Norte de Colombia 2-6-0 Locomotives in Colombia

Class 3 (Locobase 15073)

Data fromBaldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 66, pp 108+. Works numbers were 54816-54817 in May 1921 and 55019-55020 in September.

These Moguls were headed for passenger and freight service on the Norte and, like several post World War One orders for Colombian railways, had a good amount of superheat and piston valves (8"/203 mm in these 2-6-0s). The road had 60 lb/yard (30 kg/metre) rail. The railway scaled grades as steep as 3% compensated, got around curves with radii as tight as 328 feet (100 metres) or 17 1/2 degrees, and passed through tunnels just 4 metres (13 feet 1 1/2 inches) wide by 6 metres (19 feet 8 inches) high.

Class 9 (Locobase 13467)

Data fromBaldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 32, p 244. Works number was 32840 in June 1908 and 34134 in December 1909.

The FC de Norte de Colombia was planned in 1872 with the goal to unite the capital of Bogota with the Caribbean. It was to be laid from Buenaventura Bay on the Pacific Ocean and in the department of Cauca and head east over the cordillera and through the departments of Tolima, Cundinamarca, Boyacá y Santander, connecting ultimately with the Magdalena River. The Magdalena flows through the north -central plains of Colombia to Barranquilla on the Caribbean coast.

That over-ambitious project was never even begun, but English interests later funded a railway with much more modest dimensions. In 1908, this Norte connected Bogota with Nenocon, which lay 62 km (38.5 miles) away.