Transportation—Salvador Railway Company—Early construction—Gauge—Bridges—Locomotives—Rolling-stock—Personnel of railway—Steamship service—Extensions—Increasing popularity—Exchange, and influence on railway success—Importers versus planters—Financial conditions—Projected extensions—Geological survey—Mr. Minor C. Keith\'s Salvador concession.
The means of internal communication are perhaps more apparent and more systematically undertaken than in any of the smaller States, Salvador possessing at present over 100 miles of railway track and a number of excellent roads and bridges, which are being added to and improved continually. The only organized railway system at present is in the hands of a British company, the Salvador Railway Company, Ltd, and its relations with both the Government and the public are of the best.
The concession granted to the company was dated 1885, but it was four years later when a public issue was made—namely, in October, 1889. The concession is for a period of eighty years, dating from April, 1894; at the expiration of the period the railway and all its accessories become the property of the Salvadorean Government. In the meantime, however, it is open to the Government to buy up the existing railway in 1940 if it so desires, at a price to be agreed upon or fixed by valuation. The railway company enjoys protection from competition, and has also preferential[197] privileges (except as against the State) for constructing future extensions.
The road actually dates from the year 1882, when the first section, from the port of Acajutla to the town of Sonsonate, one of the most important in the Republic, and situated at about fifty miles\' distance from the capital, was opened for traffic. The distance was 20 kilometres, or, say, 121?2 miles, the next section to be finished being that from Sonsonate to Armenia, a further distance of 261?4 kilometres, or 161?2 miles, thus bringing up the constructed line to 461?4 kilometres by the end of September, 1884.
From then onwards the rate of construction was as follows: From Armenia to Amate Marin, 61?2 kilometres, or 4 miles, opened for traffic September, 1886; from Amate Marin to Ateos, 31?4 kilometres, or 2 miles, January, 1887; from Ateos to La Ceiba, and which forms a branch ending at this town, a distance of 10 kilometres, or 61?4 miles, March, 1890; from Ateos to La Joya, a distance of 22 kilometres, or 131?2 miles, opened to traffic on September 15, 1895; and from La Joya to Santa Ana—a very important town of some 33,000 inhabitants—a distance of 29 kilometres, or 18 miles, opened in November, 1896.
From Santa Ana, which is another terminal point, the railway receives a valuable freight in the form of agricultural produce, such as coffee, sugar, tobacco, and various kinds of grain.
A continuation of the line was then made to the capital, San Salvador, the extension from Sitio-del-Ni?o to Nejapa, one of 18 kilometres, or, say, 11 miles, being opened for traffic in February, 1898; while the last section, between Nejapa and San Salvador, a distance of 20 kilometres, or 121?2 miles, was completed[198] by the month of March, 1900. The total distance of the track is, therefore, 155 kilometres, or 961?4 miles, exclusive of sidings. There are some eighteen stations, including the terminals at Acajutla, Santa Ana, and San Salvador; while the buildings, both here and at Sonsonate, Sitio-del-Ni?o, and Quezaltepeque, are well built and efficient structures in every way.
The gauge of the track is 3 feet, and the maximum gradient one of 3·75 per cent. The minimum curve radius is 359 feet 3 inches. The interesting engineering features of the line are many, and these are found for the most part upon the Santa Ana section, between that town and Sitio-del-Ni?o. There are forty-one bridges, consisting of through-truss, plate-girder, and rolled "I" beams. These run from 20 to 14 feet span, the makers who have supplied them including German, Belgian, British, and American contractors. The principal bridges are as follows:
Span. Made by ——
At Kilometre 78·700 Deck-plate girder bridge 56 ft. Aug. Lecoq, Hal, Belgium.
At Kilometre 82·600 Through-span girder bridge 78 ft. Harkort, Duisberg, Germany.
At Kilometre 98·500 Through-span girder bridge 70 ft. San Francisco Bridge Company.
At Kilometre 188·700 Through-deck girder bridge 140 ft. Atliérs de Construction, A. Lecoq, Hal, Belgium.
At Kilometre 191·700 Through-deck girder bridge 140 ft. Atliérs de Construction, A. Lecoq, Hal, Belgium.
There are a number of culverts, over sixty-six being of some importance, besides several of minor interest, of 3 feet and under. The road is exceedingly well ballasted from beginning to end, and is maintained in an altogether efficient manner of repair and orderliness.
map
SALVADOR RAILWAY
TO ACCOMPANY
SALVADOR OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY BY
PERCY F. MARTIN, F.R.G.S.
[199]
In regard to the rolling-stock, this is equally well equipped and maintained, the greatest care being taken by the management to see that every car that is sent out is in a thoroughly sound state of repair and cleanliness. There are in all eleven locomotives, of which the following details will be of interest:
Cylinder. Driving Wheels. Weight.
No. Makers.
Diameter. Stroke. Pairs. Inches. Tons.
1 Prescott, Scott and Co., San Francisco 12 in. 16 in. 2 38 17·50
2 Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia 15 in. 20 in. 4 38 25·00
3 " " 15 in. 20 in. 4 38 25·00
4 " " 15 in. 20 in. 4 38 25·00
5 Cooke, Patterson and Co., New Jersey 16 in. 20 in. 4 38 30·35
6 Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia 17 in. 20 in. 3 42 36·74
7 " " 17 in. 20 in. 3 42 36·74
8 " " 17 in. 20 in. 3 42 36·74
9 " " 16 in. 20 in. 3 42 32·40
10 " " 16 in. 20 in. 3 42 32·40
11 " " 16 in. 20 in. 3 42 32·40
In addition to the above, two other engines of precisely similar make have lately been delivered to the Company by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, U.S.A. It is explained that the native engine-drivers are now accustomed to these engines, which are to be found in use upon almost the whole of the South and Central American railways.
The rolling-stock on the Salvador Railway is maintained in the same efficient order as are the stations and permanent way. It consists of some twenty-three passenger coaches as follows: Eight of first class, light but strong carriages, suitable for a tropical country and fitted with wide seats upholstered in rattan; one[200] second class, only a trifle less expensively upholstered, but in no wise less airy or comfortable; and four brake and luggage vans. Of goods-waggons there are 161—namely, 1 workmen\'s car, 5 cattle cars, 95 covered-goods and 60 platform cars. These cars are mostly the manufacture of the Lancaster Carriage and Waggon Company, Ltd., of Lancaster, and the Allison Manufacturing Company, of Philadelphia, U.S.A. The company have recently erected some ten box waggons at the well-fitted railway shops at Sonsonate, where every appliance and the newest equipment of machinery are to be found. The passenger coaches are also partly of British and partly of American construction, the Lancaster Carriage and Waggon Company, Ltd., and the Harlan, Hollingsworth Company, of Philadelphia, being responsible for this part of the equipment.
In the month of April last a change took place in the general management of the Salvador Railway, when Mr. C. T. S. Spencer, the newly-appointed chief, proceeding to his post via Mexico City and Salina Cruz. Mr. Spencer served his pupilage with the London and South-Western Railway, mainly on the North Devon and Cornish branches. When out of his articles, he accepted an appointment as District Engineer on the Abbotsbury Railway, near Dorset, which line is now a part of the Great Western Railway system. In 1886 Mr. Spencer went out to Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), as District Engineer on the Brazil Great Southern Railway, and subsequently rose to the position of Chief Constructing Engineer. On this line he built the Ibicúy Bridge, which still ranks as the largest bridge in Brazil, being over a mile long, with some 70-metre spans resting on cylinders sunk by the pneumatic process, which at that time was in its infancy.[201] When the line was completed, Mr. Spencer surveyed an extension running into some hundreds of kilometres, and passing through the beautiful district of Missiones.
Mr. Spencer, still a young man, then went to Salvador, and in 1889 he surveyed the La Unión-San Miguel line. This railway was partly constructed by the Government, and its completion to San Miguel is now being pushed forward. In 1892 Mr. Spencer went to Colombia as General Manager of the Antioquia Railway, which commission he held until the Government attempted to cancel the concession without paying any indemnity to the company. He afterwards went to Angola, and drew up the plans for a large railway scheme from the coast inwards; a part of this line has since been built.
Upon returning to London, Mr. Spencer accepted the post of Consulting Engineer to a railway-constructing syndicate in the City, and a few years ago he was elected to a seat on the Board of the Salvador Railway. Mr. Spencer visited the Republic in 1908, and on his return pointed out to the Chairman that, owing to the opening of the Tehuantepec Railway, a special steamer service connecting up Acajutla with Salina Cruz would probably prove a paying concern. Mr. Mark J. Kelly, the able and experienced Chairman of this railway, with his customary quickness of perception, combined with his own not inconsiderable experience of the Republic of Salvador, of which for fifteen years he had acted as Consul-General in England, at once fell in with the idea, and the steamship Salvador was the result.
Mr. Spencer is an Associate Member of the Institute of Civil Engineers, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. While it is a subject of regret that[202] Mr. Charles Stewart, late Manager of the Salvador Railway, was compelled to abandon his post owing to ill-health, the shareholders of the railway may be unreservedly congratulated upon obtaining the services of so able and experienced an engineer as Mr. Spencer.
Mr. John White Hinds, Chief Engineer of the Salvador Railway Company, started in his profession at the age of fifteen, and was for over a year in the shops of the Great Western Railway at Swindon. He then remained for four years as a pupil with Mr. W. H. Lancashire, C.E., of Sheffield. Three years were passed in London studying, when Mr. Hinds went to America, and entered the shops of the Chicago and North-Western Railroad. He has also seen service in Chile, Peru, Guatemala and Salvador. In this latter Republic, Mr. Hinds has acted as chief of the party of engineers on final surveys of the Santa Ana branch of the Salvador Railway, while he also went to La Unión, the largest of the Salvadorean ports, to construct the railway from La Unión to San Miguel for the Salvador Government. The line was only constructed to the extent of ten miles or so, when a revolution broke out and the work was abandoned. Since then—namely, in 1894—Mr. Hinds has been engaged upon the Guatemala Northern Railway as Surveyor, and helped in the construction of that portion of the line to the City. Mr. Hinds likewise completed surveys to the town of Zacapa, on the same railway, and assisted in the construction work between Puerto Barrios and Zacapa. Latterly Mr. Hinds has been exclusively engaged upon the Salvador Railway, of which he has been the Resident Engineer since 1903, and Permanent Way Engineer since 1906.
One of the contractors who were connected with the[203] railway in the early days was Mr. Albert J. Scherzer, and it is interesting to note that his nephew, Mr. George Scherzer Walsh, a young and clever railway engineer, was also connected with the company. Mr. Walsh accompanied Mr. M. J. Kelly and Mr. George Todd Symons (the senior partner of G. T. Symons and Co., of 4, Lloyd\'s Avenue, E.C.) to Salvador in the spring of 1910, upon matters relating to the extension of the company\'s track and the appointment of agents for the steamship service. Mr. Walsh did some good and useful work as technical adviser on the ground, but, unfortunately, in the end his services proved unfruitful, owing to the selfish and senseless opposition offered to the company\'s contemplated extensions upon the part of the American Syndicate, who hold a railway concession from the Salvadorean Government to build new lines within this zone. At the time that the American group protested—and protested, as it seems, successfully—against any further construction work being undertaken by the Salvador Railway Company, they had done absolutely nothing themselves, and had not even presented the preliminary plans to the Government. As will be seen, however, they have at last made an attempt to commence work of some kind; but my latest advices point to the fact that successful completion is still far from being even within sight.
The property owned by the Salvador Railway Company, as has been shown above, is an extensive and increasingly valuable one. It embraces something like 100 miles of track, with its own telegraph and telephone services; a long and well-built iron pier, located at the Port of Acajutla, and which cost no less than $1,000,000 to erect; as well as warehouses and[204] a fleet of tugs and barges for the prompt and efficient handling of the cargo.
Upon all sides one hears the services rendered by this company spoken of in a manner altogether flattering to the management; and it may be said in truth that in no other Republic of South or Central America can one come across a wider consensus of opinion favourable to a foreign-managed railway undertaking than in the case of the Salvador Railway.
To the not inconsiderable assets above mentioned, the railway has added a fleet of steamships to carry cargo between Acajutla, its own port terminal, and Salina Cruz (Mexico), the Pacific terminus of the Tehuantepec Interoceanic Railway. It is worthy of note that both of these railways are managed by British corporations, a matter of no small importance in view of the strenuous efforts of North American interests to secure complete control over the transport arrangements in this part of the world.
The Salvador Railway\'s first steamer, the Salvador, is a neat, trim, and well-built vessel of some 1,200 tons, out of the yards of Messrs. Swan and Hunter, of Newcastle-on-Tyne. It is fully equipped with all the latest appliances for the quick and efficient handling of cargo, while its passenger accommodation is of a commodious and comfortable character. This handsome vessel has for some time been firmly established as a favourite with the importers and exporters of the Republic of Salvador, who now, for the first time in their experience, are enjoying the advantages of rapid and reliable communication with Europe and the United States of America, with punctuality in regard to dates of arrival and departure each week. As a matter of fact, this service now effects in about two[205] weeks, what could not be previously done in less than one month. The appreciation by the public of these advantages is sufficiently displayed in the circumstance that the S.S. Salvador carries something like three-fourths of the imports and exports of the country, to the great disappointment, and even dismay, of the older lines. Other similar vessels are being built for the Company by Messrs. Swan and Hunter.
The company has in view the rendering the same services to the other Salvadorean ports as that now offered to Acajutla and the Mexican port of Salina Cruz. An important local trade between Mexico and Salvador, to the mutual advantages of both, is now being built up, thanks to the initiative of the Salvador Railway Company in establishing this steamship service.
How successful the company\'s fleet has proved is best seen from some observations which were made by the Chairman at the last annual meeting of the proprietors, December 13, 1910, and in which he st............