Balboa Heights railroad station

Balboa Heights railroad station. The contract to build this railroad station was awarded to Mr. Eladio Lasso on October 1914 and its construction started on November 15 same year. It would have been completed by April and June 1915. It was built to allow workers and residents of Balboa use the railroad now that the Administration Building and other offices were in this area. It was also a good way for travelers coming and going to the Port of Balboa in the same area.

The building was set of a central closed structure with the ticket office, a first class (white) waiting room at the right and second class (colored) waiting room at the left. The boarding platform was open with simple roofing. It had also a newspaper stand and a small barber shop. This was the last station to receive passengers before the railroad closure in 1996. Since then, several modifications were done to the structure, the west wing modified to house different restaurants and a laundry service and since the mid-90s there is a McDonald’s fast-food restaurant with references to the railroad inside.

When the railroad was transferred to the Panama Canal Railway Company, the passenger station was relocated to Corozal, and the end of the line was moved north to where the Balboa port is now under the administration of Hutchinson Ports. With these movements, all the tracks located parallel to the station were removed.