Mogiana 2-8-0 Locomotives in Brazil

Class 118 (Locobase 10988)

Data from Record of Recent Construction #54 (Baldwin Locomotive Works, 1905), p. 30-31; and DeGolyer, Volume 25, p. 35.. Works number was 21115 in October 1902.

Locobase suspects this lone two-cylinder compound was a trial horse that didn't make the jumps. Its specification was to haul 240 metric tons up a 2% grade while negotiating curves of 120 metres radius.

A Baldwin rep signaled that the builder was on probation with this note: "Special attention is to be given to material for flues and fireboxes. Company complains of that supplied to previous engines." Underscoring the admonition, he adds: "Too much attention cannot be paid to this." (Meaning "don't give it less than your full attention."

That this was the only one suggests that it didn't satisfy that requirement and small Mallets were chosen instead.

Class 140 (Locobase 13778)

Data from Record of Recent Construction #54 (Baldwin Locomotive Works, 1905), p. 30-31; and DeGolyer, Volume 39, pp. 250+. Works numbers were 35777-35778 in December 1910 and 37476-37479, 37498-37500 in January 1912.

These Consolidations were called upon to ride on 25-kg/metre (50-lb/yard) rail, negotiate curve radii as tight as 266 ft (81 metres) and clear an 8-ft (2.44-m) loading gauge 33" (0.84 m) off the rail. Mogyana specified that the main rods drive the third adhesion axle. Inevitably, it seems, the design earned the stipulation "frames to be made heavier." ("Heavier than ..." may mean than the stock metre-gauge 2-8-0. It's a common request in Baldwin specs for locomotives destined to run on relatively poor tracks.

Class 509 (Locobase 20968)

Data from Lionel Wiener, Les chemins de fer du Bresil (Paris: H. Dunod et E Pinat, Editeurs, 1912), p. 131. (Thanks to Teemu Koivumaki whose 2023 email included a comprehensive spreadsheet of Brazilian steam locomotive builders, works numbers, and owners.) Teemu's spreadsheet shows this pair as having come from the Campista shops in 1910. It's likely to have been the pair to which Lionel Wiener (see below) referred.

Wiener, a long-term observer of Brazilian railroading, disagreed with Mogiana Shops' construction of some of their locomotives, including this quintet. It represented an "economic error" in that Brazil didn't produce its own coal. He argued that the railways shouldn't spend its resources on acquiring an indigenous locomotive industry. Mogiana's attempt, he argued, would always lead to dependence on government subsidies.

NB: Tube heating surface shown in Lionel Wiener's table resulted from calculations using tube inside diameters ("fire side"); it was given as 64.4 sq m (693 sq ft). the table shows the external diameter, from which both the tube and evaporative heating surfaces in Locobase are derived.