2-6-0 Steam Locomotives in Chile

Class Laurela (Locobase 13989)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 44, p. 194 and 49, p. 175. Works numbers were 33858 in September 1909 and 40955-40956 in September 1913.

Similar to Moguls already in service on the Chilean State Railways' broad gauge (Locobase 13127), the Laurela and her two younger sisters Quilachanquin and Lebu had smaller boilers. They were purchased by the privately held Carbonifera Rios de Curanilahue, whose Arenca railway offered some challenges: 50-lb/yard (25-kg/metre) rail, 3% grades, and minimum curve radii of 120 metres (394 ft). So the builder was admonished to "give special attention to keeping weight down to limit."

Class Quilachanquin (Locobase 14210)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 49, p. 175. See also Martin Coombs, Chilean steam locomotive lists, Part 1, Broad gauge locos (v2.64, March 2026), p. 236 at []. Works numbers were 40955-40956 in December 1913.

This line, owned by the Compania Carbonifera los Rios de Curanilahue, didn't specialize in nitrate cargoes as did so many other Chilean roads. Instead, the company mined coal from a series of deposits that lay near the coast near the southern city of Concepcion. The C a C ran southward to Curanilahue about 103 km (64 miles) away. Grades could climb as steep as 3% and the curves had radii of 120 metres/394 feet (14 1/2 degrees).

This pair of Moguls trailed two-bogie, eight-wheel tenders. According to Martin Coombs, they resembled the EFE's Tipo 55 2-6-0s (Locobase 11417), but bore a smaller boiler to reduce axle loadings on the C a C's lighter track.