Cuban mystery solved

CHRIS West’s article on British locos exported to Cuba (June issue) was an excellent piece of research, and I am sure many readers shared my surprise at some of the revelations. The caption to the picture of the Leyland Olympic brought back an early childhood memory of the story of the buses bound for Cuba that ended up in the Thames. They suffered little damage and were later cleaned up and sold abroad (presumably not to Cuba, though). A contributor to my father’s quarterly magazine, European Railways (19491982), was a fine railway photographer called Akira Minegishi, who arranged for my father and I to look round a Japanese ship in King George V Dock that had been involved in a collision. The vessel was NYK Lines’ brand-new Yamashiro Maru, which at about 1am on October 27, 1964 collided with outbound East German freighter Magdeburg, carrying the buses it had loaded at Dagenham.

Although the consequences were dramatic, the accident seems to have been a simple navigational error in a tricky stretch of the river in fog. Had there been a CIA conspiracy, as some journalists alleged, we would not have been allowed near Yamashiro Maru. I was fascinated by the engine control room and steaming vats of rice being stirred in the galley.

Bob Couttie convincingly debunked the conspiracy theory on his Maritime Accident Casebook website.

Stephen Spark Balham I HAVE just read the Cuban article and on checking my notes, on August 23, 1965 I saw Nos. 2503 and 2504 being towed through Loughborough Midland by No. D7530. My recollection is that they were heading in the Up direction, but have no photos I am afraid. At a later date I have added “for Cuban Railways”, but after all this time I don’t remember where I found that information.

Of course, Loughborough Midland is adjacent to the Brush Falcon Works.

Patrick Fitz-Gerald Isleworth

THE article on Cuba fails to make it clear that before the revolution, Cuba was an integral part of the North American railway network with freight interchanged via the train ferry to Florida. It thus followed the standards of the AAR (Association of American Railroads).

Locomotives with their by-no-meansunusual Buckeye couplers were only one of the many compliant items no longer obtainable from USA under the embargo. One typical small example was switchmen’s hand lanterns. The Lamp Manufacturing and Railway Supplies Co. here in the UK had to make a batch for Cuba to the AAR specification. I have one from their reference collection. John R. Batts Banbury