en Decauville railway Vig%C3%ADa Chico-Santa Cruz

Decauville railway
Vigía Chico-Santa Cruz
Decauville railway ; Vigía Chico-Santa Cruz
	Map
Technical
Line length	56.75 km (35.26 mi)
Track gauge	600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in)
Route map
Route map
	Legend

The Decauville railway Vigía Chico-Santa Cruz (Spanish Ferroaril Decauville de Vigía Chico) was a nearly 57 km (35 mi) long 600 mm (1 ft 11+5⁄8 in) gauge railway line, which was built during the Caste War of Yucatán at Santa Cruz (now Felipe Carrillo Puerto) in Mexico and operated from 1905 to 1932.

History

On 13 December 1901, the material for the railway was ordered in New Orleans. On 16 April 1902, a shipload of 250 tons^[which?] of narrow-gauge railway material was delivered to the General Vega Camp at the port of Vigía Chico. The track was officially opened on 4 September 1905.

Between 1905 and 1912, the Mayas carried out continuous harassment and attacks on the military railway. When General Ignacio A. Bravo (1837–1918) was expelled from Santa Cruz, the Mayas began to destroy the railway. In 1913, the governor of the territory, General Arturo Gracilazo Juárez, ordered its reconstruction.

In 1918, General Venustiano Carranza granted the Mayan leader Francisco May a license to use the narrow-gauge railway to transport natural rubber. On 1 February 1927, the President of the Republic Plutarco Elías Calles gave the order to rebuild the former military track. On 7 August 1929, General Francisco May again applied for the concession of the former military railway, which was approved by the government under revocation of the concession he had received from Calles. In 1932, when the production of natural rubber reached its low point, the railroad became meaningless.^[1]^[2]

Locomotives

There were initially three Decauville steam locomotives with 40 hp (30 kW) each, ten wagons each with 6 tons^[which?] each, 14 flat wagons with 3 tons each. The total cost of the equipment was $ 239,967.59. In addition, there were $ 8,622 for tools, the construction of the platforms and the leveling of the route.

Type	Manufacturer^[3]^[4]	N°/Year^[5]	Today's location^[4]
0-4-0T	Hainaut/Couillet, Decauville	166/1895	At the public library, Felipe Carrillo Puerto,19°34′41″N 88°02′33″W / 19.577946°N 88.042417°W / 19.577946; -88.042417 (Leihbücherei)
0-4-0T	Hainaut/Couillet, Decauville	167/1895
	Arnold Jung, 40 hp, delivered via Arthur Koppel	546/1902	At the lighthouse, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, 19°46′24″N 87°35′12″W / 19.773398°N 87.58679°W / 19.773398; -87.58679 (Leuchtturm)
	Arnold Jung, 40 hp, delivered via Arthur Koppel	547/1902
	Arnold Jung, 40 hp, delivered via Arthur Koppel	548/1902

References

^ Carlos Chable Mendoza: El ferrocaril militar de Santa Cruz. Archived 8 March 2019 at the Wayback Machine
^ Jennifer P. Mathews: Chicle: The Chewing Gum of the Americas, from the Ancient Maya to William Wrigley. University of Arizona Press, 2009.
^ Francisco Verdayes Ortiz: Quintana Roo ya tuvo su tren. Turquesa News, 9. Januar 2019.
^ ^a ^b "Surviving Steam Locomotives in Quintana Roo.". Archived from the original on 8 March 2019. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
^ Joaquín Salabert: “The locomotives of the Quintana Roo military railway were the Arnold Jung #546-548, 40hp, supplied via Arthur Koppel … and Decauville locomotives #166 and #167. The remains of one of them is at the Main Plaza of Carrillo Puerto at the public library. The remains of one of the Jung locomotives used to be at Vigía Chico aside the lighthouse. But checking recent photos it doesn't seem to be there anymore.”