Great Western 4-8-0 Locomotives in Brazil

Class 182/508 (Locobase 21175)

Data from D[ennis] Rock Carling, 4-8-0 Tender Locomotives (New York: Drake Publishers, Inc, 1972), p. 76-77, and serial 206 on table XII [12], pp.106-107; and , Locomotive Magazine, Volume 34, No 436 (15 December 1928), p. 385..(Thanks to Teemu Koivumaki whose 2023 email included a comprehensive spreadsheet of Brazilian steam locomotive builders, works numbers, and owners.) Works numbers were 20649-20651 in 1914.

Locobase 11460 describes the first seven Twelve-wheelers to run on the Great Western in 1905 (5) and 1910 (2). GWRB's next order, which completed 4-8-0 purchases, featured a rearranged boiler to include a superheater. All the other leading dimensions remained the same. Such modest reworkings usually involved sacrificing combined heating surface area, but the original boiler was apparently spacious enough to accept a superheater while nearly matching the earlier figure even as it supplied drier steam.

Carling added that by 1926, the other seven 4-8-0s also used superheaters. Locobase supposes they had the same areas and proportions, but he doesn't have any direct information. He also noted he witnessed the shipping of four Armstrong Whitworth supplied four more superheated 4-8-0s on the SS BALPAMELA in 1929, but does not supply any data. Supporting his memory was a small item in the last Locomotive Magazine issue of 1928, which reported an order for two 2-6-2+2-6-2 Garratts, four 4-6-0s, and four 4-8-0s. Wikipedia's Armstrong Whtiworth entry shows A-W works numbers of 1020-1023 and engine numbers 234-237.

Class 26/501 (Locobase 11460)

Data from "Twelve-Wheel Locomotive for Brazil," The Railway Age, Volume XLIV [97], No 2 (12 July 1907), pp. 45-46. See also D[ennis] Rock Carling, 4-8-0 Tender Locomotives (New York: Drake Publishers, Inc, 1972), p. 76-77, and serial 205 on table XII [12], pp.106-107.(Thanks to Teemu Koivumaki whose 2023 email included a comprehensive spreadsheet of Brazilian steam locomotive builders, works numbers, and owners.) Works numbers were 16853-16857 in 1905 and 19323-19324 in 1910.

As claimed in the RA report, this locomotive was indeed one of the biggest to run on the metre gauge anywhere when it entered service. Its Belpaire boiler and firebox dwarfed the tiny drivers. The class was rated to pull 550-600 tons up a 1 1/4% grade.

In Carling's opinion, the Great Western was oddly named. Yes, the lines ran in "a roughly western direction from the coast, they were in the most easterly part of the country." Locobase

Carling noted the unusual "2-4-0" three-axle tender, which he doesn't describe further. Locobase supposes the leading axle enjoyed some level of traversing capability either through side play or a pivot.

See Locobase 21