FC de C+cuta / FC de Caldas 2-4-2 Locomotives in Colombia

Class Tonchala (Locobase 14500)

Data from DeGolyer, Vol 54, pp. 304. Works number was 41307 in April 1914.

Yglesia, Lobo & Company bought this tiny double-ender tank to run on 30 lb/yard (15 kg/metre) rail and scale 2 1/2% grades.

Class Zapata (Locobase 14501)

Data from DeGolyer, Vol 54, pp. 308. See also Gabriel Poveda, "El Ferrocarril de Caldas", DYNA 70, Nro 139, pp. 139 (Medellin, Colombia: Julio de 2003) at []. Works number was 42964 in February 1916.

Ordered by broker Meckle & Company, this engine was similar to the Cucuta saddle-tank double-ender bought two years earlier (Locobase 14500). Like the Tonchala, this wood-burner also was to run "forward and backward."

The specs give a good outline of the railway on which the Zapata (named for civil engineer Felipe Zapata Cuenca) was to operate. It would be 75 miles (121 km) long when completed and use 55 lb/yard (27.5 kg/metre) rail. As it climbed out of the valley of the Rio Cauaca toward Pereira (1920), Villamaria (1925), and Manizales (1927), the line's maximum grade would reach 3% and curves would have radii as tight as 236 feet (71.9 metres) or 24 degrees. Water tanks were spaced 10 1/2 miles (16.9 km) apart. Also, "Locomotive to work at altitude of 6,500 feet [1,981 metres] above sea level." And the Radley & Hunter stack and spark arrestor were "to be efficient to avoid fires."