4-8-2 Steam Locomotives in Brazil

Class 621 (Locobase 20999)

Data from 1946 Locomotive Cyclopedia. See also Joseph F N Gaynor, "Appendix III--Short Report on Electrification", Brazilian Technical Studies, Report to the President on the Foreign Operations Administration: January 1953 to June 1955. United States, Foreign Operations Administration, 1955, pp. 177-178. Works numbers were 73776-73778 in 1946.

As an afterthought to the large 4-8-4 order for the Rio Grande do Sul (Locobase 268), Alco produced this batch for the EFNdoB. Like those engines, these were among the smallest 4-8-4s built for any railroad. Their relatively tall drivers achieved a 1.5:1 diameter to gauge ratio, equivalent in only that respect to express passenger locomotive drivers of nearly 85" (2,160 mm) on the standard gauge . For comparison, see Locobase 1127 for Chapelon's design for the same gauge.

Joseph Gaynor sampled the VFGRC's express service on 26 May 1953 as the 863 hauled a 260 metric ton train of seven passenger cars. As he rode in the 863 on the level ("where a good fast schedule was maintained") and the heaviest grades ("where the speeds were down to a fast walk"), Gaynor found the fireman "could actually keep steam pressure up to 185 psi [12.75 bar]" given that the coal wasn't "good locomotive fuel." It was high in both ash and sulphur and couldn't burn "with any degree of efficiency." He saw that the only way to keep it burning was to add a lot of wood and keep working the klinker hook on the fire. One result was a coating of hot coals between and outside the rails.

Credit lay with the crews, "good men, and very well trained." Against "great odds of rolling profiles, steep grades, sharp curvatures, vacuum brakes and poor fuel," they managed "aa good job of railroading". Gaynor's trip covered the 343 km from Porto Alegre to Santa Maria, which included "all stops, waits and meets with other trains" in ten hours, an easy-to-calculate average of 34.3 kph (21 mph).

As impressed as he was with the competence of the railway he witnessed in May 1953, he recognized that steam railroading on the VFRGC operated at its maximum capability. Noting the "potentially rich and great agricultural and industrial as well as a ranch country", he concluded that they could increase their output if "modern railway transportation were availabel, and plenty of reasonably priced electric power were made available." Noting the potential hydro-electric output was good and lousy locomotive coal could "give a good enough performance in a thermal steam electric generating plant."

After service in Brazil, this trio of Northerns went on to serve on the Bolivian State Railway in the mid-1950s, where they were assigned raod numbers 821-823. They were retired in the 1980s.

NB: see Locobase 13987 for an overview of the RG do Sul as described by Lionel Wiener in 1912.