St. Maarten RAILROAD
 

The SMRR ( St. Maarten Railroad ) started in 1928 as a freight carrier for harvested salt from the Great Salt Pond to the Philipsburg and Marigot Ports for export shipment worldwide.  The railroad was bankrupt in 1967 when salt harvesting stopped on the northern French side. The Dutch side had previously ceased operations in 1949.

The P&D Railroad is a Tourist Line established on the Caribbean Island of St. Maarten in 2012. With one track we will circle the St. Maarten Salt Pond with seven stops.

 

P&D Railroad "Salt Pond Route" - Station No. Stops

1 Philipsburg Bobby's Marina
2 Philipsburg Town Pier/shopping
3 Philipsburg Great Bay
4 Mary's Fancy
5 Madame's Estate
6 Over the Pond
7 Guana Bay

We are going to start operating with one 40-ton switcher and three passenger cars. As a large part of our tourists come from the New York - Pennsylvania area we will run a NJ Central RR "Comet" car, a LIRR Double Decker and a Pennsylvania RR parlor/observation car.  We are working on obtaining a GG1. As we do not have overhead wiring the plan is to install a diesel generator to power the traction motors. Once the GG1 is operational, we will use the switcher to pull fright cars and will expand the route to include a siding.

The average distance between each stop is 1 ½ miles to 2 miles apart. At a speed of 15 miles per hour we figure 15 minutes between stops, thus the entire Salt Pond Route will be a 90- minute ride.

As we are interested in reading, trains and history we acquired the abandoned St. Maarten Railroad, reporting mark SMRR to label rolling stock.

Player Development sits on top of the old SMRR rail yard. We are in the process of restoring some of the yard, as the tracks were never ripped up just covered with sand from the harbor dredging project.  Once the track is uncovered, we want to restart the salt water evaporating plant and have the school vocational program run the salt production. They will be able to sell salt products to the tourists and run their own export business.

 MOW Dept. Riley returns newly acquired SMRR hopper
to the rails carrying its first salt load. 

ACTIVITIES

Riley hunts for GG-1 horns