DID YOU KNOW that Jamaica, probably uniquely among the former British West Indies territories, once had a purely military railway - and, of all the most unlikely places, on the Palisadoes peninsula to the eastern side of Kingston Harbour.  This small railway system, approximately two miles long, ran from the most south westerly point of the peninsula, just beyond the seaward boundary of HMJS Cagway, headquarters of the present Jamaica Defence Force Coast Guard, past the then four coastal defence guns (two 9.2 inch and two 6 inch weapons) of the 1888 Victoria Battery.  It then passed to the east of the old Port Royal naval dockyard and its facilities.  Finally, it went over the old railway bridge, still visible beside the driving road into the town, and for the last half of its length out to Fort Rocky at Rocky Point.  Here there was also a very short spur line to a small pier on the harbour side of the Palisadoes.

At Fort Rocky the relatively contemporary fortifications, with their underground bunkers and ammunition stores still exist, little known even to most Kingstonians but virtually intact.  Until the end of the Second World War Fort Rocky housed five 6 inch coastal guns and was built just before the First World War, largely to replace the Victoria Battery which had been abandoned following the damage to its gunpits and mountings in the great 1907 earthquake.  Just after the beginning of the twentieth century this little known Kingston Harbour fortification had barracks accommodation for all of 82 officers and other ranks.

To judge by a post-earthquake photo postcard showing damage to the railway lines at Port Royal it appears that the system may have been as wide as standard gauge although the permanent way is clearly that of a light railway.  Traction was by steam locomotive.  The railway appears to have operated from about 1887 until probably the middle of the First World War.

One may well ask why a railway at all.  There was only a 'sandy track' along the Palisadoes with no driving road until 1936, and even then the stretch between Plumb Point Light house and Port Royal was still only of parochial road standard until well into the 1950s.  At first, cement and other construction material, the massive coastal guns themselves, and later their heavy ammunition had to be transported throughout the two mile span served by the railway.
 
As Mr S F Panning of the Jamaican Historical Society explained “the (railway) sleepers spread the weight out over a large area of ground, which allows a trolley or railroad to carry heavy loads.  The rails themselves offer low friction and a smooth ride especially when compared with a gravel road through dirt or mud.”  After the First World War the wider tyres and generally improved traction of the newer military trucks and possibly even the fully tracked bren gun carriers introduced to Jamaica because of the Second World War could have made lighter work of the loose, sandy terrain and carried the heavy supplies to Fort Rocky until its guns were finally removed following the end of World War II.

Nonetheless, with its quarter century of existence this unique little railway, all but forgotten, diligently puffed its way into the annals of Jamaica's military history.

Sources:    General Staff, the War Office (1905) 'Military Report and
                    General Information concerning the colony of Jamaica and
                    its Dependencies'

                    BUISSERET, David (1971) 'The Fortifications of Kingston’,
                    1655 - 1914

                    Jamaican Historical Society Bulletin, Vol. 11, No 1 (1998)                    'Evidence of a Light Railway at Port Royal'.

                    ibid., Vol. 11, No 2 (1998) (p.46, Notes (i))

                    NEEDHAM, Merrick (2002)

 

New bridge adjacent to the Old Railway Bridge