Tramcars began carrying passengers along the first four miles of the line, from San Fernando to Sainte Madeleine, on 5 March 1859. Steam locomotives replaced the animals and pulled the cars to Princes Town by 1864.
The first railway on Trinidad island was a horse drawn line called the Cipero Tramway, which was built in the 1840s by a Scottish planter named William Eccles to transport produce from his sugar plantation to the wharf at San Fernando, 30 miles south of Port of Spain.
Tramcars began carrying passengers along the first four miles of the line, from San Fernando to Sainte Madeleine, on 5 March 1859. Steam locomotives replaced the animals and pulled the cars to Princes Town by 1864. San Fernando and Port of Spain were not connected by railroad until 1882.
The Cipero Tramway was eventually absorbed by the Trinidad Government Railways system, which operated until 1968. TGR’s last locomotive is displayed today on Harris Promenade in San Fernando.
