Canton-Hankow 2-6-0 Locomotives in China

Class 11 (Locobase 12981)

Data from "Equipment and Supplies - Locomotive Building," Railroad Age Gazette, Volume 45, Issues 23-30 (4 November 1908), p. 1313. See also See also Julean Arnold, Commercial Handbook of China, Volume I, Miscellaneous Series-No 84 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1919)., pp 95-97. See also "Catalogue 10036--Locomotives for Export (New York City: American Locomotive Company, 1910), pp. 52-53. Works numbers were 45766-45771 in February 1909.

The Canton-Hankow represented an ambitious plan to link the port of Canton with Hankow 720 miles (1,159 km) away in Hupeh Province. The American China Development Company began work in 1902 by constructing a twelve-mile spur to Fatshan that opened in 1904. A falling out between the contractors and the Chinese authorities coupled with the revelation that much of the ACDC's capital came from Belgian interests led to an August 1905 buy-out in which the concession was canceled upon payment of $6,750,000 in gold.

Now completely funded by local Chinese interests, the C-H grew slowly, principally because of "disagreements between shareholders and the resulting changes of administration," wrote Arnold ," but floods, landslides, etc. have also contributed their quota."

Arnold reported that the 85 lb/yard (42.5 kg/metre) rails were of American, Belgian, and Chinese manufacture, the latter from Hanyang Iron & Steel Works of Hankow. The motive power was American-built (Alco and Baldwin) and much of the infrastructure came from the United States as well. By 1919, the C-H ran for 139 miles (224 km) between Canton and Hsiukwan. At that time, the railroad was not a success financially.

The Alco Catalogue names the railway as the Kwong-Tung Yueh-Han, but all of the internal evidence suggests that this is the order they describe. The firebox heating surface area included 20 sq ft (1.86 sq m) of "water tubes". The RAG failed to include a few datapoints (like wheelbases), but they did list the "special equipment." Locobase likes to include these lists to preserve the information about the network of component suppliers necessary to equip an early 20th-Century locomotive as well as the materials used in these elements:

Axles Open-hearth steel

Bell ringers Sansom

Boiler lagging sectional magnesia

Brakes WestInghouse-American combined

Couplers Janney

Driving boxes Cast steel

Headlight 11 In. round case

Injectors Nathan, Monitor No. 8

Journal bearings Bronze

Piston and valve rod packing Jerome

Safety valve Coale encased, 3 In.

Sanding devices pneumatic

Lubricators Nathan

Springs Cast steel

Staying Double refined Iron

Tires Open-hearth steel

Wheel centers Cast steel

Staybolts A. L. Co.'s standard flexible