture taken in 1982, showing railroad cars in puerto cavezas, could that be true?

these are all the Atlantic coast railroads I have found, so far!

thank you! #-d8-)

I had PMed NYNorm with this earlier, but thought I'd share it with you guys in case anyone else was interested.

Alan You ask and I obediently serve!!!

This is my theory;

the Vaccaro Brothers had pre-planned to create a tourist port-of-call for their Cruise line, utilizing the town of Bragmans Bluff in 1923. This is why the price tag went up-to 8 million dollars!!!

A brief history;

In 1923 the Vaccaro brothers bought a business with 80,00 acres of land. Included on the property was the native village of Bragmans Bluff a port on the Atlantic Ocean (now known as Puerto Cabezas.) The Vaccaro Brothers named the company the “Bragmans Bluff Lumber Company”.

When the Vaccaro Brothers came to Nicaragua in 1923, they had been operating a banana Company in Honduras since 1889 and they had shipped the bananas themselves to New Orleans. From 1922 onward The Vaccaro Brothers started buying a lot of surplus WW1 ships and rebuilding them to carry both passengers and bananas. Surplus WW1 ships were available at extremely low prices.

The Vaccaro Brothers spent a total of 8 million US dollars (I believe that included the cruise ships). they had built-up the town of Bragmans Bluff with 51 buildings From 1923 to 1925. The most luxurious area of the town was a fenced in area known as the America Zone.

This is my reasoning!

This got me to thinking! This place is in the middle of nowhere. The amount of amenities the Vaccaro’s built is totally unjustified for this area. Lets look at what they built; a fenced in American Zone with a hotel, tennis courts, indoor plumbing, a telephone system and a commissary selling expensive items. This was too much for workers of a lumber company and a banana plantation.

For 1925 indoor plumbing and telephones did not exist in rural USA (the movie grapes of wrath comes to mind.) All this stuff in the middle of nowhere, didn't make sense.

Then one day I read about the Standard Fruit & Steamship Company-the Vaccaro Line. The name had placed all the players together. These guys had just started to operate a Passenger Cruise Line for US tourist and Nicaragua was a destination one of their cruise-line brochures.

This is my conclusion!

The Vaccaro Brothers had it all planned out from the beginning.

The lumber company would clear-cut the land.

The company would then plant bananas in the newly cleared rich rain forest soil.

The Company ships would bring in tourist to the newly built beautiful and luxurious port of Bragmans Bluff, hotels, tennis courts indoor toilets and electricity.

Then they would fill the ships with Bananas while the tourist were in port.

Finally the ships would go back to New Orleans with the tourist and bananas.

Did you know that the number two tourist attraction in New Orleans was to watch bananas being offloaded from the ships at the docks!!! (sounds scary to me)

I think John would say, is this where the saying ("I have to-go do #2") originated?

Very interesting! May you too live long and prosper!!! #-d8-{)

Hi. I have a few pictures taken in early 1990's, some is of the locomotives and cars sitting in Managua, I also have inside pictures of the Presidential car, I think this is in Granada now, I was by the way offered to buy all this stuff, and the pictures are from that inspection. If you are interested, I can mail them to you, or scan them and email. Pls let me know, either here or by privat mail. Roger

I posted this on different page

http://www.nicaliving.com/node/4178

I am looking for any info on Wawa Commercial Co.

AND any Railroad that operated in Miskitu! (or any part of Nicaragua)

The maps I find don't have longitude they just say in the area of Central America, they don't even show the names of the towns, for Miskitu they just show a big empty space with four squiggly lines.

Mupitara said that the names of places can have different spellings.

Then somebody keeps changing the names of the place for example;

Bragmans Bluff - Puerto Cabezas - Bilwi.

I thought Bilwi was the original name of a whole region, not just the name of a town?

that makes it a lot more difficult!!!

I have been researching the Bragmans Bluff Lumber Co. Railroad for the past five months and I haven't been able to find any Railroad Info;

does someone have a better map! (maybe around 1920s to 1965 showing some railroads in Miskitu)

Very interesting! May John Wayne live long and prosper! Na-Noo Na-Noo #-d8-)

If for any reason you feel your Nicaragua Railroad Information may bore others or if you're worried about copyright, Please feel free to send the info directly to my e-mail. If you can not reach me at this e-mail please try; nicaraguarailroad at yahoo . com

I want everybody to know, I am desperate for any information on Nicaragua railroads. That said your TV will now be returned to its normal viewing channel (The Outer Limits) #-d8-)

There are several books in the 1890-1930 period that have descriptions and pictures concerning railroad travel in Nicaragua. I can post some of it, if I am not chastised by the police for plagiarism. One of the more interesting stories of a 1920s battle that took place at the crossing at Masaya (at the foot Coyotepe) along the railroad that ran from Managuaga-Masaya-Granada. I will need to look up the title of that book as I currently don't recall its name.

As far as boring factual statistics, some good information is in the book "A Brief History of the Relations Between the United States and Nicaragua 1909-1928" authored and published in 1928 by the U.S. Government Printing Office. The following information is taken from the book,

"Pacific Railway of Nicaragua

The original construction of the Pacific Railway of Nicaragua was undertaken in 1878. The present system was buit up by the construction of different sections from that time forward until 1903, when the present line was completed, forming an all-rail route from Corinto to Granada, a distance of 127 miles. From 1905 to 1909 the railroad was leased to a private syndicate, the Government again taking over the operation of the road in 1909. In 1913, upon the purchase of 51 per cent of the railway shares by New York bankers, the J.G. White Management Corp. was appointed as operating manager for the railway, on behalf of the bankers. By the terms of the contract the railway was exempt from all taxes and from customs duties on importations for a period of 30 years. The Government on the other hand received the right to ship its freight at one half the published rates and to recieve free transportation for various of its officials and employees. The Government repurchased the outstanding shares in 1921 and has since then retained entire ownership of the railroad. Short unprofitable sections of the railway have been abandoned from time to time so that out of a totla of 169.3 miles constructed there are now in actual operation 156.7 miles, including sidings and branch lines. The company has 33,000 shares of capital stock outstanding at a par value of $100 per share. The annual net income income of the railway for the 14 years from 1914 to 1927 averaged $283,639. Under the management of the J.G. White Management Corp. up to June 30, 1927, $2,817,775 had been paid as dividends, of which amount $2,115,123 went to the Nicaraguan Government, and $702,652 to the New York shareholders during the period 1913-1920. The cost of the line and equipment at the time the Pacific Railway of Nicaragua was incorporated was placed at $3,243,783, while the total assets of the company were estimated at $3,750,266. The estimated value of the line and equipment on June 30, 1927 was $4,278,923 and the total assets of the company $5,085,944.

Other Railways There are several short agricultural and industrial railways operated by private companies in the eastern part of Nicaragua. Amongst there may be mentioned the "Wawa" line, the Cuyamel Fruit Co., line, the Bragman's Bluff Lumber Co. line, and the Nicaraguan Sugar Estates railroad. These various companies operate a total of about 40 miles of railways, with some 15 miles under construction."

If you believe the figures the New York bankers did not make all that much money from their investment. This and other deals that President Zelaya and eventually retracted or moved to change finally led to his overthrow by U.S. supported President Estrada.

Does anyone know anything about the railbed running from the San Jorge dock area toward Rivas? I've always thought it would make a great bicycle corridor for both locals and touristas if it were ever cleaned up a little.

I believe Granada has a railroad museum (well at least an old railroad car pretending to be a museum). I saw the car in passing, but did not get a chance to check it out up close. Some members in Granada may be able to advise.

The Manfut site always has a TON of information on many subjects. It might be the worst organized website ever, but it does have some very interesting facts.

Read this article.

http://www.manfut.org/managua/tren.html

There was a cutsy passenger train (looked like something out of Butch Cassidy and the sundance kid) that went from the lakefront near the plaza de la revolucion in Managua to Leon.

SOME DAYS YER THE DAWG, SOME DAYS YER THE FIRE HYDRANT

There used to be a rail line running down the main road in front of the airport, since 1991 it has disappeared. In 1999, I noticed that the right of way and ballast of the line that I imagine ran from San Juan Del Sur to Grenada still exists north of SJDS. I believe the industrialist Venderbilt put it in to transport gold rush travelers. San Juan Del Sur also has the old RR depot, it was designated as a historical structure, awaiting money to rebuild it. Full of squatters. Maybe someone in the area can update its status.

One of the very interesting things people that rode the Nicaraguan railroad always talked about; is all the different DELICIOUS food Ecstasies that a passenger could experiance at each train station.

each town specialized in a special food. the vendors would come right into the train to sell their delicacies.

For example;

The history of the Quesillo

Nagarote is the cradle of the Quesillo, also known as “Lechones”.

According to the citizens of Nagarote, a women by the name of Maria Lara, who is well known by the citizens of Nagarote and who lived close to the railroad station, was the person who invented the method of making the Quesillo.

She put water to boil and passed the cuajada cheese through the water this made the cheese very tasty when accompanied by a tortilla, like a sandwich. She began selling these to the train passengers. Latter on the cream and onions became part of this delicacy.

this info was gleaned from La Prensa.

facinating! #-d8-)

I don't now if anybody sells axe-handles in NYC.

When you put a title 4 (four) axe-handles wide;

it takes 4-computer screens to read the message.

Its not capital letters - Its the length of title.

Miskito Alan &#174

Admin please change my title to no Capital letters I just blew out the NL web page to bigger than life size.

very interesting! sorry NO-NO-NO #-d8-(