In the 1980s and '90s, by far the largest concentration of American steam locomotives still doing regular work in the world were operating on the far-flung sugar mill railroads of Cuba. The moribund economy prolonged their service lives by decades, since there was no money to buy replacement diesels abroad. With about 98% of the 300-plus steam engines still running in Cuba in 1995 of American manufacture, the island had become a virtual railway museum. 2-6-0 No. 1531, built by Baldwin in September, 1925, operated at the Jose Smith Comas mill near Cardenas,and was one of the cleanest, shiniest locomotives anywhere as she posed on February 25, 1981.
