Leopoldina Railway 4-6-0 Locomotives in Brazil

Class 256 (Locobase 20633)

Data from "4-6-0 Type Locomotives for the Leopoldina Railway", Railway Engineer, Volume 43, No 3 (March 1922), p. 111; and "Recent Locomotivdes by Messrs. Arrmstrong, Whitworth & Co., Ltc, Locomotive News and Railway Contractor, Volume XI [11], No 5 (10 March 1922), pp. 146-149. Dr Jonathan Smith's "Leopoldina Railway steam locomotives" table at [], last accessed 22 August 2019, provided the breakdown of evaporative and superheater areas and the boiler pressure..Works numbers were 51-68 in 1920.

RE's very sketchy data for this Ten-wheeler was accompanied by useful information such as the use of piston valves, a Belpaire boilers, superheat. LNRC's account gave the wheelbases and adhesion weight.

Class M (Locobase 14861)

Data from "Leopoldina Ry", The Locomotive, Volume XV [15] (15 October 1909), p. 195. Works numbers were 4658-4663 in 1909.

This skinny-gauge Ten-wheeler sported a prominent Belpaire firebox. In addition to the two outside cylinders, which drove the locomotive on the adhesion portion of the system. the design included a Fell rack drive system. Scaling the Petropolis Sierra by climbing 8 1/2% grades was simply too demanding for a standard setup. Instead, a central 13" x 14" engine drove the cog that engaged a rack in the center of the track.

It wasn't entirely successful and eventually Baldwin engines powerful enough to overcome the problem put paid to the rack system.