Railways in

Curaçao

Preserved locomotive and rolling stock at the Curaçao Mining Company

Curaçao is an island in the Caribbean and a constituent country of the Netherlands.

The first railway on the island opened in 1874, transporting phosphate from mines in Tafelberg to Fuikbaai on the southeastern coast.

In 1887 a horse drawn street tramway opened in Punda, the part of the capital Willemstad on the eastern side of Sint Annabaai. It had a U-shaped route about 2 km in length. In 1896, a tramway opened in Otrabanda on the opposite side of the bay, but it ceased operations within a few months.

The Punda line was rebuilt in 1911, regauged to metre gauge, and the horse drawn trams replaced by petrol engined ones. The line closed in 1920. Locomotives, some rolling stock and track are on display outside the property of the Curaçao Mining Company (Mijnmaatschappij Curaçao) and at the Curaçao museum.

© 2004-2020 Glyn Williams
Photo image by Thomas Kautzor from The International Steam Pages