Has any RR magazine been able to do a feature on RR in Cuba?
Many times…check the index files for TRAINS, CLASSIC TRAINS, and others.
You are in luck; the September 2009 issue of The Atlantic ( theatlantic.com ) has an article on page 24 about the Hershey interurban in its travel section. The article does show a coach. The author says they were aquired in Spain in 1998. You will notice SNCF on the wheel bearing.The magazine does have a slide show called sugar trains( www.theatlantic.com/sugartrains )
Cuba is still running steam locomotives.
With the consolidation of sugar refineries there are fewer local feeder lines. However near the Veradero and Cayo Coco beach tourist regions, steam locomotives (such as 1920 Baldwins) have been preserved and take bus loads of tourists on short underused lines using converted flat and gondola cars often though sugar fields. Of course the Hershey electric interurban still runs 3 times a day, both ways between Casablanca/Havana to Matanzas (Varadero Airport area). Plus local trains several times daily south from Calle 7 in Hershey.
And Pentrex has a great video, “Cuba Steam” (1996) – watch for one of their many sales, and you will get it for significantly less than list price.
If they are, it’s very few. Nothing like the numerous sugar plantations that used them up until about 2004/2005. Just about everything down there has been retired by now.
They also had the last boiler exploision on a steam locomotive… March, 2000. It was a Baldwin product.