High Street, San Fernando, Trinidad, 1969

 

GOLCONDA LEVEL CROSSING, SOUTH TRINIDAD 1990, CARONI LOCOMOTIVE D6 RUNS OVER THE CIPERO ROAD AS I CAPTURE THE ACTION FROM THE STEPS OF THE FORMER SIGNAL BOX

In the late 1980s I spent many happy days filming and photographing the cane haulage operations of the railway at Usine Ste Madeleine. 

The railwaymen soon came to know me and I was always made to feel very welcome while taking photograph of recording video. 

I must have over two hours of video recorded in 1990, just before I left for England. This Locomotive is No D6 built in 1956 by the Hunslet Engine Company of Leeds, England.

I first posted many of my Caroni railway images over a decade ago in my album “Images of a Lost Railway, Trinidad W.I.” however, since the images have been lifted and re posted by others without credit of context, I decided to remove the album and re post each with appropriate watermarks and updated information. Over the years I have been able to learn much more about the railways of Trinidad so thought that it was a good time to update the information for those who appreciate such detail.

This is a still image taken from one of my video recordings, hence the poor quality. Here we see locomotive D6 (Hunslet# 5131 of 1956) running “light engine” (railway term for engine only, no train behind) towards the “Valley Line” over the level crossing at Golconda. 

The loco is beginning to pick up speed as it is about to climb up “Cutting Hill” which got its name because it quite simply a cutting at the top of a hill. I also have a few photographs taken of trains at the summit.

This shot was taken from the ex-Trinidad Government Railway (TGR) signal box at Golconda where I spent many happy times watching trains running to and from Sainte Madeleine. The box contained a large wheel built by Messrs Tyer and Co of London & Carlisle who supplied the TGR with all signalling equipment. This wheel controlled the raising and lowering of the crossing gates. The signal Box at Golconda contained a 12-lever frame which at one time operated signalling and point work in this area. Golconda was once a very important junction between Siparia bound trains and Ste. Madeleine bound trains.

It should be noted that all trains to Ste Madeleine ran “bonnet first” or “boiler first” (if steam) with full wagon loads of cane towards the factory and “Cab First” with empty stock back towards the fields.

In my book, ‘The Railways of Trinidad’, there is a photograph on the top of page 60 showing locomotive No.8 ‘KITCHENER’ pulling away, “boiler first”, from Golconda signal box in the early 50s.  In this photo one can appreciate the original timber crossing gates and magnificent bracket signals which once graces this junction where the Trinidad Government Railway (TGR) was once joined by the Ste Madeleine estate railway network.

In this scene, D6 is running “light engine” to Monkey Town sidings where it will meet a heavy train bringing 20 fully loaded wagons up from Barrackpore. At Monkey town, at a place known as “The Cutting” the load will be split into two trains of ten wagons each in order to negotiate the heavy gradients just south of Golconda. The 204 hp Hunslet locomotives were ideal for hauling these loads in this heavily graded section of railway. In TGR days, the larger 21 Class locomotives were used to carry heavy passenger trains over this section and on to Siparia and Penal. It must have been a fine sight indeed, that of these locomotives working hard over the gradients. What a sound it must have been to hear the heavy TGR trains as they began to charge the gradient. 

Goldonda was a very important signal box back in the day and was one of seven new boxes built south of San Fernando when the Cipero Tramway was taken over by the Government on 1913.

The level crossing at Golconda, the signal box and the railway activity there are now a part of the Trinidad we once Knew.

Glen Beadon 20 January 2023

 

TEXACO ADMINISTRATION BUILDING - POINTE-A-PIERRE, SOUTH TRINIDAD circa 1961.

This photograph was in my late grandmother's collection.

Originally, I had no idea who the photographer was or when it was taken. Since that time following extensive research and through a process of elimination, I now believe that this photograph was taken by M. E. Zaiffdeen, official photographer for Trinidad Leaseholds Limited and later Texaco Trinidad. I have credited the photograph accordingly in this post.

Mr M.E. Zaiffdeen worked closely with Anthony (Tony) Davenport who was the editor of the company magazine. During the period of Trinidad Leaseholds Limited the magazine was called ‘Regent News’ and during Texaco, after 1956, it became two different publications ‘Texaco Star’ and ‘Texaco Caribbean’.
Incidentally, Tony Davenport was a close relative of my wife.

This is my third such post about the old TEXACO administration building. Since my first post I have had several very interesting pieces of information from many people which I will now incorporate into this post.

Trinidad Leaseholds' Limited (TLL) was taken over by Texaco in 1956 and according to Geoffrey MacLean, the "Administration Building" was opened in 1959, which made it 64 years old in 2023.

It has been widely reported in history that the name Pointe-a-Pierre is derived from the Spanish who named the area “Punta de Piedras” (Point of stones). The area would eventually become settled by a series of sugar plantations and several estates established themselves along the coast and the Guaracara river.

The area had its own tramways before the arrival of the Trinidad Government Railway (TGR) in 1882, the most notable being the Guaracara Tramway which was eventually purchased by the Government in 1879 for the expansion of the TGR into Princes Town in 1884.

Several sugar estates across the area were purchased by Trinidad Leaseholds Limited (TLL), a British Oil Company, in 1913 (see one of my previous posts about the history of TLL). But although there was some oil prospecting the decision to purchase the site and build a refinery there had nothing to do with the presence of oil underground.

As far back as 1808 following the fire that almost destroyed Port-of-Spain, erecting a new capital at Pointe-a-Pierre was indeed contemplated, then on the site of La Carriere estate. This was considered both on account of the depth of water and the direct line of its position South and North with the Bocas or Dragon’s Mouth.

In 1884 the author L.A.A. de Verteuil remarked again on this idea; “ If this district (Pointe-a-Pierre) and the adjoining country ever become thoroughly settled, a town built in that locality would possess advantages, of which San Fernando must for ever be deprived, viz., a good port, excellent building materials, and the proximity of good water”.

This early prediction would eventually come to pass but not quite in the way that Mr de Verteuil had envisaged. Instead, in 1916 the emerging oil industry would take the first step in buying up the area to build a refinery and in due course a modern port that would sound the death knell for the Trinidad Government Railway.

The refinery at Pointe-a-Pierre was completed in 1917 over lands that were hitherto cultivated with sugar cane, coconut, and cotton. Some of the streets through the staff camp at Pointe-a-Pierre still carry names of the old sugar plantations which preceded the refinery.

Trinidad Leaseholds Limited (TLL) was taken over in 1956 by Texaco. At the time the oil refinery was the largest in the British Empire, capable of refining 80,000 bbls per day.
By 1961 refinery output had risen to around 360,000 bbls per day at a time when Texaco, on its own, was producing an average of around 60,000 bbls of crude oil per day in Trinidad.

Pointe-a-Pierre refinery was nationalised by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago in 1985 when the oil industry in Trinidad was producing around 240,000 bbls per day (figure for 1981). The government of T&T bought out Texaco and appointed Trintoc as their operators in 1985. Seven years later Trintoc and Trintopec were merged, and the new company was named Petrotrin.

I visited this building on business both in Texaco days and during the Trintoc period.

Trintoc was an excellent company and I remember the professionalism with which it carried out its land drilling operations where, as a contractor, I was always treated as part of the team. I worked with many excellent Trintoc company representatives in the late 70s and 80s.

Back to the administration itself, a comment by Norton Dorset confirmed that according to the February 1960 issue to the ‘TEXACO STAR’ (a company magazine), the office block was started in November 1958 and covers an area of 57,880 square feet. Cost of construction and furnishing has been close to two million dollars. The article reported the following: “Moving to the new office. The general exodus of office staff from various parts of Pointe a Pierre into the new office block has been going on over the past fortnight. Departments which were formerly scattered are now brought together under one roof in the modern air-conditioned office which is seen above”.

Geoffrey MacLean commented that he worked at the admin building as a young "office boy" in school holidays. He recalled too that Ronald Fraser-Reekie may have been involved in its construction and said: “Fraser-Reekie is well known for his books on drafting which most architectural students used at English Architectural schools. He had strong ties to Trinidad”.

Bruce Locke remarked that he “much preferred the huge sprawling piles of lumber that served as the field offices for Apex and Forest Reserve and TPD. Lovely old buildings”.

This remark by Bruce prompted me to look up a passage in George Higgins book “A History of Trinidad Oil” where he makes mention of these old colonial buildings and the changes brought about by the new era buildings. Mr Higgins remarks: “One of the features of the early oil industry in Trinidad was the old wooden buildings used for offices, with large open window areas, sometimes covered with anti-mosquito copper mesh, and with equally large shutters to lower when the rains come down, and to lift when the air and light were needed. In the humid rainy season, the office papers, maps, etc, often stuck to the writers’ arms; in the dry, but often gusty season, papers and maps were not infrequently scattered around the desks, to the frustration of many, but it was the way of life

The late Ram Maraj commented, in 2020, that when he first knew when the building it was under construction in around 1958. He went on to say: “The Old Main Office at UBOT Point Fortin was a wooden structure. Very cramped outlived its usefulness. Nice Turning the clock back in time. I am now engaged in reading a book; ”POINT FORTIN, The Shell Company and a Trinidad Village by Ellis Lewis 2016”. This is a book I have not yet seen but would someday too like to own.

George Higgins also refers to the change of culture brought about by the new buildings in 1960 when Textrin (Texaco Trinidad) moved all of their departments into “the most prestigious office block yet built in Trinidad. It was a T-shaped, two-storey block, and housed offices for all central functions of the company; it included a public relations and information display room, library, fire-proof filing vaults, refreshment and lunchrooms. The offices were air-conditioned throughout by a central system, and it was not long before management banned the old ‘colonial’ dress of shorts, stockings and open-neck, shory-sleeved shirt, demanding long-sleeved shirts, ties and long trousers for the office staff. There were minor revolts but a compromise allowed long trousers, short-sleeved shirts, no ties for the non-American staff.”

Long before the Solomon Hochoy highway was built, travel by road between north and southwest Trinidad was via the "Southern Main Road" which passed directly in front of this building. Over the years, beginning in the 1960s, I have driven past this building countless times and never gave it a second thought. I remember the massive standard drilling derrick on the roundabout with the congratulatory message in celebration of Trinidad and Tobago’s Independence. There was also a great sign which read “God Save Our Queen” posted on this same derrick at Pointe-a-Pierre for the Royal visit in 1966.
This derrick, as I recall, remained there for several years and at Christmas time would be beautifully decorated with lights. I have old photos of this roundabout somewhere.

Mr Sadru commented that he grew up in Gasparillo just next door to Pointe a Pierre, and went on to say: “My father worked up until retirement in the transport department. He started as a driver and retired as transport foreman. My other brother served in the Pointe a Pierre police department. He rose to the rank of sergeant before he sadly passed away at a fairly young age. Many people from Gasparillo have worked there. Before moving to the UK, I worked at the staff social club. So, this is why PaP holds wonderful memories for me”.

When I found this photo in my grandmother’s collection a few years ago it really caught my eye. First because I had not seen the words TEXACO on the building for such a long time but then I began to realise just how impressive it was back when it was built. I took note of the three flags flying high above the building. If you look closely you may be able to discern the flags, left to right, of the now defunct West Indian Federation, the British Union Jack and the Company Texaco star. This points to the pre independence period of this photograph.

There are many people alive today that don't remember this building with the Texaco sign above it. I wonder what happened to the sign. Perhaps it was purchased by the "American Pickers".

Petrotrin’s sad news reported in 2018 that the company had lost around $58 billion tt in the previous five years and company production has fallen to around 40,000 bbls per day leaving 100,000 bbl required to maintain refinery production was a sad and bitter blow to many.

Like those in Trinidad’s sugar industry before, we in the Oil sector never thought we would be witnessing the day. Having personally lived within sight and sound of the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery for many years during my early life, it came as a bitter shock.

My heart goes out to all those people who were affected by the refinery’s demise, and I hope that some of this historic lookback may help to remind us of the sweet Trinidad we once knew.

Glen Beadon 21 January 2023 (First published by me in 2018 and again on 1 March 2020).