Finding Jamaica’s Secret Jungle Ruins
One Love Jamaica
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Troja: Jamaica's Forgotten Banana Railway | Homecoming Tour with Ricardo
Deep in the hills of St. Catherine, Jamaica's abandoned railway once carried bananas from Troja all the way to the export docks of Port Antonio. Subscriber Ricardo — a son of Troja — took us home to walk that history with him.
Troja railway station opened in 1896 as a stop on the Bog Walk to Port Antonio branch line, about 31 miles from the Kingston terminus. Like the other stations on this Jamaica railway line, Troja served the surrounding agricultural community — giving local farmers a way to move bananas onto the line and out through the port.
This branch of the Jamaica railway system was built to serve the island's booming banana trade in the late 1800s. It broke off from the existing Bog Walk railway and cut through the hills between St. Catherine and St. Mary, first serving the cocoa industry around Highgate and Richmond, before running north along the coast through St. Mary and into Portland — the epicenter of Jamaica's banana industry.
That mountainous terrain between St. Catherine and St. Mary is why this stretch of railway needed such an extensive system of tunnels and bridges — engineering built to keep the banana trade moving from the interior to the coast.
By the time this railway was running at full capacity, Port Antonio had become the global hub of the Jamaican banana trade — a business pioneered by American sea captain Lorenzo Dow Baker in 1870, and later expanded by the Boston Fruit Company, which became United Fruit. Bananas leaving Boundbrook Wharf in Port Antonio made this parish famous — the same wharf immortalized in "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)."
Walking Troja with Ricardo isn't just a trip down memory lane — it's a look at how one rural community, and the Jamaica railway line that ran through it, helped move an entire island's economy.
📍 Troja, St. Catherine
🚂 Bog Walk to Port Antonio Railway
🍌 Jamaica's Banana Export Era
Thank you, Ricardo, for showing us home.
Thank you for watching this video. Please like, share and subscribe for more video on all things Jamaican. Please also turn on post notification so you don't miss out when we post.
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One Love Jamaica
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Blessings
Finding Jamaica’s Secret Jungle Ruins
One Love Jamaica
12,039 views
#JamaicaHistory #Troja #JamaicaRailway
Troja: Jamaica's Forgotten Banana Railway | Homecoming Tour with Ricardo
Deep in the hills of St. Catherine, Jamaica's abandoned railway once carried bananas from Troja all the way to the export docks of Port Antonio. Subscriber Ricardo — a son of Troja — took us home to walk that history with him.
Troja railway station opened in 1896 as a stop on the Bog Walk to Port Antonio branch line, about 31 miles from the Kingston terminus. Like the other stations on this Jamaica railway line, Troja served the surrounding agricultural community — giving local farmers a way to move bananas onto the line and out through the port.
This branch of the Jamaica railway system was built to serve the island's booming banana trade in the late 1800s. It broke off from the existing Bog Walk railway and cut through the hills between St. Catherine and St. Mary, first serving the cocoa industry around Highgate and Richmond, before running north along the coast through St. Mary and into Portland — the epicenter of Jamaica's banana industry.
That mountainous terrain between St. Catherine and St. Mary is why this stretch of railway needed such an extensive system of tunnels and bridges — engineering built to keep the banana trade moving from the interior to the coast.
By the time this railway was running at full capacity, Port Antonio had become the global hub of the Jamaican banana trade — a business pioneered by American sea captain Lorenzo Dow Baker in 1870, and later expanded by the Boston Fruit Company, which became United Fruit. Bananas leaving Boundbrook Wharf in Port Antonio made this parish famous — the same wharf immortalized in "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)."
Walking Troja with Ricardo isn't just a trip down memory lane — it's a look at how one rural community, and the Jamaica railway line that ran through it, helped move an entire island's economy.
📍 Troja, St. Catherine
🚂 Bog Walk to Port Antonio Railway
🍌 Jamaica's Banana Export Era
Thank you, Ricardo, for showing us home.
Thank you for watching this video. Please like, share and subscribe for more video on all things Jamaican. Please also turn on post notification so you don't miss out when we post.
==========================
Share and Subscribe
@oneloveja
Follow us on Instagram:
Instagram: onelovejamaica_
Follow and like us on FaceBook
Facebook: onelovejamaica1
One Love Jamaica
Much appreciated my Brother.
Blessings