St. Nicholas Abbey Heritage Railway, Barbados Caribbean - Friday 17th February 2023

While on holiday in Barbados we visited St.Nicholas Abbey Sugar Plantation & Rum Distillery. Plus a new heritage railway!
I was delighted to be invited to ride on the footplate on our short return journey.
Thanks to the locomotive crew & especially Fireman Sean, who all made me feel very welcome.
St. Nicholas Abbey Heritage Railway (SNAHR) is a 1.5 kilometres (0.9 mi) long heritage narrow gauge railway 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge.
This Railway was completed in late 2018 and is the newest family attraction at St. Nicholas Abbey Great House Plantation and Distillery.
A journey through the plantation’s grounds behind a restored steam locomotive.
No 5 is a Mallet locomotive (a type of steam engine with an articulated main frame, enabling operation on tight radius track), built in 1914 by the Arnold Jung locomotive works in Germany, and operated as No. 5 at the Ceper Baru Sugar Mill in Central Java, Indonesia. From there it was sold to Graham Lee at the Statfold Barn Railway.
After a complete overhaul and rebuild it was delivered to Barbados on 7th February 2019. The Jung maker's build number is 2279, but it also carries maker's plate number 651 of Statfold Engineering Limited, having been comprehensively rebuilt in 2018. It is normally pre-heated using a coal fire in the morning, but fired with both coal and wood during operation.
The tour takes you past the historic St Nicholas Abbey Great House, around the lake, home to wild water fowl and migratory birds, and through the mature mahogany woodlands. Culminating at Cherry Tree Hill, an elevated point offering views of the island’s rugged east coast.
During the stop at Cherry Tree Hill, volunteers were recruited to assist in turning the locomotive on the manually operated turntable.
The main engineering and stock storage sheds are located alongside St Nicholas Abbey station.

[@SimonTog]

Nice train ride :)

[@caerphillycastle]

Thank you