2-10-2 Steam Locomotives in Brazil

Class 209, 200 (Locobase 13992)

Data from diagram reproduced on [] and [], last accessed 26 March 2012. See also "Ferrovia Dona Tereza Cristina--Steam in Brazil: 04.-16.07.2013" on the FarRail website at [], last accessed 28 February 2023.. (Thanks to Teemu Koivumaki whose 2023 email included a comprehensive spreadsheet of Brazilian steam locomotive builders, works numbers, and owners; and to Ivo Rutishauser for his 1 July 2025 email supplying the road numbers for the transferred locomotives.) Works numbers were 23592, 23597 in 1937

Henschel delivered the first two of these powerful non-articulateds to Argentina's Central Northern Railway in 1937; see Locobase 3724. After World War II, Skoda repeated the design in its production of nine more locomotives (works numbers were 1977-1978, 1980-1985, 1990 in 1949.)

In the early 1980s, the Argentine FC General Belgrano included the former FCCNA when it began replacing steam with diesels. The FCGB sold all eleven engines to the EFDTC. Their new owners soon found the class struggled to burn the sub-bituminous Brazilian coal efficiently in their Belpaire fireboxes. As with most "dirt burners", the strongest evidence was the cinder-filled dark smoke that shot up from the stack.

The railway's shops at Tubarao contracted with Livio Dante Porta (usually identifiec as LD Porta) to apply his Gas Producer Combustion System to four of the class. The paragraphs below draw on the following sources, all still available on line in July 2025:

[]

[]

[]

[]

The program modified the 200 (a 1937 Henschel) in 1990 and three 1949 Skodas: 203 (1990), 205 (1990-1991) and 210 (1991).

Locobase's simplified description begins with Porta concluding that to burn coal more completely meant the elimination both of unburned coal going up the stack and accumulation of "clinker" on the grate. Clinker on a conventional firebox grate and carbon monoxide blocked the primary air flow from below. At the same time, the demand for secondary air, which entered the firebox both from below and through the firedoors, created a draft that pulled the fine unburned coal particles out and up.

His GPCS used a small line that conveyed a small portion of the boiler's live steam from the front of one of the cylinders to a point under the firebed. This "water gas" reduced the temperature at the firebed level, which reduced clinker formation. At the same time, Porta introduced holes in the firebox's sides just above the firebed and in the backhead and firedoor to admit secondary aire and encourage complete combustion of the coal particles rising off the grate.

At the smokebox end, he adopted a version of the Kylchap or Lem type of ejector nozzles; these are called Kylpor or Lempor nozzles. Like Giesel ejecteors, these improve exhaust efficiency by decreasing resistance to its upward flow.

By the time Porta addressed the EFDTC's requirements, he adopted several changes in his basic design. He eliminated the side holes in favor of holes in the front of the firebox below the combustion arch level. (This makes sense to Locobase as it supplied more air at a point in the flame path's travel that allowed time for more complete mixing and combustion.) He retained the backhead holes as well as the use of the firedoor to regulate how much secondary air flowed in.

He added a blower in the smokebox under a modified stack. The four exhaust ejectors rose from the "Kordina" base, which used an S-shape baffle to separate the two cylinders' exhausts until they combined in the nozzle group. Each ejector tilted at an angle to introduce a rotary flow that further reduced friction.

Later photographs comparing the exhaust plumes of an unmodified 2-10-2 and the Porta-modified 210 show sooty smoke from the former and clean steam exhaust from the latter. (Photos taken of the 205 in 2013 during a FarRail travel event show varying degrees of smoke intensity.)

Alas, the fundamental reason for increasing steaming efficiency--the ability to burn locally sourced low calorie coal--vanished when it proved cheaper to import coal from abroad. All but one of the ex-Argentian 2-10-2s had dropped their fires by 1994.

As of 2025, Locobase offered five entries that described Porta's GPCS modifications.

They are:

760 2 South African NGG 16 - 2-6-2+2-6-2 Garratts

3084 South African Railways (SAR) 4-8-4

4902 Red Ferro Industrial Rio Turbio 2-20-2

4904 Red Ferro Industrial Rio Turbio 2-10-2

12992 Dona Tereza Cristina 4 2-10-2