The first tram that traveled our avenues and twisted streets was due to the initiative of an enthusiastic young man born in the bosom of the patriotic Camagüey emigration residing in the San Felipe commune of Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, in June 1871. It was Enrique J. Loynaz del Castillo, son of the Commander of the Liberation Army Enrique Loynaz y Arteaga and Juana del Castillo y Betancourt, who for the first time promoted before the City Council of the city of Puerto Príncipe, current city of Camagüey, the new Urban Railway project that he had had the opportunity to watch and learn of its advantages in New York City.
Loynaz del Castillo is well acquainted with the five structuring neighborhoods of the old town of Puerto Príncipe where his patriotic Creole would have taken root, by the way, in some of whose neighborhoods part of his family was scattered (surnames Betancourt, Caballero, Castillo …) , like in the surroundings of Santo Cristo street. So he would propose such a project knowing spaces where all kinds of establishments and places frequented by people from Camagüey were opened.
On April 23rd, 1893, the date on which the Council members had to submit to analysis his railway project, there were more than fifty commercial establishments in La Reina street, present-day Republic, as well as in the street del Comercio, current A. Maceo. Places in which people had in their homes establishments and merchant stores of Hispanic and Camagüey origin.
Added to this was the fact that churches and convents were erected in the places proposed for the tour, just as dozens of houses and other significant buildings were found in those surroundings, some in which prominent families of the colonial Puerto Príncipe would have lived; as in the Convento de La Merced Square and Soledad Street no. 5, in which Mr. Francisco de Borja Agramonte y Recio had built his two-story house with a mezzanine, who would pass on to his son the Faithful Executor Councilor Mr. Ignacio Francisco Agramonte y Sánchez-Pereira, and then the Councilor Mr. Tomás Pío Betancourt and Sánchez-Pereira.
Touring the city
The tram, in addition to connect the main neighborhoods of the city in a first stage, would move through the streets where the main pedestrian, commercial and service and market flows of the inhabitants passed, although for the work it was an essential technical requirement the patching of streets and their irregular leveling, the elimination of doorframes and ditches, among other improvements. The four sections contemplated had to exert some cultural influence on the profile of the historic urban landscape; what Enrique Loynaz had to take into account, knowing that in the city resided families that had a solid and prosperous economic position due to the economic activity of livestock and other businesses and that they could invest in the remodeling of the archaic homes of Camagüey through which the new means of transport would move.
Regarding the tramcars, his promoter pointed out that it was the Stephenson model of North American origin, open cars for countries with warm weather, with eight transverse seats, with a back and a mesh seat and “suitable for three people”. Thus from their seats they could enjoy the city’s architectural repertoire. “Elegant cars” that could be closed in the event of rain and with a capacity to transport 24 passengers comfortably arranged up to a maximum of 32.
The cars also contemplated the use of small and simple platforms for the trade of merchandise and provisions. Meanwhile, the rails would be narrow tracks of 30 “(inches) mounted on sturdy hardwood stringers raised above street level at 1”. The gauge was 1,435 mm. The traction would be done by means of a steam engine of 2 to 3 horsepower, of the H. K. Porter and Hno brand, of great efficiency.
The administration of the tram would be located in the two-story building marked with the no. 24 of San Francisco Street, home of the Loynaz-Arteaga family, although under general ownership of the Camagüey Electric Company. However, things did not work out as expected because the high price of steam engines, difficulties for their transfer to Cuba, high customs fees and technical malfunction of the machines, in addition to the excessive consumption of wood to make them work, ended by invalidating its use but giving rise to horse traction, making the journey slower.
According to the project, the first rails were to be placed on June 3rd, 1893 and the first section would begin to provide services on November 11th, 1894. The first route would be from the Railway Station, accessing Avellaneda Street to take by San Esteban and the Soledad Square. Later, on February 9th, 1895, the route was extended to Caridad Square, taking through Independencia Street and Libertad Avenue.
History determines
But with the arrival of the neocolonial Republic, Enrique Loynaz’s project would become obsolete due to the technological advances of greater efficiency and power in the field of urban railways. For this reason, on August 5th, 1905, the Camagüey Electric Company would present to the government the project for the exploitation of an electric tram that was to be imported from the United States. Knowing the purpose of which the President of the Republic Tomás Estrada Palma would be informed, the Cuban president would sign the presidential decree granting the company for sixty years the operation of the urban tram service destined for the city of Camagüey.
Subsequently, on March 3rd, 1906, the meeting between Canadian, North American and Cuban shareholders would be held to promote the creation of The Camagüey Tramway Company Limited, a corporation with headquarters in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, where the contract would be signed. The contract would state that said corporate entity had been created “[…] in accordance with the laws of that country (read United States of America) to build, buy, lease or otherwise acquire trams in the city of Camagüey and the surroundings of said city or in any other part of Cuba ”.
The section no. 3 of the contract established that the purpose of the signed agreement was to “assemble, maintain, and operate by electricity, horses, mules, or any other mechanical force, all the trams that at any time belong to said Company… The cars had to be built in Canada by the Rhodes Curry Co. industry of Nova Scotia or instead by the Montreal Street Railway of Quebec.
In short, the citizens would see the first electric cars roll through the old local streets, on April 1st, 1908. Months later, in December, the Camagüey Electric Company would order the Brill Company of Philadelphia, United States, to manufacture a 4-axle motorized platform tram (No. 9). Outside of Havana, this was the only known 8-wheeled tram in Cuba.
Then, in October 1918, the Canadian company would acquire six trams from the Brill factory in Philadelphia, cars that would have curved ends with a central door and a front door, with controls at each end, cars that would be very practical because most of the routes ended in a Y-turn. After this, on October 10th, 1921, the Garrido neighborhood route would be inaugurated. A year later, the Camagüey Power Plant would build three curved-side trams with a central door for the first time.
In 1926, the equipment of the urban trams of Camagüey would pass to the patrimony of the Havana Electric Railway, a company in operation until 1950. From then on, for two years, the Transportation Cooperative Society of Camagüey would take over the trams, while operating several routes of Bus, on the Vigía-Agramonte, Vigía-Granja, Vigía-Santa Cruz routes, among others.
Finally, on November 16th, 1938, North American and Canadian shareholders interested in modernizing the tram system on the island, decided to create the branch The Cuba Company, an entity from the city of Montgomery no. 83-85, State of New Jersey, Hudson County, United States, with initial capital of 2 million dollars distributed in 500 thousand in shares, for the establishment without time limit to build, own and operate railroads and trams operated by steam, electricity or any other driving force.
The cars would be properly prepared to reach speeds of up to 40 km / h, but the irregularities of our streets and the congestion of pedestrians and cars at certain times, would make the cars move at a slower speed. However, there would be many accidents, to which would be added the poor condition of some roads in certain sections.
One of these accidents took place in the small square located in La Caridad bridge when the driver of the tram coming from Libertad Square lost control and when he left the track, skidded into the electric wire pole located at the corner of La Plazuela store, causing the post to be demolished and damaging the balcony of the old “Casa del Vivac” converted into the El Sol de Cuba hotel, which would never regain its long balcony.
The electric tram in the City of the Waterpots remained in service until midnight on February 23th, 1952, despite the fact that the American company had left its equipment in total abandonment since the middle of the previous year.
Other peculiarities on the subject
It is important to highlight that the tram traveled through urban axes where several of the owners of traditional houses built in the colonial period had undertaken a process of demolition-reconstruction and spare parts to incorporate new designs in facades after eliminating the old eaves of strut or other of past stages, among others, wearing garlands, cartouches, padding, Catalan tiles, light balustrades and bars of various designs, a process carried out with the aim of highlighting the family home and the historic urban landscape, which would have an impact on the aesthetic enrichment of the traveler riding the tram.
Luckily, the streets began to receive general improvements with the placement of paving stones and sidewalks, a sewage system, installation of fire pumps and elements of urban furniture. In the same way, parks and squares were restored, which would contribute to raising the quality of life of the inhabitants and assuming greater citizen responsibility for the new aesthetic and formal values incorporated into the historic urban landscape. At the same time, on the Independencia, Maceo and República axes, a set of shops, hair salons and other establishments would be built, several of them made in hard aluminum marquetry, protected by awnings, glassware, canopies and marble. Worth mentioning are El Encanto, El Globo, La Ópera, The Ten Cent, La Quincallera and Darlins; while the Encanto, Casablanca, Alcázar cinemas were erected; and the brand new Drugstore and Pharmacy of Dr. Germán Álvarez Fuentes.
The foregoing would be accompanied by a lighting system, lighting advertisements on the road and all kinds of publicity. So that despite defects and virtues, the city would enter a new “developmentalist” era, disqualifying the criterion used by some that Camagüey was a “conservative city.”
A chronicle on the trams from Camagüey and Havana written by the National Poet Nicolás Guillén that he dedicated to his Venezuelan colleagues in Caracas highlighted: “You stood on a corner and everything consisted of waiting… Forty minutes later you were surprised by an unmistakable ringing. It was the tram! You would seat in your slow carriage, in your democratic car, and you could already sleep, sure of arriving in one piece at your destination ”.
Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García
