The important city of San Francisco de Macoris lay seven miles to the north of the line of the Samana-Santiago railroad and in 1892 a concession was granted to a prominent Dominican for the building of a connecting road. It was constructed with Dominican capital from La Gina to San Francisco de Macoris, and is leased to the Samana-Santiago Road and operated as a branch of this road.
In 1907 the Samana-Santiago Railroad waived its right to the percentage of import duties collected at Sanchez, in consideration of a payment made by the government, and agreed to construct a branch line to Salcedo and later continue it to Moca. A line from Las Cabullas, on the main road, to Salcedo was promptly built and opened to traffic, but the Moca extension was delayed by civil disturbances and not completed until 1917.
The gauge of the Samana-Santiago road is 1.10 meters, about three feet six inches. It rises very gradually from sea-level at Sanchez to the altitude of La Vega and Moca, about 400 feet. The engineering problems attending its construction and preservation have been those connected with the crossing of the Gran Estero swamp, and the bridging of numerous small tributaries of the Yuna River, which from modest brooklets in the dry season swell to turbulent torrents in rainy weather. The bridge across the Camu River near La Vega has been washed away repeatedly and further trouble has been caused by the river changing its course.
The journey from Sanchez to La Vega, including the side trip to San Francisco de Macoris, consumes five and a half hours. After leaving Sanchez the end of the Samana range is soon reached and for miles the train travels across a mangrove swamp, where the bushy vegetation is exceedingly dense and the roadbed is covered with grass. Forests follow, the trees of which are encumbered with great hanging vines. As soon as a higher level is reached, clearings become frequent. At the stations along the route the entire population of the small towns seems to turn out to await the train's arrival. At two larger places, Villa Rivas and Pimentel, the train makes lengthier stops. The houses all along are similar, one story wooden buildings, generally whitewashed and roofed with tiles, corrugated zinc or palm thatch. La Gina is the beginning of the branch line which extends through monotonous woodland to San Francisco de Macoris. On the main line, after passing La Gina, there are numerous cacao plantations, and near La Vega the muddy Cotui road emerges from the woods and follows the railroad. About eight miles from La Vega is the station of Las Cabullas, the starting point of the branch to Salcedo and Moca.
Affording, as it does, the outlet for the products of the eastern portion of the Cibao, the Samana-Santiago railroad transports the greater part of the cacao exported from the country. It has been the most important factor in the development of the Royal Plain, but owing to the country's internal troubles was run at a loss for years. It is well managed and of late years has made handsome profits.
The name of the other Dominican railroad is also misleading, it being called the Central Dominican Railway, though only extending from Puerto Plata, on the north coast, to Santiago de los Caballeros, a distance of 41 miles, with an extension to Moca, 16 miles, a total of 57 miles. Its name is due to the fact, that it was considered the first section of a road which was ultimately to connect Puerto Plata and Santo Domingo City. The need for such a road had been and is still urgently felt, and the construction of no portion was more imperative than that between Santiago and the coast. The mountain roads in this section were indescribably bad; a trip from Santiago to Puerto Plata meant at least two days of dangerous riding; and all merchandise to and from Santiago had to be transported on mule-back. President Heureaux therefore considered himself fortunate when the Dominican government was able, in 1890, in connection with a bond issue, to make contracts with the banking firm of Westendorp & Co., of Amsterdam, for the construction of the section of the railroad from Puerto Plata to Santiago. Belgian money was furnished and Belgian engineers made the plans. The road was given a gauge of only two feet six inches, and the short-sightedness is inconceivable which permitted the adoption on this road of a gauge different from that of the Samana-Santiago Railroad, when the two were expected to join in Santiago. Ultimately the gauge of the Central Dominican Railway will have to be widened, but the change will cost a considerable sum and require a complete renovation of the rolling stock. In view of the steepness of the slopes to be surmounted, the plans contemplated the construction, on several portions of the road, of a rack-line or cremaillère, a third track provided with cogs, between the other two, and the use of special mountain-climbing locomotives having a cogwheel by means of which the ascent was to be accomplished and the descent regulated. The Belgian engineers built the road from Puerto Plata as far as Bajabonico, a distance of about eleven miles.
At this stage the financial difficulties of the Dominican government induced the Belgians to sell their rights to American interests, which formed the San Domingo Improvement Company to take them over. American engineers accordingly finished the road to Santiago. The rack-rail feature being undesirable, plans were made for the construction of the road as an adhesion road. No further rack-rail was built and one of the portions constructed was converted, but two short stretches of rack-rail remained near Puerto Plata, one of one mile and another of three miles. The Central Dominican Railway Company was incorporated for the operation of the road.
During the controversy later carried on between the Dominican government and the San Domingo Improvement Company the Company contended that the road had cost in the neighborhood of $3,000,000, or about $600,000 in excess of the sums realized by the sale of the bonds assigned by the government to defray the cost of construction. The dispute found its settlement in the protocol of January 31, 1903, by which the Dominican government agreed to purchase all the holdings of the Improvement Company. In the negotiations of which this convention was an incident, the value of the railroad was generally estimated at $1,500,000. Upon the delivery by the Dominican government of the cash and bonds agreed upon by the settlement of 1907 as the price of the Improvement Company's interests, the Company, in February, 1908, turned over the railroad to the government. It has since been operated by the Dominican government with satisfactory results, though it has suffered serious injury from revolutions. The insurgents destroyed bridges and the rack-rail; the latter has not been replaced, and the four and ten per cent grades are now laboriously overcome by means of Shay geared engines. Surveys show that the troublesome grades can be avoided by the construction of curves which will increase the length of the road by not more than three or four miles.
Owing to the mountainous character of the country traversed, the scenery on this road is splendid. The speed attained by the trains would not alarm a nervous wreck, for though the length of the road is about 41 miles, the ascent from Puerto Plata to Santiago takes almost six hours and the return trip from Santiago five, in which the slow engines, the steep grades, the former rack-road section and the numerous long stops have equal shares of responsibility. The roadbed is very rough and the passengers are considerably shaken up, but the memory of what used to be helps to mitigate the discomfort. On one of my trips over the road, when a fellow-passenger made a remark about the severe jolting that almost shook us off our seats, an elderly Dominican gentleman observed: "My friend, you evidently never took a trip from Santiago to Puerto Plata before the railroad was built. Compared with travel then, this mode of conveyance is like being carried in angels' arms." As on the Samana-Santiago Road, the regular trains are mixed trains, that is, a freight and passenger together, usually looking like a freight train with a small passenger car attached. Except in unusually dull periods there is one daily train each way. The city of Santiago is about 600 feet above the level of the sea; from here the course is over a rich plain among tobacco farms and meadows full of cattle, for a distance of about twelve miles, until the foothills are reached and the ascent of the coast range is begun. Higher and higher along the mountainside, through country wilder and wilder, the train winds its way to the highest point of the road, 1580 feet above sea-level and 20 miles from Santiago, where a short tunnel pierces the mountain. The mountain pass at this point is 1720 feet above sea-level and is the lowest one in twenty miles. At the station on the other side of the mountain a fifteen minute stop is made for lunch. Then begins a rapid descent along a deep valley, on the wooded slopes of which little houses peer out between the trees. The town of Altamira, on a knob in the middle of the valley, is passed, and further down, near Bajabonico, a small sugar plantation. Another ascent, on which is the old rack-road section, is now reached; a powerful mountain engine is placed before the train and slowly works its way up. From the top of the ridge the scene is magnificent. Below, in the far distance, Puerto Plata is seen, a miniature city with tiny bright-colored houses, nestling at the foot of the great verdure-covered cone, Mt. Isabel de Torres; before it lies its almost circular harbor with what look like toy ships riding at anchor; the foam of the breakers on the reefs at the harbor entrance gleams in the sunlight; and beyond, in vast immensity extends the blue expanse of the ocean. On the final descent quicker time is made than anywhere else on the road.
The extension of the Central Dominican Railroad from Santiago to Moca was built and is operated by the Dominican government. In 1894 a franchise was granted the San Domingo Improvement Company for the Moca road, and grading was done for several miles outside of Santiago, but the financial troubles of the Dominican government suspended the work. When better times came, the government in 1906 began to build the road from Santiago to Moca with current revenues, and it was opened to traffic in 1910. At Moca this road is met by the extension of the Samana-Santiago Railroad from Salcedo, so that it is possible to travel by rail through the fertile Cibao from Sanchez to Puerto Plata, though the difference in gauge requires a change of cars at Moca.