La Guaira and Caracas Railway

The La Guaira to Caracas Railway was a narrow-gauge railway in Venezuela. From 1883 to 1951 it linked Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, to its port La Guaira. Caracas is only 7 miles (11 km) from the Caribbean. However, the city is at an altitude of 3,000 feet (910 metres), so the line extended to 23 miles in order to mitigate the gradients.[1] To help with the mountainous terrain, the line used a narrow gauge. At 36-inches the track gauge was narrower than that of the Great Venezuela Railway, for example. There were 8 tunnels.

Scene on the railway

History of the line

A rail route was surveyed by the British engineer Robert Stephenson as early as 1824. The main reason for Stephenson being in South America was to develop mines in Colombia, but he landed at La Guaira where, before moving on to Colombia, he assessed various projects on behalf of potential investors. The locomotives of the time would not have coped with the climb to Caracas, and he proposed that the trains should be pulled by animals ("blood traction"). It was decided not to proceed with the project, probably for economic reasons.

One of the original steam locomotives which served on the line

A railway offered an easier way to move goods to the capital and to export the country's agricultural produce,[1] and interest in the project revived in the following decades. The route was re-surveyed. In 1880, during the second presidency of Antonio Guzmán Blanco, the Venezuelan Government authorised a British company to construct and operate the railway. The technology, including six steam locomotives made by Nasmyth, Wilson & Co. of Manchester, mainly came from England. There was no industrialised iron production in Venezuela. The Venezuelan engineer Jesús Muñoz Tébar reported:

I think it necessary to advise the same company commissioned with those works, of the convenience of bringing with them at least two workmen from the ironworks sector to assemble them and to bring the necessary tools and spare parts for those important parts that break or damage easily and which are impossible to manufacture in the country.[2]

The line opened in 1883. The opening was presented as one of the events celebrating the centenary of the birth of Simón Bolívar.

The profitability of Venezuelan railways was affected by the unstable political situation in the country at the end of the 19th century. However, LG&C seems to have suffered less than the Puerto Cabello and Valencia Railway and the Great Venezuela Railway.

Electrification

In 1926 LG&C decided to electrify the line and work began the following year, resulting in a speedier service. A power plant was built at Zigzag station ten miles from La Guaira.[3]

Closure

In the 1950s the Venezuelan government gave priority to road transport. It spent large sums on the construction of the Caracas-La Guaira highway which began in 1950. Storms damaged the railway line in 1951 and it never reopened.

References
  1. Heinke, E (1892). "La Guaira and Caracas Railway". Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. 110. doi:10.1680/imotp.1892.20229.
  2. Silva, Mónica. "Foreign Iron in Venezuelan Architecture" (PDF). Retrieved 5 November 2022.
  3. "Railways of South America". 1927.
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