Tres Pontas 0-6-0 Locomotives in Brazil

Class unknown (Locobase 6709)

Data from Google's cache of [] (viewed 4 August 2005).

Locobase's command of Portuguese is limited so the long article in the November 1922 Brasil Commercial still holds many secrets. The article did say that Sao Paolo's Tres Pontas could be proud of the railroad it was building between that town and the Sul-Mineira Railway. The writer hoped that other towns would take their cue from Tres Pontas' forward-looking act.

The contract between Tres Pontas and Belgian companies Ougree-Marihaye SA and Les Ateliers Metallurgique de Nivelles SA included the supply of a work train with locomotive, "gyrador", and other equipment. Also included were 40 km of track weighing 18 kilos/metro (38 lb per yard) made of steel with a density of 70 kg/sq mm, other (untranslated) components, and the two locomotives described in the specs.

Locobase estimates the wheel arrangement as there appears to be no exact description of the engines or of the railway gauge. It's rated at a 30 km/hr (18 mph) top speed and a minimum curve radius of 25 meters (82 ft). Elsewhere in the database -- Locobase 6535 -- is a 6-coupled tank with almost identical data. As it is an Orenstein & Koppel, likely a catalogue model, the German locomotive may well have had a sister in Brazil.