East Coast 4-6-4 Locomotives in British_Guiana

Class Sir Wilfred (Locobase 21103)

Data from "4-6-4 Type Tank Locomotives for the British Guiana Railway", Locomotive Magazine, Volume XXX [30], 379 (15 March 1924), p 71 and 15 April 1924, p 111. See also Martin Coombs, Part 11--The Guianas Steam Locomotive List, p. 11-12, December 2020, downloaded as a PDF on 29 November 2022 from -Works numbers were 1447-1448 in January 1924 and 3386-3387 in 1946..

A pair of modestly sized Baltic tanks, these traveled to the north coast of South America. British investors formed the Demerara-Berbice Railway Company, which opened the 5-mile (8 km) Georgetown to Plaisance section in 1847. The first three locomotives were named Mosquito, Sand Fly, and Fire Fly. The DBRC continued on to Blefield in 1855, and Mahaica in 1864. The new railway was the first to be built on that continent. Eventually the continued to the border at Blairmont Ferry in Rosignol in 1897-1900. Its customers, according to LM's 1924 report, included "a number of important sugar estates where the well-known Demerara sugar is produced"

These 1924 engines aspired to grander names as their British owners saluted their Peers by naming them Sir Wilfred and Sir Graeme. Their square-shouldered Belpaire fireboxes heated the boiler, whose steam entered the cylinders through piston valves. LM described the cab as having "a very roomy and comfortable pattern fitted with double roof and a large ventilator."

30-31 resembled the Gold Coast engines Hunslet delivered to Ghana in 1913 (Locobase 20229), although the latter ran on 3 ft 6 in gauge. Like the Gold Coast, the ECR railway's right of way required a very flexible wheelbase and the minimum curve radius for this seven-axled engine measured 300 ft. On the other hand, LM reported "The country traversed ....is quite flat and the only gradients are those in the approaches to certain of the river crossings."

The ECR removed the superheaters from the 30-31 when fitting new boilers in 1944 (Sir Graeme) and 1955 (Sir Wilfred). Hunslet added Sir Gordon and Sir John (34-35) in 1946. Coombs noted that at least the last three converted to oil-firing by 1952.