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As on the Samana-Santiago Road, the regular trains are mixed trains, that is, a freight and passenger together, usually looking like a freight train with a small passenger car attached. Except in unusually dull periods there is one daily train each way.
The important city of San Francisco de Macoris lay seven miles to the north of the line of the Samana-Santiago railroad and in 1892 a concession was granted to a prominent Dominican for the building of a connecting road. It was constructed with Dominican capital from La Gina to San Francisco de Macoris, and is leased to the Samana-Santiago Road and operated as a branch of this road.
At Moca this road is met by the extension of the Samana-Santiago Railroad from Salcedo, so that it is possible to travel by rail through the fertile Cibao from Sanchez to Puerto Plata, though the difference in gauge requires a change of cars at Moca. A railroad between the Cibao and Santo Domingo City has long been contemplated.
In desultory excavations made at different times small objects such as ancient spurs, stirrups and coins have been found. The new city led a languishing existence until it became the interior terminus of the Samana-Santiago Railroad which gave it a great impetus. It is regularly laid out, the streets are fairly wide and a majority of the houses are built of brick.
In 1907 the Samana-Santiago Railroad waived its right to the percentage of import duties collected at Sanchez, in consideration of a payment made by the government, and agreed to construct a branch line to Salcedo and later continue it to Moca.
Villa Rivas, on the Samana-Santiago Railroad, 19 miles from Samana bay, was formerly called Almacen, or Storehouse, because here was situated, before the railroad was built, a warehouse for the storage of merchandise imported and exported by way of Samana and the Yuna river.
The other towns, all of recent foundation, are Matanzas, a fishing village on the edge of a cacao district on the northeast coast, and three villages named after heroes of the War of Restoration: Cabrera on the coast at Tres Amarras point; Castillo, 8 miles west of Rivas; and Pimentel, formerly called Barbero, a station on the Samana-Santiago Railroad and the center of an important cacao zone.
The oldest of the two railroads now in operation is the road known as the Samana-Santiago Railroad something of a misnomer, as the road neither reaches Samana, on the one side, nor Santiago on the other, but extends from Sanchez, at the head of Samana Bay, to La Vega, a distance of 62 miles in the interior, with a branch to San Francisco de Macoris, 7 miles, and another branch to Salcedo, 11 miles, and Moca, 7 miles, or a total length of 87 miles.
Affording, as it does, the outlet for the products of the eastern portion of the Cibao, the Samana-Santiago railroad transports the greater part of the cacao exported from the country. It has been the most important factor in the development of the Royal Plain, but owing to the country's internal troubles was run at a loss for years. It is well managed and of late years has made handsome profits.
The beautiful grounds surrounding the house of the general manager of the Samana-Santiago Railroad are situated on a height overlooking the sparkling expanse of Samana Bay and give a suggestion of the possibilities of landscape gardening in Santo Domingo. Colored families from St.
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