Steam locomotives (1919–c.1962)
By 1923 the roster stood at eleven steam locomotives: two 65-ton and six 40-ton Baldwin 2-8-0 "Consolidations," plus one 40-ton and two 25-ton locomotives from H.K. Porter. The individually documented survivors of that generation — road numbers 9, 10, 11, 12, and 14 — are listed below.
Known Central Romana steam locomotives, by road number
Steam locomotive dimensions and works numbers per Baldwin Locomotive Works specifications digitized by the DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University, via SteamLocomotive.com.
No. 11, an H.K. Porter 2-6-2ST built in 1920, survives as a static monument near the mill — the last steam engine of the fleet still visible today.
Diesel-electric era (1948–present)
Central Romana began buying General Electric 70-ton, 600 hp Bo-Bo diesel-electric switchers in 1948, and kept adding to the fleet for three decades — some purchased new, others acquired secondhand from American shortlines and industrial railroads once those operators retired them. By 1978, fifteen were in service; a 2014 field survey recorded a working roster of nineteen locomotives, eighteen of them GE 70-tonners.
Virtually the entire fleet has since been rebuilt with modern Caterpillar diesel engines and microprocessor engine controls in place of the original GE prime movers — visually obvious on the rebuilt units by their raised, boxier hoods.
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No. 27, a rebuilt GE 70-tonner, hauls a single cane car out to a field loading point.
Roster and provenance recorded by Thomas Kautzor and Torsten Schneider during a field visit, 24 February–14 March 2014, published on International Steam Pages. Eleven of the eighteen 70-tonners were observed in service over a two-and-a-half day visit. No. 27 in the photo above matches this roster: an ex-Valdosta Southern GE built June 1955.
Still rolling, still loved
These are working machines, not museum pieces — but that hasn't stopped crews from taking pride in them. It's not unusual to see a 70-tonner dressed up with flowers for a local celebration, a small, human detail on a railway more often described in tonnages and works numbers.
Rolling stock
Beyond locomotives, the 2014 survey also recorded 35 motor inspection trolleys, and by the late 1970s roughly 900 cane cars plus 200 cars of other types (ballast, tank, and box cars) supporting the operation — broadly consistent with the company's current published figure of about 900 cane wagons. Track ties were converted long ago from wood to precast concrete, reducing maintenance and, per the company, helping to conserve nearby forest that would otherwise have supplied replacement wooden ties.