4-6-0 Steam Locomotives in Chile

Class 3rd/Tipo 8 (Locobase 21344)

Data from Chilean State Railways (EFE) diagram book, 8, supplied in August 2025 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange collection. See also Martin Coombs, Chilean steam locomotive lists, Part 1, Broad gauge locos (v2.64, March 2026), p.52 at []. Works numbers were 455-457? in 1864? (Edward Slaughter and Henry Gruning would adopt a company structure and a new name Avonside Engine Company Ltd.)

Dealing with the El Tabon incline became a regular preoccupation for the FCSV. Coombs discounts the suggestion that these engines may have originally been meant for India. For "whilst details such as the cab do have an Indian look about them no evidence has been seen to support this suggestion." They all had names: Colina, Lampa, Til-Til. To add some power, the Sturrock six-wheels used a booster. These boosters were removed later.

In a valuable spotlight on early days, Coombs quotes W Lloyd's comments on improvements in design as of 1863, a bare decade after they started operations:

"Coke fuel replaced by local Chilean coal. This required the installation of brick arches, together with hollow stays to introduce air at the front of the fireboxes. A removeable deflector plate was fitted at the firedoor; firebars were lowered by 5 inches and refitted closer together; and an annular steam jet was installed in the chimney.

Driving wheel to rail interface. Hot water jets aimed at the flanges of the front pair of driving wheels eased the loco's passage around sharp curves, as did steepening the conicity of the wheel-treads from 1 in 7 to 1 in 6.

Brake block cooling. A problem descending steep grades, such as on the El Tabón Pass, was that tender brake blocks- presumably of wood - tended to catch fire. This was cured by allowing water to drip onto the blocks from the tender tank.

Reduction in rolling resistance of trains. Wetting the outside rail of a curve after the loco had passed reduced the rolling resistance of the train. This too was arranged using water from the tender tank

Reflecting shortcomings that soon appeared, Coombs notes that "All three were doing good service in 1868 but wheels had been replaced, fireboxes reinforced, and stronger axleboxes fitted to both locos and tenders. " The railway would contnually update through the next few decades.

Class Tipo 42 (Locobase 12157)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 20, p.3. Works numbers were 14371-14372 in July 1895.

Gene Connelly's excellent Baldwin records show a four-locomotive series of Eight-wheeler Vauclain compounds. The DeGolyer archive, however, shows that only the first two of the of the batch had two driven axles. All four of them had relatively large 10 1/2" (267 mm) piston valves to serve the combined HP/LP cylinders on each side.

Locobase suspects that the CSR saw this purchase as a chance to assess just under what conditions Vauclain compounds could be seen to work best. This pair explored freight service with smaller boilers and drivers and a bit more adhesion weight. See Locobase 12156 for the passenger Eight-wheelers.

All of these compound trial horses were rebuilt as simple-expansion engines i 1899.

Class Tipo 52 (Locobase 10750)

Data from Charles King, "The Chilian [sic] State Railways," The Railway Magazine (March 1908), pp. 209-214; see also the introductory article in the same journal at February 1908, pp.143-150; and See also Martin Coombs, Chilean steam locomotive lists, Part 1, Broad gauge locos (v2.64, March 2026), p.111 at []. Supplemented by Chilean State Railways (EFE) diagram book, 52, supplied in August 2025 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange collection. Works numbers were 6029-6034 in 1907

King explains that Borsig was the supplier of choice to the CSR in recent years and that this Ten-wheeler shared its boiler and motion with the 4-4-0 delivered by Borsig in the same years (Locobase 10749). This variant had more and smaller drivers, but was intended for passenger traffic as well. It ran on the Tabon section between Valparaiso and Santiago, "but have been found so useful," said the RM report,"that they have also run the express in spite of their small driving wheels.".

Martin Coombs quoted a 1920 EFE report that gave more context to the use of 52s as passenger engines. The EFE found the existing passenger engines underpowered for work over the Tabon pass, and contracted with Baldwin to build Tipo 62 locomotives. The Tipo 62s proved satisfactory but too expensive for a duplicate order.

"Instead", the Spanish-language account-Locobase translation--continued, a study was made of the possibility of transforming, for the moment, the 6 locomotives Tipo 52 ...to passenger locomotives with similar charateristics to the Baldwin express engines." At the time, the Tipo 52s provided only secondary services and diverting them to passenger service would be "of no consequence."

(NB: in the article, King credits the 4-4-0 with the higher weight. Locobase deemed this unlikely and reversed the two sets of weights.)

Class Tipo 52R (Locobase 10751)

Data from Chilean State Railways (EFE) diagram book, 53, supplied in August 2025 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange collection See also Martin Coombs, Chilean steam locomotive lists, Part 1, Broad gauge locos (v2.64, March 2026), pp 111-112 at []

The six Borsig-built locomotives shown in Locobase 10750 attracted the eye of the EFE motive powers in 1920 when they considered subsituting a home-grown variant of the more expensive Baldwin engines to supplement their passenger stud. And they didn't skimp in key areas. Driver diameter increased by 9" (229 mm) and the boiler traded in 107 of its small tubes to accept 19 larger flues for the recalentador (superheater). For some reason, the firebox heating surface area dropped by 25 sq ft (2.32 sq m), even though the new layout included 1.19 sq m (12.81 sq ft).

Although they moved south after the electrification of railways between Santiago and Valparaiso, all six remained on the EFE roster at least through 1957 and four appeared in 1965 and 1968 fleet lists.

Class Tipo 60 (Locobase 2739)

Data from DeGolyer, Volume 44, p. 200. See also See also Martin Coombs, Chilean steam locomotive lists, Part 1, Broad gauge locos (v2.64, March 2026), p. 60. at [] numbers were 39687 in April 1913; 39746, 39750-39757 in May.

In appearance, a nice mixture of North American and British accents. The clean boiler, tapered safety valve stand, thimble steam dome, and flat smokebox cover are British. The high running board, large cowcatcher, outside piston valves and cylinders, and inside-bearing truck look American.

The CSR order split the 10 engines into six with saturated boilers, shown here, and four with superheaters. See Locobase 13999 for the latter.

Class Tipo 61 (and Typo 60R) (Locobase 13999)

Data from DeGolyer, Volume 44, p. 205; and Chilean State Railways (EFE) diagram book, 61, supplied in August 2025 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange collection..ee also Martin Coombs, Chilean steam locomotive lists, Part 1, Broad gauge locos (v2.64, March 2026), pp. 135-136. at []. Works numbers were 39754-39757 in May.

As noted in Locobase 2739, this design reflected a considerable British influence in its neat lines. The CSR order split the ten engines into six with saturated boilers (Locobase 2739) and the four with superheaters in this entry. The usual tradeoff of tubes for flues didn't yield a great deal of superheat, although the combined heating surface remained relatively unchanged. Boiler pressure was cut by 15 psi.

Coombs offers the comments of an EFE "footplateman" Victor Neftali Rivera Urra, who praised the engines (paraphrasing by Locobase) as locomotives that ran very fast for short railway trains . They didn't consume much coal, but generated steam very rapidly. It took little time to pull the fire although a railwayman named Ruperto Garreton del Ramal de Carahue (Carahue branch) claimed he never axked to change coal, making two round trips to Carahue with the same fire.