The British Honduras Syndicate opened a mule-drawn railway in 1892 from its main office in Melinda to Sacred Heart Church at the pier in Stann Creek Town, which proved to be useful.

[1] The route was built by the colonial government of British Honduras, with the help of Jamaican immigrant workers, for a well above budget total of BH$ 846,140 or about £ 123,000, or about € 15 million, adjusted for inflation.

After banana production was reduced to 5,000 stems a week in 1924 and the United Fruit Company ceased operations, the government procured two diesel shunting locomotives capable of handling the entire line at 8 mph (13 km/h).

From 1925, the United States based Tidewater Lumber Company used the railroad to transport mahogany wood from Middlesex to the Commerce Bight pier for shipment to the United States of America.

After the decline of the timber industry in Stann Creek Valley in 1929, the railway was still used in the 1930s for passenger transport.