Leopoldina Railway Beyer-Garratt Locomotives in Brazil

Class 380 (Locobase 587)

Data from [] (July 2002); and "Leopoldina Railway-Design 1148", Beyer-Garrrat Patent Articulated Locomotives (Manchester, England: Beyer-Peacock & Company Limited, 1931), archived on flickr's Historical Railway Images at [], et seq, pp. 32-33. Works numbers were 6572-6573) in 1929. Later batches comprised 6845-6850 in 1937, and 7026-7033 in 1943.

Three batches of Double Pacific Garratts produced to increase train tractive effort by 80% when substituting one for the rigid-wheelbase Pacifics already in service.. These were assigned to the heavy night passenger train run of 323 miles (520 kph) between Campos and Victoria. The route had a ruling grade of 3% which the Garratt could take at 15 mph with 10 coaches.

A photo from [] (July 2002) shows the Belpaire firebox and the classic Garratt layout. A special bit of style are the white-rimmed tires.

Class 400 (Locobase 586)

Data from [] (July 2002); A[rthur] E[dward] Durrant, Garratt Locomotives of the World (revised edition) (Newton Abbott, UK: David & Charles, 1981), pp 86; and Tufnell (1986). Works numbers were 6976-6979 in 1943.

A relatively rare four-coupled Garratt, this design served the Canatgallao branch of the Portello-Cordiero line. The large Belpaire firebox reflects the low quality of the fuel, which Tufnell (1986) wrote included coal with ash contents as high as 40% or wood. Handling such dodgy fuel required rocking grates and self-cleaning ashpans. The constant-lead radial valve gear actuated poppet valves.

Spreading its adhesive weight over four axles allowed useful work on an axle loading of 9 long tons, around very sharp curves, and up grades of up to 3%.