A little bit of Cuban history.

[El Presidente]

I came across this sign below.

On October 12, 1834, Maria Cristina de Borbon, the widow of King Fernando VII—who ruled Spain during the minority of her daughter, the future Isabel II—authorized the Development Board presided by the Count of Villanueva to obtain a loan in England for two million pesos, to be invested in the construction of a railroad from Havana to Güines.

On November 19, 1837, the first section was opened from Havana to Bejucal, 27 kilometers in length and on its first anniversary, to wit, November 19, 1838, the second section was opened to service from Bejucal to Güines, 46 kilometers in length, the line being named Havana-Güines Railroad.

Locomotive of the first Cuban railroad, Havana-Güines (1837)

When the line was completed ending in Güines, there were two daily trains in circulation; one of them had 7 passenger cars and 6 or 7 baggage cars. The second one had 30 cargo cars with a capacity, each car, of 2.5 tons.

On January 11 1842, the Havana-Güines Railroad was placed at public auction; it was adjudicated to Havana Iron Roads Company, being one of the conditions of its transfer, the construction of a branch from Rincon to San Antonio, another one from San Felipe to Batabano and another from Güines to Union.

The Güines to Union branch was finished on November 26, 1848. On March 18, 1857 permission was granted to build another branch from Güines to Matanzas, and the first section from Güines to Catalina was opened on October 4, 1859, the first train arriving from Villanueva Station in Güines to San Luis Station in Matanzas, on October 15, 1861.

The Havana-Güines Railroad was first in Latin America, being 11 years earlier than the first railroad in Spain, from Barcelona to Mataro, opening a fast, safe and cheap way of transportation for the shipment of agricultural products—that Güines fertile valley of reddish soil yielded—to the capital, making even more rich and prosperous the bountiful region irrigated by the Mayabeque.

Translated by the Staff of Círculo Güinero de Los Ángeles