4-4-0 Steam Locomotives in Chile

Class Tipo 13 (Locobase 9314)

Data from American v English Locomotives, Correspondence, Criticism, and Commentary respecting Their Relative Merits (New York: Robert K Pease, 1880), pp. 36-37; and Chilean State Railways (EFE) diagram book, 13, supplied in August 2025 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange collection. See also Martin Coombs, Chilean steam locomotive lists, Part 1, Broad gauge locos (v2.64, March 2026), pp. 28, 30-31, 35, at []..

See Locobase 9311 for the full details of the trial to which two Rogers locomotives were put on Chilean rails. Works numbers [estimated] [728] in December 1856, [847]-[848] in February 1859, [997] in February 1861, and [1047] in November 1862, and 2303 in 1872..

In the 1908 diagram, only a total evaporative heating surface area appears in the dimensions. Yet the tube heating surface calculated for the given tube count and length comes to 799 sq ft (74.23 sq m). Locobase suggests the 1908 diagram offers a single value for lack of better information about four locmotives produced over sixteen years.

American engineer W W Evans was delighted to report on the clean sweep staged by the Paterson, New Jersey locomotives over their British rivals. For his accounts of the other three tests, see Locobases 9311-9313.

In the passenger trial, the small Rogers engine, even though rolling on taller drivers, bested the British 2-4-0 by 9 minutes by ascending to the summit of an 11 2/3-mile (18.75 km) line out of Santiago in 26 1/2 minutes. Locobase looks at the relative sizes and concludes that even when granting Evans harsh characterization of the British locomotives (see Locobase 9313), there must have been some questionable business to allow this flyweight to average 24 mph (38.6 kph) with a 291-ton passenger train.

The New Zealand government to whom all of this commentary was directed did seem to prefer American designs, even when they bought the actual locomotives from Britain.