Last train to San Fernando but was it?

Writer Nasser Khan has been reflecting on significant events in T&T’s history, captured through the artform of the calypso. In the fifth of his series History Through Calypso, Khan highlights the era of the train as a mode of passenger transportation in T&T. 

 

Khan has chosen Last Train to San Fernando, composed by the Mighty Spitfire in the 1940’s, sung in 1950 by the Mighty Dictator (Kenny St. Bernard) and later popularized by American singer Johnny Duncan (1957) and calypsonian Duke of Iron (Cecil Anderson) in the 1960’s.

 

But wait! The last passenger train to San Fernando actually made that journey at 5.12 pm, to be exact, on August 30 1965, some 47 years ago. Suffice it to say that this calypso (written many years earlier) in fact had nothing to do with a last trip to the south land but in fact was about a woman named Dorothy having a last fling before her marriage the next day. 

 

In the calypso there are warnings that if she does not catch the last train to San Fernando she would be stuck and not be able to get another one, and her marriage the next day would be in jeopardy. There is absolutely nothing about a train line coming to an end in the calypso, but a myth has grown and has become part of Trini folklore.

 

It was after three decades of effort that a passenger railway system was finally on track. August of 1876 marked the real start of the passenger railway system in Trinidad that saw Port of Spain linked to San Juan, St Joseph and Arima.

 

With the east-west corridor covered, it was onto Couva by 1880, to serve the sugar planters in that region, and then in 1882, southwards to San Fernando. The west coast was now being serviced followed in 1884, by a line from San Fernando to Princes Town. Travel to hitherto far off places was finally affordable and available.

 

Meanwhile, the cocoa planters, like their central sugar-growing counterparts, were agitating for extensions from Arima to Guanapo and Sangre Grande, which were granted in 1896 and 1897 respectively.

 

The next phase of the railway system, in 1898, saw the tracks branching off the southern line, from Cunupia Farm (Jerningham Junction), through the Caparo Valley and onto Tabaquite.

 

So far so good with people, sugar and cocoa covered, but how about the black gold, oil? In 1913, with the oil industry starting to boom, the San Fernando line was extended through the oil regions to Siparia and by 1914, the cocoa planters were granted their wish of the railway heading to Rio Claro. Cocoa was indeed king before oil took over and hastened the industry’s decline.

 

With the advent of a vast increase in the number of cars in Trinidad and the improvement in the road system, the feeling was that the taking of a taxi was more prestigious that taking the train.

 

This, among other lingering reasons, such as ongoing financial losses along with the high cost of maintenance and modernisation, all spelled the beginning of the end of the passenger railway system. 

 

There were gradual closings of various sections of the routes, starting in 1953, but the very last train to San Fernando, was the service which departed from the Port of Spain railway station on August 30 1965 at 5.12 pm. The locomotive which hauled the last service train was TGR (Trinidad Government Railway) Canadian-built Engine No27. 

 

Subsequent to the “last train to San Fernando” in 1965, the passenger train system continued in the east-west corridor until the final section from Port of Spain to San Juan was closed on December 28 1968, 92 years since the system was first started back in 1876.

 

Last train to San Fernando

Last train to San Fernando

And if you miss this one

You’ll never get another one Is the last train to San Fernando

Yesterday I met with sweet Dorothy

She said, "Tomorrow I am joining in matrimony

And if you act right

You can take me out tonight

It is wine and dine and get back in time".

 

CHORUS/MUSIC

 

She said, "I am mentoring in high society

You must be careful about the place you are taking me

‘Cause if you slip, I'll slide

And I may never be a bride."

 

CHORUS MUSIC:  

 

Last train to San Fernando

Last train to San Fernando

And if you miss this one 

You’ll never get another one

Last train to San Fernando 

We went to a little place up on Sugar Hill 

It was terrific you should have seen the size of the bill

Well it was tough, rough

I really had to pelt a bluff

 

CHORUS MUSIC

 

Diplomatically, I asked Dorothy to dance

For on my mind I had nothing else but romance

I said to myself, "Boy you better beat this iron while it's hot."

 

CHORUS/MUSIC

 

• Sing along at either http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdkz-rZs3s0 or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMyNcMG7Ryk 

 

• Biography: Michael Anthony’s “First in Trinidad” and “Glimpses of Trinidad and Tobago”; Glen Beadon’s website http://www.galbeadon.com/