Best Docus on YouTube: By train through the Caribbean | DW Documentary

What to watch? Free and full-length documentaries on YouTube from original sources like the BBC, ABC News, Vice, ARTE and Netflix. Best docus on YouTube. Free docus. Full-length from original and truthworthy sources.

❮❮ back to overview

Source: DW Documentary, 2024-07-28 16:00

By train through the Caribbean | DW Documentary

  • Language: EN
  • Views: 82293
  • Likes: 1549
  • Duration: 25:56

View on Youtube ❯❯

St. Kitts has one of the few still-functioning sugar cane railway lines in the Caribbean, running along almost 30 kilometers of coastline. A pair of islands in the Lesser Antilles, St. Kitts and Nevis is one of the smallest nations in the world.

This makes it all the more astonishing that St. Kitts has a railway line at all. The narrow-gauge track was built by local plantation owners between 1912 and 1926 to transport sugar cane to the factory in Basseterre. But eventually, Caribbean sugar cane lost ground to European sugar beet. Freight transport was discontinued, then seamlessly replaced by the St. Kitts Scenic Railway. The American railway owners relied primarily on business from cruise ship passengers. They purchased and installed powerful locomotives that had once transported sugar beet in Poland.

Today, these locomotives pull double-decker carriages that provide an unobstructed view of the sea and mountains. The locomotives from the sugar cane era have fallen into disrepair, just like the old factory. A decline accelerated by the high humidity here. Today, only the No. 15 Hunslet locomotive is still in running order. The engine driver uses it for maintenance on the tracks and four long bridges. He loves to recall the time when, as the most powerful locomotive in the fleet, it could pull numerous wagons laden with sugar cane.

We retrace the tracks of the old sugar cane railway and experience an adventure or two with the railwaymen of the St. Kitts Scenic Railway.

#documentary #dwdocumentary #train
______

DW Documentary gives you knowledge beyond the headlines. Watch top documentaries from German broadcasters and international production companies. Meet intriguing people, travel to distant lands, get a look behind the complexities of daily life and build a deeper understanding of current affairs and global events. Subscribe and explore the world around you with DW Documentary.

Subscribe to:
⮞ DW Documentary (English): https://www.youtube.com/dwdocumentary
⮞ DW Documental (Spanish): https://www.youtube.com/dwdocumental
⮞ DW Documentary وثائقية دي دبليو (Arabic): https://www.youtube.com/dwdocarabia
⮞ DW Doku (German): https://www.youtube.com/dwdoku
⮞ DW Documentary हिन्दी (Hindi): https://www.youtube.com/dwdochindi

For more visit: http://www.dw.com/en/tv/docfilm/s-3610
Follow DW Documentary on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwdocumentary/
Follow DW Documental on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dwdocumental

We kindly ask viewers to read and stick to the DW netiquette policy on our channel: https://p.dw.com/p/MF1G

❮❮ back to overview