Timbo a Propia / Timbo a Propria 4-6-0 Locomotives in Brazil

Class 1 (Locobase 20191)

Data from Catalogue No. 10036--Locomotives for Export (New York City: American Locomotive Company (April 1910). Works numbers were 46571-46573 in September 1909.

Accompanying a larger order from Baldwin (Locobase 13980), this trio came from Alco. Dimensions were almost identical, although the Alcos were just a bit heavier. The wood-burners carried 3 1/2 cords of wood (12.5 cubic metres/441.4 cu ft) in the tender.

Class 8 (Locobase 13980)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 44, pp. 163. See also "Ten-Wheel Locomotives for Brazil", Railroad Age Gazette, Volume XLVII [47], No 18 (29 October 1909), pp. 806-807. Works numbers were 33564-33565, 33575-33580 in July 1909 and 33617-33618, 33628-33629 in August.

This wood-burning Ten-wheeler passenger and freight design appeared on several metre-gauge railways in Brazil during the first couple of decades of the 20th Century. In the current example, the order from the EF de Bahia a Sao Francisco fulfilled a requirement for power on the 346 km ( 215-mile) Timbo a Propria section. Alco-Schenectady delivered another three to the same design. Their operating environment included 2% grades and curve radii as tight as 150 metres.

Use of wood fuel meant a spark-arresting stack. The TaP apparently had its own design, which Baldwin's specs described as a "Radley & Hunter type" and advised "Consider whether this stack is worth patenting." In any event, said the specs, "Sample stack and exhaust to be returned with locos." The specs also estimated the tender's capacity at 10-12 [cubic] metres (353-.424 cubic feet). RAG's reported noted that "the frames, driving wheel centers, driving boxes, engine truck boxes and crossheads" were of cast steel. Use of the Le Chatelier water brake (described in Locobases 3458 and 13777) was a frequent choice by Brazilian railways.

This line originated in Bahia State, crossed Sergipe State to Propria on the Sao Francisco river. When it reached Propria, the TaP itself measured 552 km (342 sm).

In 1919, the BSF sold that section to the VF Federal Leste Brasilero, which renumbered the class.