The railway has been built in the privately owned historic St. Nicholas Abbey estate which receives around 35,000 visitors each year to visit the 17th century mansion house and former sugar plantation. The idea behind the line is to enable visitors to travel through a forest to a nearby viewpoint where panoramic views of the Caribbean Sea are possible. The line is only around 2 miles long but climbs significant gradients along its route.
The new line has a turntable at one end on top of the hill – this is made from concrete not steel as it is exposed to salt water from the sea – and it is entirely manual so the loco crew, and if they want to help, the passengers, turn the loco by hand. At the other end of the line a big loop has been built to simplify the operation with a passenger depot and loco shop near to the historic mansion house.
Barbados previously had a railway but it was shuttered before World War Two. Opening in 1881 the 24 mile 3-foot-6-inch gauge line connected Bridgetown and Belleplaine, St Andrews; never financially successful it was sold in 1897 to new owners who re-gauged it to 2-foot-6-inches and bought three new locos from Baldwin. Still unsuccessful it was taken over by the government in 1916 and despite a few good years (and buying another Baldwin loco) it was closed down in 1937 and everything was scrapped during World War II.
