Madeira-Mamore 2-6-0 Locomotives in Brazil

Class 1 (Locobase 13275)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 31, p.187; Volume 32, p. 332; Volume 33, pp. 76; and Volume 44, p.171. See also Louise Sherwood, "Brazil's Devil's Railway gets a new lease on life," BBC News from Latin America, 26 November 2010, archived at [] and last accessed 19 October 2011. In addition, there is an extensive history at Frederic M Halsey, Investments in Latin America and the British West Indies, Special Agents Series - No 169, United States Department of Commerce (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office,1918) p. 155. Works number was 32679 in February 1908, 33023-33024 in November; 34003-34006, 34022-34023 in November 1909, and 39526-39527 in March 1913.

This line has been described as the railway built on bones or the "Devil's Railway." Built in Brazil's far west province of Rondonia between Porto Velho on the Madeira River and the Bolivian city of Guajara Mirim on the Mamore River, the railway's construction of 367 kilometres (223 miles) cost thousands of lives. (Estimates of casualties vary widely; one popular measure is the claim that a worker's body is buried on under each tie).

Baldwin's little Mogul design had little direct responsibility for the toll or the other difficulties encountered during construction.

Sherwood's sad verdict on the railway's operation after its opening in 1912: "But just a year later, the market for Amazon rubber collapsed as new Malaysian plantations took over. The railway's heyday was over almost before it had begun."

Notes in the 1913 order for the last two in the class include a supplemental requirement that suggests the original tenders might have seemed a bit ...tender. Both of the front and back "tank trucks" were to be fitted with side bearings, and "[m]ake back tank truck springs, both top and bottom halves, two leaves stronger."