FC de Antioquia 2-6-2 Locomotives in Colombia

Class Bonifacio Velez (Locobase 12221)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 20, p. 108. Purl Lord Bell, Colombia: a commercial and industrial handbook (United States. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of Foreign and , 1921), p. 296. Works number was 14766 in March 1896.

Just so the shops would know just what level of challenge lay ahead for this little tank-with-tender locomotive, the specs described the fuel as "rather poor wood." And the railway presented the engine with 4-4.2% grades to scale, but relatively gentle curves of 231 metres (less than 5-deg) radii.

Trailing the tender behind the tank engine conferred two benefits, Locobase surmises. In additional to the extra water available in a dry region and room for the 3 cords of wood this locomotive needed to carry, the 700 gallons of water in the side tanks contributed almost 3 tons of adhesive weight.

According to Bell's 1921 report of "expert opinion", many Colombian railways should never have been built or been built elsewhere. The Antioquia qualified: "The Antioquia Railway from Puerto Berrio to Medellin (as yet uncompleted) was also badly located; it should have been constructed down the Porce Valley to the north from Medellin to seek a direct rail outlet to the sea at Cartagena, thus obviating the necessity of the long 400-mile river haul, always slow and costly, and at the same time opening up a rich mining and agricultural section in the Departments of Antioquia and Bolivar.