What happened to the railway equipment after the Bermuda Railway closed?
In 1946 the Bermuda Government purchased the Bermuda Railway from the private company which owned it for £115,000. The decision to close the railway came two years later. In 1948 the government sold all the railway rolling stock and other equipment, right down to most of the rails and wooden sleepers, to the government of British Guiana (now Guyana), which ran that colony’s railway. The Bermuda Government received £86,000 for the railway equipment. Unlike Bermuda, British Guiana had decided to renew their equally worn out railway rather than close it down. Of course, British Guiana had a much longer history of railway operations; the first railway line there opened in 1848. The British Guiana Railway kept running until 1972. (This information comes from Colin Pomeroy’s book, The Bermuda Railway, Gone But Not Forgotten. If you are in Bermuda you can probably find a copy at the Bermuda Bookstore or at the Bookmart.
