Saint Kitts Scenic Railway is an 29 km long narrow gauge railway line along the coastline of the island of Saint Kitts, with a track gauge of 762 mm, promoted especially in the colonies of the British Empire during the second half of the 19th century. The original track was laid from 1912 to 1926, to deliver sugar cane from the plantations to the new centralised sugar mill in Basseterre. Now, the last railway in the West Indies provides a fascinating way for visitors to see the island from the comfort of modern passenger train cars and sightseeing buses.
The Railway hugs the Northeastern coastline where spectacular vistas of the ocean, surf, cliffs and lush vegetation surround you. The train rolls across tall steel bridges spanning deep "ghuts", or canyons, and winds through small villages and farms. Dark green rain forests are skirted by rippling fields of sugar cane, with the volcanic cone of Mount Liamuiga rising above the railway. The railway owns and operates three diesel-hydraulic locomotives of the PKP class Lyd2 by FAUR in Romania.
The 5 double-decked SKSR "Island Series" rail cars were designed by Colorado Railcar, and built in 2002 by Jeff Hamilton of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company in Washington state, USA. Hamilton designed and constructed a new type of double-decker carriage, of which the roof may be lifted hydraulically to provide unobstructed open-air seating at the top deck. These carriages are essentially a miniature full-dome rail car without the vista-dome glass, and with a canvas canopy roof instead.
About the stamp
The stamp is part of the definitive series Fruits, issued on October 17, 2007, and containing 11 stamps.
References
St. Kitts Scenic Railway - Wikipedia
St. Kitts Scenic Railway Tour - Official website
Sender: Denise
Sent from Basseterre (Saint Kitts / Saint Kitts and Nevis), on 04.04.2018
Photo: Mike Toy
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