Leopoldina Railway Kitson-Meyer Locomotives in Brazil

Class Kitson-Meyer (Locobase 3628)

See Weiner (1930) and [] (visited 6 January 2003), a Brazilian site covering the Centro-Oeste region's railroads. This particular page reproduces Jairo A. O. Mello's account of Leopoldina locomotives originally published in February 1993 in Centro-Oeste #75. See also "New Locomotives, Leopoldina Ry", The Locomotive Magazine, Volume XV [15] (14 April 1909), p. 68. Works number was 4568. See also "Locomotivas articuladas: as gigantes da era do vapor no Brasil"in Eduardo JosT de Jesus Coelho, Locomotivas Articuladas.

Kitson-Meyer articulated with the cylinders at the extreme ends of the driver sets. This put the cylinders inside the unpowered bogies at each end. The design also had a Belpaire firebox and fat spark-arresting stack.

Its tonnage ratings at 8-10 mph were as follows:

level track 3,026 tonnes (2,205 lb)

1% 781

1 1/4% 614

2% 420

4% 192

Mello says (Locobase's translation and paraphrase) that the locomotive wasn't a success. It burned too much fuel and weighed too much as well. The railroad shifted it around the system several times -- to the deposits of Bicas in 1912, to Cachoeiro-Itapemirim, Imbetiba in 1914, Campos-Carangola in 1918. In 1921, the white elephant returned to Imbetiba to run on the Niteroi-Macae-Campos line (spending more time in repair in Imbetiba than in use, according to the writer).

After some study, the 139 was modified in 1924 to a 2-6-0+0-4-4 arrangement (dropping one powered axle); its total weight dropped to 52,200 kilos (115,081 lb). Although the engine carried on for almost 20 years more, it continued to present problems. Renumbered as 58 in 1936, it was scrapped in 1941 at Imbetiba.