Railways of Jamaica: Linstead to New Works

Linstead to New Works
Legend 0.0 Linstead 0.3 Rio Magno Gully~75m Linstead Junction Mainline from Spanish Town continues to Ewarton Various unknown infrastructure on a very gently rising gradient 4.8 New Works

The Linstead to New Works branch was a mere three miles of standard gauge track constructed in 1921 to serve a citrus growing region to the north east of Linstead.^[1]

Beyond this, very little is known about it. There is no trace of it on satellite images (see Linstead to New Works at WikiMapia) suggesting it was closed significantly earlier than Jamaica's other lines.

All external links below are to WikiMapia.

Gradients

Linstead is at 400 feet^[2] while New Works is close below the 500 foot contour,^[3] so the line must have risen around 79 feet in its three miles for an average gradient of 1 in 200 or thereabouts.

Stations and Halts

There must have been at least 2 stations on the line:^[3]

• Linstead Station (Branch Terminus)
• New Works Station (Terminus)

Tunnels

There were no tunnels on the line.^[3]

Bridges

There were probably no significant bridges on the line as its junction with the Spanish Town to Ewarton line would have been north of the Rio Magno Gully Bridge^[4] (~75m)^[5] and there are no other significant water courses between Linstead and New Works.^[3]

See also

• Railways of Jamaica

Notes and references

1. The rise and fall of railways in Jamaica 1845-1975 page 7, Veront M Satchell & Cezley Sampson, The Journal of Transport History, March 2003.
2. Linstead, Falling Rain Genomics.
3. UK Directorate of Overseas Surveys 1:50,000 map of Jamaica Sheets G (1973), K (1966) & L (1967).
4. Magno may well be a corruption of Mango but is the spelling used on UK Directorate of Overseas Surveys 1:50,000 map of Jamaica Sheet K (1966).
5. Bridge lengths were obtained using Wikimapia's GeoTools.