I have just finished reading a book about the railways of Jamaica which prompted a little research on-line. Jamaica still intends to reopen its railways system.

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2020/10/08/th ... of-jamaica

Another visit to the railways of Jamaica, courtesy, this time, of H.G. Forsythe in the September 1963 edition of the Railway Magazine. .....

https://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/05/28/t ... aica-again

I have been reading historic copies of the Railway Magazine again. This time it was a bound copy of the magazines from 1963. ........ I came across an article about the Railways of Jamaica in the September 1963 edition which was written by H. G. Forsythe.

What i'd give for a day cataloguing what's left in Kingston. A woman can dream.

Jamaica itself has have one of the least documented railway systems in North America, even being beaten out by the Cuban rail system.

In addition to the GE 44T described in the second article, JRC operated (allegedly) a fleet of RS-3s, in addition to the concrete, documented and still (arguably) existing diesel fleet of Alco RS-8s (A standard export design, also seen throughout South America, Australia and some of Europe), some later-model Alstom Outre Mer exports and finally the initial fleet of English Electric exports (standard models similar to many seen in Oceania.)

An RS-8, Alstom, and EE are arguably preserved at Kingston Main Station - missing many parts, but covered from the elements and thieves, apparently. Several RS-8s are still on lease to a bauxite operation near Spanish Town, and some are stored serviceable after the second cessation of rail service.

A few Alstoms were listed as stored serviceable on a recent RFP for a possible tourist operation.


If anyone has any more info or books recommended, please contact me.

The only book I'm aware of is the one that was mentioned in the first post - "The Railways of Jamaica" by Jim Horsford, which was published in the UK by Locomotives International back in 2010. The ISBN Number is 978-1-900340-20-5
I bought a copy of it a few years back and includes a complete listing of the Jamaican Government Railway locomotive fleet. Of course, that doesn't include the various mining companies that have their own locomotives which would presumably be enough for the subject of a book on their own.
There isn't a lot of information on the Internet either, but did find some fairly old films on YouTube in the past, but it takes a bit of searching to find them!

Certainly a Country I would like to visit, but I don't rate the chances of that somehow....

This was posted on YouTube back in May this year....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYI99wfBfHo&t=11s
Doesn't really add a vast amount of information, but the drone(?) footage does show a train on one of the Bauxite lines and a view of one of the plants with a couple of locos and some rolling stock visible.

There is also this one from 2018 which is filmed inside the terminus at Kingston which provides some glimpses of items "preserved" within the train shed area....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAE7K4yBZZA&t=1s
A steam loco features more prominently, but one of the English Electric diesels is also visible in a couple of segments.

I just spotted this one on the Noranda Bauxite operations - posted in May 2021 - as well. A quick scan appears to show more rail views, though I haven't watched it properly yet....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ1iy4x1olk

Thank you!