Salvador of the Twentieth Century

by Percy F. Martin

In regard to the rolling-stock, this is equally well equipped and maintained, the greatest care being taken by the management to see that every car that is sent out is in a thoroughly sound state of repair and cleanliness. There are in all eleven locomotives, of which the following details will be of interest:

		Cylinder.		Driving Wheels.		Weight.
No.	Makers.
		Diameter.	Stroke.	Pairs.	Inches.	Tons.
1	Prescott, Scott and Co., San Francisco	12 in.	16 in.	2	38	17·50
2	Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia	15 in.	20 in.	4	38	25·00
3	" "	15 in.	20 in.	4	38	25·00
4	" "	15 in.	20 in.	4	38	25·00
5	Cooke, Patterson and Co., New Jersey	16 in.	20 in.	4	38	30·35
6	Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia	17 in.	20 in.	3	42	36·74
7	" "	17 in.	20 in.	3	42	36·74
8	" "	17 in.	20 in.	3	42	36·74
9	" "	16 in.	20 in.	3	42	32·40
10	" "	16 in.	20 in.	3	42	32·40
11	" "	16 in.	20 in.	3	42	32·40

In addition to the above, two other engines of precisely similar make have lately been delivered to the Company by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, U.S.A. It is explained that the native engine-drivers are now accustomed to these engines, which are to be found in use upon almost the whole of the South and Central American railways.

The rolling-stock on the Salvador Railway is maintained in the same efficient order as are the stations and permanent way. It consists of some twenty-three passenger coaches as follows: Eight of first class, light but strong carriages, suitable for a tropical country and fitted with wide seats upholstered in rattan; one second class, only a trifle less expensively upholstered, but in no wise less airy or comfortable; and four brake and luggage vans. Of goods-waggons there are 161—namely, 1 workmen's car, 5 cattle cars, 95 covered-goods and 60 platform cars. These cars are mostly the manufacture of the Lancaster Carriage and Waggon Company, Ltd., of Lancaster, and the Allison Manufacturing Company, of Philadelphia, U.S.A. The company have recently erected some ten box waggons at the well-fitted railway shops at Sonsonate, where every appliance and the newest equipment of machinery are to be found. The passenger coaches are also partly of British and partly of American construction, the Lancaster Carriage and Waggon Company, Ltd., and the Harlan, Hollingsworth Company, of Philadelphia, being responsible for this part of the equipment.

In the month of April last a change took place in the general management of the Salvador Railway, when Mr. C. T. S. Spencer, the newly-appointed chief, proceeding to his post via Mexico City and Salina Cruz. Mr. Spencer served his pupilage with the London and South-Western Railway, mainly on the North Devon and Cornish branches. When out of his articles, he accepted an appointment as District Engineer on the Abbotsbury Railway, near Dorset, which line is now a part of the Great Western Railway system. In 1886 Mr. Spencer went out to Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), as District Engineer on the Brazil Great Southern Railway, and subsequently rose to the position of Chief Constructing Engineer. On this line he built the Ibicúy Bridge, which still ranks as the largest bridge in Brazil, being over a mile long, with some 70-metre spans resting on cylinders sunk by the pneumatic process, which at that time was in its infancy. When the line was completed, Mr. Spencer surveyed an extension running into some hundreds of kilometres, and passing through the beautiful district of Missiones.

Mr. Spencer, still a young man, then went to Salvador, and in 1889 he surveyed the La Unión-San Miguel line. This railway was partly constructed by the Government, and its completion to San Miguel is now being pushed forward. In 1892 Mr. Spencer went to Colombia as General Manager of the Antioquia Railway, which commission he held until the Government attempted to cancel the concession without paying any indemnity to the company. He afterwards went to Angola, and drew up the plans for a large railway scheme from the coast inwards; a part of this line has since been built.

Upon returning to London, Mr. Spencer accepted the post of Consulting Engineer to a railway-constructing syndicate in the City, and a few years ago he was elected to a seat on the Board of the Salvador Railway. Mr. Spencer visited the Republic in 1908, and on his return pointed out to the Chairman that, owing to the opening of the Tehuantepec Railway, a special steamer service connecting up Acajutla with Salina Cruz would probably prove a paying concern. Mr. Mark J. Kelly, the able and experienced Chairman of this railway, with his customary quickness of perception, combined with his own not inconsiderable experience of the Republic of Salvador, of which for fifteen years he had acted as Consul-General in England, at once fell in with the idea, and the steamship Salvador was the result.

Mr. Spencer is an Associate Member of the Institute of Civil Engineers, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. While it is a subject of regret that Mr. Charles Stewart, late Manager of the Salvador Railway, was compelled to abandon his post owing to ill-health, the shareholders of the railway may be unreservedly congratulated upon obtaining the services of so able and experienced an engineer as Mr. Spencer.

Mr. John White Hinds, Chief Engineer of the Salvador Railway Company, started in his profession at the age of fifteen, and was for over a year in the shops of the Great Western Railway at Swindon. He then remained for four years as a pupil with Mr. W. H. Lancashire, C.E., of Sheffield. Three years were passed in London studying, when Mr. Hinds went to America, and entered the shops of the Chicago and North-Western Railroad. He has also seen service in Chile, Peru, Guatemala and Salvador. In this latter Republic, Mr. Hinds has acted as chief of the party of engineers on final surveys of the Santa Ana branch of the Salvador Railway, while he also went to La Unión, the largest of the Salvadorean ports, to construct the railway from La Unión to San Miguel for the Salvador Government. The line was only constructed to the extent of ten miles or so, when a revolution broke out and the work was abandoned. Since then—namely, in 1894—Mr. Hinds has been engaged upon the Guatemala Northern Railway as Surveyor, and helped in the construction of that portion of the line to the City. Mr. Hinds likewise completed surveys to the town of Zacapa, on the same railway, and assisted in the construction work between Puerto Barrios and Zacapa. Latterly Mr. Hinds has been exclusively engaged upon the Salvador Railway, of which he has been the Resident Engineer since 1903, and Permanent Way Engineer since 1906.

One of the contractors who were connected with the railway in the early days was Mr. Albert J. Scherzer, and it is interesting to note that his nephew, Mr. George Scherzer Walsh, a young and clever railway engineer, was also connected with the company. Mr. Walsh accompanied Mr. M. J. Kelly and Mr. George Todd Symons (the senior partner of G. T. Symons and Co., of 4, Lloyd's Avenue, E.C.) to Salvador in the spring of 1910, upon matters relating to the extension of the company's track and the appointment of agents for the steamship service. Mr. Walsh did some good and useful work as technical adviser on the ground, but, unfortunately, in the end his services proved unfruitful, owing to the selfish and senseless opposition offered to the company's contemplated extensions upon the part of the American Syndicate, who hold a railway concession from the Salvadorean Government to build new lines within this zone. At the time that the American group protested—and protested, as it seems, successfully—against any further construction work being undertaken by the Salvador Railway Company, they had done absolutely nothing themselves, and had not even presented the preliminary plans to the Government. As will be seen, however, they have at last made an attempt to commence work of some kind; but my latest advices point to the fact that successful completion is still far from being even within sight.