The gentleman is Luis Dominguez of Coral Gables. He has sent me photos
(mostly from Cycs) of Cuban cars he wants to model and I have given him
suggestions of which of my kits would be best candidates for 'bashing. In
turn he was able to identify a mystery GL hopper photographed in Cuba (and
probably still in use) as having run on the Hershey Cuban RR.
- Al Westerfield

Hi Group,

As a child in the early 50s, I visited my grandparents who were wintering over in Palm Beach, Fl. My grandfather would take me down to the SeaTrain piers where we would watch the early roll-on/roll-off ships unloading boxcars that were bringing in items from Cuba and loading up again for shipment to Cuba. I remember that intermixed with U. S. railroad cars were cars registered to companies in Cuba.

Bob Kennedy



-------------- Original message from "benjaminfrank_hom" : --------------
Garth Groff wrote:
"From what I've seen in photos, most Cuban equipment was pretty
primitive and probably wouldn't have met U.S. safety standards."

It wasn't all crap:
http://www.steamfreightcars.com/gallery/boxauto/cuba17204main.html

Last year at Cocoa Beach, a gentleman from Miami (whose name I should
have written down) had on display a train of Cuban Railway rolling
stock c. 1950s. At first glance, I thought, "great, Brock's letting
fantasy crap wander into the display room." But he had his reference
material at his display, and it showed equipment that was
contemporary with US railroads at the time. There were Fowler
boxcars (nicely done from Westerfield kits), a postwar steel boxcar,
and some other really nice models - all prototype, and none fitting
the caricature of what you would have first expected. I hope he
comes again next year.


Ben Hom



Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT






Yahoo! Groups Links

To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/STMFC/

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
STMFC-unsubscribe@...

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.

Garth Groff wrote:
"From what I've seen in photos, most Cuban equipment was pretty
primitive and probably wouldn't have met U.S. safety standards."

It wasn't all crap:
http://www.steamfreightcars.com/gallery/boxauto/cuba17204main.html

Last year at Cocoa Beach, a gentleman from Miami (whose name I should
have written down) had on display a train of Cuban Railway rolling
stock c. 1950s. At first glance, I thought, "great, Brock's letting
fantasy crap wander into the display room." But he had his reference
material at his display, and it showed equipment that was
contemporary with US railroads at the time. There were Fowler
boxcars (nicely done from Westerfield kits), a postwar steel boxcar,
and some other really nice models - all prototype, and none fitting
the caricature of what you would have first expected. I hope he
comes again next year.


Ben Hom

Rich,

The West Indies Fruit & Steamship Co. ran a ferry service from Florida to Havana, and had a modest roster of boxcars and reefers. I believe this was a subsidiary of the Florida East Coast.

I don't know if any cars of strictly Cuban roads ran in the U.S. No Cuban lines are listed in my 1958 ORER, and so it is a sure bet that by then no Cuban cars were interchanged (if they ever were). A check of earlier ORERs might turn up something. From what I've seen in photos, most Cuban equipment was pretty primative and probably wouldn't have met U.S. safety standards.

Kind regards,


Garth G. Groff

richtownsend@... wrote:

Did any Cuban freight cars make it to the US on the pre-Castro car ferries, or was it all US cars?

--
Richard Townsend
Lincoln City, Oregon


__________________________________________________________________
Switch to Netscape Internet Service.
As low as $9.95 a month -- Sign up today at http://isp.netscape.com/register

Netscape. Just the Net You Need.

New! Netscape Toolbar for Internet Explorer
Search from anywhere on the Web and block those annoying pop-ups.
Download now at http://channels.netscape.com/ns/search/install.jsp