Trasandino Chileno 2-6-4 Locomotives in Chile

Class 6 (Locobase 20296)

Data from P C Dewhurst, "Locomotive Practice of the Chilian Transandine [sic]", Locomotive Magazine, Volume 20 (15 June 1914), pp. 161-169 (data on p. 169).

The two rack and adhesion locomotives described in Locobase 20295 had satisfactory power but apparently not enough boiler and grate for the longer runs on the rack sections of this precipitous railway. So Borsig returned with an engine in many ways identical to the earlier 4 and 5 and used the same rack drive train as the earlier locomotives as well. But the 6 carried a much bigger Belpaire firebox, grate, and boiler to be supported by a trailing bogie. Its newer boiler was angled downward at a 1 in 25 pitch to minimize the boiler water level's change between level and rack running.

Its greater size and steaming capacity allowed the 6 to pull trains directly from from the Los Andes starting point clear up to the Summit tunnel. As a rule, however, the 6 would, like other R & As, be cut off at Rio Branco.