Currently, there are no railways in Curaçao. In the past, horse drawn trams ran in the capital – Willemstad, and for some time there was also an industrial railway line.
The first horse drawn tram line was put into operation in 1887. The 2-kilometer-long line was built in the shape of the letter U and allowed passage along the eastern part of the city, known as Punda (the eastern and western parts of Willemstad are divided by St. Anne’s Bay).
On June 1, 1896, the second 1-kilometer-long horse drawn tram line was launched in the western part of Willemstad (Otrabanda). The line was operated by Curaçaosche Paarden Spoorweg Maatschappij and after a few seven months, in December of the same year, it was closed.
At the beginning of the 20th century, a decision was made to replace horse-drawn trams with petrol-engined ones. In March 1909, the Curaçaoschen Tramwegdienst company received permission to build a new tram line and import trams. Trams appeared on the streets of Willemstad in September 1911. The line was closed in 1920.
The industrial railway had been operating in Curaçao since 1874 and was used to transport phosphate from the top of Tafelberg Hill to Fuikbaai at the New Port. According to the website internationalsteam.co.uk, it was more like a funicular railway in which the wagons were pulled up the hill by donkeys. The railway was closed in 1887.
The industrial railway reopened in 1910. It was probably a partially new line, approximately 9 km long. Initially the wagons were pulled by donkeys, but in the 1930s donkeys were replaced by diesel locomotives. The railway operated until the mid-1970s. Two diesel locomotives and several wagons have survived to this day.
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