A little bit of history : Caminos de Hierro

[El Presidente]

 

 

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrocarril_La_Habana-Güines#Promotor

The Havana-Bejucal-Güines railway was a line inaugurated on November 19, 1837, the first built in Spain (to which Cuba then belonged) and the seventh in the world. In mainland Spain, the first line to operate (the Barcelona-Mataró ) was not inaugurated until 11 years later, in 1848.

Background 

In 1767 Lorenzo de Montalvo y Montalvo , Count of Macuriges , requested the construction of a navigation canal that would link Güines with Havana in order to facilitate the transport of forest resources, coffee, sugar and their derivatives. 1

History

In 1830, the then Governor General of Cuba, Francisco Dionisio Vives , created the Junta de Caminos de Hierro (Railroads Board) to study the construction of the Havana-Güines railway. In December of that year the project was halted and was taken up again in 1832 when Havana native Claudio Martínez de Pinillos , Count of Villanueva, was named president of the Royal Board of Development of Havana.

Maria Cristina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies .

On October 12, 1834, Queen Isabel II authorized the construction of the first Havana-Güines line. The Royal Board of Development would carry out the construction of the railway, obtaining a loan of two million pesos negotiated in England . The work had the American Alfred Cruger as its main engineer. On November 19, 1837, the first 27.5 km section from the Cuban capital to Bejucal was opened for operation , only twelve years after the first English public railway service. It would be the first railway in Latin America and the first in Spain as well, and the second country in the Americas, only after the United States. Peninsular Spain would have this means of transport only from 1848.

By the end of 1839, the Havana railway had been completed to 44.5 km, reaching its intended destination, the city of Güines , then the capital of a rich agricultural and sugar region southeast of Havana. The development of railways in Cuba was driven by the sugar industry, which needed an efficient means of transport to transport sugar and honey to the ports for export. Consequently, local private interests took precedence in its initial stage of development. In addition to the Havana network, local railway networks were rapidly developed starting in Matanzas , Cárdenas , Cienfuegos and Sagua La Grande , in the west and center of the island, that is, where sugar production was concentrated.

 

Promoted by the Andalusian publicist Marcelino Carrero Portocarrero under the name of El Camino de Hierro Habana-Güines , it requested authorization from the governor and captain general of Cuba, Francisco Dionisio Vives.

"...The chosen route is that of Güines , because being the only one in that direction in which very rich regions are found and consequently the most frequented, it must necessarily be the most productive for the shareholders..."

File 4 981 of the National Archive of Cuba, from the Royal Consulate Fund

On 12 December 1834 , the Queen Governor, Maria Cristina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, authorized the Board of Development to mortgage its income to repay the loan with England, which allowed the works to be carried out.