The Hershey Train

[jack]

The Hershey Train6: Departs from Casablanca Station in Havana and runs back and forth to Matanzas. Tour the old Hershey Sugar Factory, known today as the Camilo Cienfuegos factory.

Price: $4,25 US to Hershey
For schedule Click Here

Some interesting pictures of the Hershey (Electric) Train
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[cubano]

Thanks for the info Jack. Have not done this tour in all the years i have visited Cuba, now that i have all the info will plan it for the next trip!

[viva_la_playa]

We will take this train on our trip, in the program we have on the 3rd day the visit of playas del Este and from there we will take the train to Hershey. From there we will go by minibus to Varadero.

[jack]

Viva, look forward to hearing about the adventure.

Many people suggest bringing things to eat and drink because there are many break downs of the train and it can longer than the schedule to get to Hershey
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[jack]

Another excellent write up about the Hershey Train

Hershey Line Map

The Hershey Cuban Railway BY Allen Morrison

In 1916 the Hershey Chocolate Corporation of Pennsylvania purchased large tracts of land and built a sugar mill 45 km east of Havana, about halfway between the capital and Matanzas [see map of Havana province]. To transport its produce to nearby ports and its workers to adjacent towns, it built a network of 135 km of electric railways. The first branches were steam-powered, but in 1919 Hershey Cuban Railway began ordering electric equipment from J. G. Brill and General Electric. Electric passenger service between Matanzas and "Central Hershey" (the sugar mill) began in January 1922 and was extended to Casablanca, across the bay from Havana, the following October. United Railways, the English company that operated all the other railroads in Havana Province, would not let the American line into town

By 1924 Hershey Cuban had a fleet of 17 electric passenger cars and 7 electric locomotives. In addition to pantographs the vehicles carried trolley poles in order to cross streetcar lines in Matanzas and Regla - especially in the latter town, which used a 2-wire system.

The railway prospered and still operates today. This mule grazing at Corral Nuevo near Matanzas in 1956 seemed unfazed by the interurban (but was perhaps keeping an eye on the photographer). The Hershey train consisted of a Brill passenger/baggage car of 1920 and Wason 154 of 1924.

Hershey's oldest cars were not its first to run. The interurbans that Cincinnati built for Cienfuegos were completed in June 1919, three months before Hershey ordered its Brills. They sat unused in Cienfuegos until purchase by Hershey in 1924 (see builder's photo on the Cienfuegos page). Cincinnati 213 sits at Cojímar terminus in 1956. The Cojímar line closed the next year [Ray DeGroote]:

In 1960 the Hershey Cuban Railway became the Camilo Cienfuegos Division of Ferrocarriles de Cuba. Cuba's last electric line - "the world's last interurban" - continued unchanged for the next 40 years. One of its (rebuilt) Brill cars was commemorated in a postage stamp in 1988 [col. AM]:

In 1998 Ferrocarriles de Cuba acquired eight electric cars second-hand from Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain. Number 405 below was built by Sarriá in Spain in 1944 and remodeled by the Barcelona company in 1979 [A. G. Piette, 22 April 1998]:

In 1999 the Hershey railway finally reached Havana. Ferrocarriles de Cuba began running some of its Hershey trains into the capital over the de-electrified tracks around the bay. Diesel locomotives towed electric cars to a platform at the foot of Calle Egido. The photo below shows a Hershey train under the elevated structure built by Havana Central Railroad in 1906 [see map]. The pantograph seems to be powering the train, but actually there is no wire [Earl W. Clark, 23 December 1999]:

Alas, due to a declining sugar market the Hershey sugar mill closed in July 2002, after 86 years of operation. The future of the railway is uncertain and many rail enthusiasts visited the line in the following months - perhaps for the last time. This photograph of car 501 and trailer was taken near Matanzas [Lee DeGolyer, 6 March 2003]:
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[jack]

The 2 peso question, where are the stations

You can use the Cuba Routes Interactive Map to get there Virtually

To reach Havana Casablanca station, take the ferry from across the harbour from the foot of Santa Clara Street in Havana old town. Once on the other side, Casablanca station (tel. 7/862-4888) is immediately west of the ferry dock, looking more like a tram stop than a conventional station, so just follow the overhead electric wires along the street.

In Matanzas, the Hershey railway station is about 2km from Matanzas mainline station, is located at Calle 67, in Reparto Versalles, just north of the Río Yumurí (tel. 52/7254).

Foreigners pay in convertible pesos, Havana to Hershey is about 1.50 pesos, Havana to Matanzas about 2.8 pesos (1 convertible peso = $1). Tickets go on sale 1 hour before departure

Maninseat61
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[azul]

Long, long time without using such train. But when I used to do it every week-end, it took 4 hours from Havana to Matanzas and more than 20 stops along the road (plus the usual breakdowns). So be patient and aware of these facts. From Havana to Matazans in a car it takes 1 hour. So, the idea I am sure Jack is presenting here is to enjoy it as a tour while it is cheaper than any other mean, I guess.

[cubano]

Good info Jack and Azul, i look forward using the train in April !
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[jack]

More Info on the Ferry

It costs only 10 cents (one way) and takes about 15 minutes to cross the Bahia de la Habana.

Once you enter the ferry terminal (Muelle Luz), the police will search your bags, then make sure you go into the right lane (Casablanca), as there are two destinations from here. You pay just before boarding.

There are no seats inside. Stand by the window as the sea breeze is very refreshing.

The terminal on Havana side is located south of the cruise ship terminal on San Pedro. (southeast of Plaza de San Francisco) It is in a separate building with no markings on it.

The terminal on Casablanca side is located right by the train station Estacion Casablanca.

VT
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[jack]

The Schedule

Origin Destination Departures Arrivals
Matanzas-Casablanca 04:15 07:41
Casablanca-Matanzas 14:10 07:38
Matanza-Casablanca 08:30 11:12
Casablanca-Matanzas 18:32 11:14
Matanza-Casablanca 12:30 15:41
Casablanca-Matanzas 12:30 15:41
Matanzas-Casablanca 16:23 19:49
Casablanca-Matanzas 16:22 19:48
Matanzas-Casablanca 21:00 00:11
Casablanca-Matanzas 21:00 00:10
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[mellisas]

that would be great....
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[jack]

¿Anybody around on Tuesday October 3rd would like to do the train?

(Contingent on my not having appointments that day )
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[mellisas]

sounds fabo..here is a bit about the hershey train for my favorite cuban mag...

The Hershey Train: A Rolling Museum

By Felipe Sarduy

Cubanow.- The only electric train in Cuba started rolling one day in 1921 and it continues to do so today on the same railway and operating system built by Milton J. Hershey for the sugar mill he owned to sweeten the chocolate that made him famous and made his fortune.

Mr. Hershey arrived in Havana in 1915. Four years later, his sugar factory milled for the first time. Located near the North coast, halfway between Havana and Matanzas, soon the name of the company, like that of its millionaire owner, began to be repeated among the people.

These were neighbors who lived along the North shore strip between slopes and valleys, and who up to then were practically isolated due to the lack of connecting transportation between the two most important cities in Western Cuba.

The Hershey train opened a way to progress in the area, and also established the shortest, though the slowest way between Casablanca, a town on the Eastern side of Havana harbor, and Matanzas, the so-called Athens of Cuba.

The American emporium had to produce something good that fed from laborers who had no other job option, subjected to the cycle of the "dead season" -the harvest was only three months long and the other nine months were workless for the majority of the laborers.

The influence of the so-called Chocolate Czar could not win, however, a law suit against United Railways of Havana, a British Company accusing him of repeating its established route, only a little to the North. So, the courts prohibited the Hershey train from using the central railway station. Passengers who preferred the Hershey train started their trips crossing the harbor on one of the boats that, even today, connect the opposite banks of the Havana harbor.

Along 90 kilometers, the electric train established an itinerary that included more than 50 stops -I have counted 56-, in each of the small towns and crossings that abound in the valleys of the Jibacoa and the Jaruco rivers, towards the East. The trip, some three hours long from the start to destination, is characterized by the crossing of steep landscapes, full of palm groves, and carpeted by habitually green vegetation; of particular interest is the Yumuri Valley, one of the most beautiful in Cuba, just out of Matanzas.

Until recently, several of the coaches used in the inauguration of the railway, very similar to the streetcars from the beginning of the 20th century, still circulated with their old fashioned, ancient aspect. Maybe one or two of them are still being used.

But the electric train remains the same, rocking and swinging like an elephant on the same rails, signaled with the same lights, connected to the same cables through the same trolley like a spider, but it has now become a museum artifact. And though Mr. Hershey almost immediately sold his sugar factory and his electric company, the name is still present in people's talk.

---Let's go catch the Hershey train -someone invites a fellow traveler, both stranded in a bus station.

---No, come on, it's too slow.

With an argument reinforced by 85 years of existence, the other man says: "Sure, it's slow, but it always arrives on time and it is very safe."
.

http://www.cubanow.net/global/loader.php?secc=5&cont=stories/num12/02.htm
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[mellisas]

BEAUTIFUL STORY ABOUT THE TREN BY EMAGICTMAN AT T.T.

emagicmtman
Posted: 17 Nov 2006
1:08pm
A Day on the Toonerville Trolley

Yes, you can go home again! Return to a kinder, glentler time when, instead of hopping on the Interstate, only to find yourself coming to a dead halt, then creeping forward, at a walking speed, for the next hour, you would step up onto the platform of a street railway car. These were the norm during the first half of the last century, before automobile manufactureres made sure most public funds were directed towards the Interstate system, rather than public transportation.

After a short ride on a passenger ferry across Havana Bay from the Muelle Luz wharf (near the Plaza San Francisco), then a hundred paces from the ferry to the Tren Hershey "terminal," for the first time since the early 1950's I found myself waiting for a street railway. Of course the schedule of the Tren Hershey had changed, a run cancelled, and I had to wait, but the two hours passed quickly, chatting with other passengers, having something to eat from the nearby snack bar, and reading my Lonely Planet Cuba Guide. Finally the tren arrived and disgorgedits passengers from Matanzas and points between. Before we could board, however, certain repairs had to be made. A grizzled worker with an adjustable wrench the size of a baseball bat climed on the roof of one of the cars, loosened a bolt or two, and repositioned one of those diamond-shaped, accordian-like doohickies which connect the train to the overhead high tension wires. Any second I expected to see a blue flash, followed by a loud "pop," and the worker being hurled off into eternity or, worse yet, frozen and fried on the high tension wires. Furtunately, he knew his job, was not careless, and the repair, having been made, were allowed to enter the cars. Though a few of the seats were of plush velvet (the originals from the 1920's, or their 1940's/50's replacements), most were the sterile plastic subway seats of the 1960's.

With the same sweet "tweet-tweet" of the whistle, like the Norristown Local leaving Philadelphia's Suburban Station in 1952, the Tren Hershey was off, through various industrial and prole districts of Greater Havana. Sooon, though, we were out in el campo, where the tren stopped not only at a series of dominuitive stations (several covered in Boganvillia Vines, with the building painted in bright pastels with lovingly cared for window boxes, but also at almost every dusty cross roads. Some, like Hershey, were genuine towns; others forgotten hamlets, still others were only deserted cross-roads where, like some Cuban Robert Johnson, some sonero might have sold his soul to the Devil in 1933 in exchange for some musical magic.

Both in the Casa Blanca "station" before the train's departure, and during the first leg of the three to four hour journey, we had to endjure an impromptu concert by a self styled "rapper." His performance was mostly directed at two thingy-aged girls who were definitely not interested in listening. After a while, some of the lyrics--I was unable to translate their contents--upset another passenger, who attempted to shut down the performance with a punch. Fortunately, before the situation could escalate, a cop intervened, and managed to calm things down without resorting to further violence, or arrest. Whether here in the States, or Cuba, good cops must be unflapable while, at the same time, knowing something about psychology and mediation. After he spoke (could he have said: "How about six months cutting cane in a rectification brigade?" or something) not a further peep was heard from either protagonist.

Mid-way through the trip the trem stopped at Camillo Cienfuegos, the former company town of the Hershey Chocolate Company. Since my Uncle Harlan had worked for Hershey for many years, during this 15-minute stop I jumped off the tren and took as many pictures as possible from the station and its immediate environs. The giant Camilllo Cienfuegos sugar mill is now abandoned and falling to ruin, like so many of the factories amongst the post-industrial towns along AMTRAK's Springfield, Massachusetts to New Haven, Connecticut, corridor. Still, the company had built their employees nice, if modest, houses during the 1920's through 1950's, and the residents still kept them up. The station itself was a treasure of early 20th Century railway architecture. Nearby, a motel rented rooms by the hour.

Crossing over into Matanzas Province, the geography became a bit more dramatic, with a high ridge to the south, burnt over hills to the north. After descending through a gorge or pass, the tren arrivd in Matanzas, where I found I had exactly two hours 'til the last train back to Havana departed. During those two hours I walked into town, took a turn around the Plaza de la Liberdad, had a light lunch at the Cafe Atenas, then literally ran back to the station with seconds to spare!

During this trip I took some of my best photos: a guajiro on horseback meeting his children who disembarked from the train, of several of those forgotten hamlets previously mentioned, of a gruesome-looking tree, like one depicted in the The Wizard of Oz standing out all alone in the middle of a canaveral, etc. I wish I could share them here with you. Alas! my photographic skills are distinctly low-tech. I was only able to use my 14-year old daughter's 35 mm camera, plus several dozen thingy store "throw-aways." You'll just have to use your imagination. As always is the case in taking trains, you see the back yards, rather than the public faces, of towns and villages. In Cuba you have the added advantage of going at 30, rather than 80, m.p.h.

On my return trip I met Ivan, a criminal defense attorney. I first observed him pouring over a legal brief. Soon, we were talking about ancient Greek and Roman law (I'm not a lawyer, but have read deeply of history). Soon we were talking of religion and philosophy, literature and films and music. We talked all the way back to Casa Blanca, then on the ferry, and finally at the street side bar of my hotel, the Ambos Mundos. He invited me the following evening to his home in Vibora Park. At 6:00 p.m. I arrived by my usual mode of transport (coco-taxi) and, for the next seven hours, while polishing off several bottles of Havana Club, which I had brought as a gift, plus the local stuff, which he brought out, Ivan, his aunt and uncle, nephew, grandmother, and assorted neighbors and I discussed our memories and experiences during the last four or five decades. With each additional glass of rum my fluency in Spanish seemed to increase. I was unworried by fears of using the wrong tense, the wrong person, and such other trifles. Still, I managed to understand them, while also being understood by my hosts.

Alas! I digtress. To return to the Tren Hershey, about ten minutes before Camillo Cienfuegos, nee Hershey, on the return trip, the tren halted in the midst of the canaveral and the mechanic once again had to climb to the roof of a car to make a repair. After a half-hour of banging and clanging, clonking and bonking, we were again on our way. This gave Ivan extra time to tell me stories of the clients he defended. They were the usual stories of love--or at least lust--betrayed, with machete-weilding responses. As the crooner sings at the beginning of Yo Soy Cuba, it was the result of "Amor Loco, Amor Loco Loco Loco!" It was all so depressing. Still, our morbid curiosity is piqued, just as wee sneak a peek at the latest supermarket tabloid while waiting in the check-out line. It is our lower, base instincts, against which we must ever fight, like McTeague in Frank Norris's novel of the same name.

Hence, for those who would like an unusual and memorable experience, I recommend a day on the Tren Hershey betwixt Habana and Matanzas. Thanks, Yorgos, for suggesting this last Spring!

emagicmtman
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[JasonGawker]

Hey,

There's actually a very interesting story behind that train. It's built with great passion, astute engineering wisdom, and care. I took it a few times, and it was always a joyful ride. I'd like to recommend this book to anyone who's psyched about these Cuba trains as me, as it's the best most informative and fun piece written in that subject.

Jason