Beyer-Garratt Steam Locomotives in Bolivia

Class 51 (Locobase 21339)

Data from FC de Bolivia 11 - 1918 Locomotive and Car Diagrams supplied in August 2022 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Railroad Data Exchange collection; the Antofogasta RR Chile locomotive diagrams for FC de B[olivia] supplied in August 2025 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange collection;. and "Articulated Locomotives", Page's Locomotiive and Engineering Notes, Page's Engineering Weekly, Volume XXIV [24], whole number 508 (5 June 1914), pp. 666-667.

See also Martin Coombs, Part 7, Bolivian steam locomotive list, pp 26-27, downloaded from [], p.26-27; and "Chile Railways - Ferrocarril de Antofagasta a Bolivia - FCAB "Kitson Meyer" type 0-6-2+0-6-2T steam locomotive Nr. 55 (Beyer Peacock Locomotive Works, Manchester Gorton 5621 / 1913) in Flickr's Historical Railway Images at [], last accessed 24 June 2026. Works numbers were 5617-5622 in 1915.

Locobase entered the heating surface areas as shown in the diagram cited above although both the FC de Bolivia and the Antofogasta RR diagrams show 168 1 7/8" tubes, each 15 feet long, as the source for the tube heating surface area. Locobase couldn't explain how the tube heating surface area could be so small given the diagrams' insistence of the figure. The Page's Engineering Weekly entry mostly cleared things up. Missing from the diagrams was the superheater flue count and length. When Locobase created values for the flues as shown in the specs, he matched the total shown in the diagrams.

The Belpaire firebox presented its usual square-shouldered look. Some unusual features of this design include a permanently coupled tender trailing the smokebox as the 51s were set up to run cab forward with only the fuel bunker ahead of the crew. Like the Kitson-Meyer, the 51s displayed two chimneys (stacks), one in its usual place over the smokebox, the other coming up through the bunker over the rear driving sets.

Unlike Kitson-Meyers, the 51s' cylinders led both driving sets (i.e. 000 c 000 c), which differs from the Kitson version as their cylinders lay at the outer ends of both driving sets (c 000 000 c). The commenter in Flickr's HRI entry suggested that the wheel arrangement would make more sense thought of as a 2-6-0+2-6-0. Or, suggested PEW, it adopted several features of their Garratts, which included a firebox freee of impingement by either engine set and the adoption of leading unpowered trucks.