This perhaps belongs more appropriately, in "Railway History and Nostalgia"; but as it's about "somewhere foreign" ...
Recently perusing the "Insight Guide" to Cuba (said tome plainly declaring itself accurate as at the early 2020s); in particular, the book's short section on "Cuba's Transport System", with a super-brief reference therein, to the country's railways: the whole section's emphasis being on -- with Cuba's generally "up against it" status in these times -- much inconvenience / necessary ingenuity / improvisation. The curt rail-oriented handful of words tells -- very slightly "doctored" -- of, "on the railroads [sic] anything from trolley buses that can run along the tracks [what's that all about?] to ancient steam trains". Those last three words: unless things are going on, not latched-on-to by the world's steam aficionados and students; it would seem plain that those who produce the Guide have -- not being informed followers of the global rail scene -- got hold of the wrong end of the stick.
If only they had the rights of things, re present-day doings; but dreary reality is reckoned, for sure: to be that Cuba as a steam paradise -- indeed as a real-steam venue at all -- ceased to be, consequent on what was effectively the end of Cuba's sugar industry, resulting from the collapse of the USSR.
Recently perusing the "Insight Guide" to Cuba (said tome plainly declaring itself accurate as at the early 2020s); in particular, the book's short section on "Cuba's Transport System", with a super-brief reference therein, to the country's railways: the whole section's emphasis being on -- with Cuba's generally "up against it" status in these times -- much inconvenience / necessary ingenuity / improvisation. The curt rail-oriented handful of words tells -- very slightly "doctored" -- of, "on the railroads [sic] anything from trolley buses that can run along the tracks [what's that all about?] to ancient steam trains". Those last three words: unless things are going on, not latched-on-to by the world's steam aficionados and students; it would seem plain that those who produce the Guide have -- not being informed followers of the global rail scene -- got hold of the wrong end of the stick.
If only they had the rights of things, re present-day doings; but dreary reality is reckoned, for sure: to be that Cuba as a steam paradise -- indeed as a real-steam venue at all -- ceased to be, consequent on what was effectively the end of Cuba's sugar industry, resulting from the collapse of the USSR.