Antigua and Barbuda is a country located in the Lesser Antilles archipelago. Currently, there are no railways in Antigua and Barbuda, but in the past there was an extensive narrow gauge railroad network on the island of Antigua.
The island of Antigua had a very long tradition of growing sugar cane. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was decided to combine a number of small sugar factories into two large plants and to build a sugar railway network along the sugar cane plantations.
The first sugar railway lines were built in 1903-1905. The lines were intended and used for transporting cut cane to both the Antigua Sugar Factory (Gunthorpes) and to the Bendals Sugar Factory, and for transporting sugar to the port.
In 1939 the total length of the network of these lines was approximately 80 kilometers.
At the turn of 1972 and 1973, the Antigua Sugar Factory was closed and the government decided that tourism became a priority. There were attempts to create a tourist train on the abandones lines, but due to the unprofitability of the line, a tourist train ended its operation in 1973.
There is only a little traces of the old railway lines – fragments of the tracks and steam locomotives displayed as exhibits in the Antigua and Barbuda Museum. Rails can be also seen repurposed as rusted fence posts. One of the steam locomotives was transported to Great Britain and until today run in Wales on the Welshpool and Llanfair Railway.
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