Bocas de Ceniza 2-8-2 Locomotives in Colombia


Class Details by Steve Llanso of Sweat House Media

Class 1 (Locobase 15378)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 78, pp. 182+.See also Manuel Jose Uribe Cualla, "Bocas de Ceniza o El Elefante Blanco," El Tiempo (Bogota, Col), 15 Nov 1928, pp. 1, 3. Works numbers were 58835-58840 in November 1925.

Described as "switchers", this sextet of Mikado tanks were intended to roll on 60-lb/yard (30-kg/metre) rail and negotiate 25 degree (radii of 229 feet) curves. Bocas de Ceniza were the sandbar that blocked the mouth of the Magdalena river delta near Barranquilla that was not navigable. Ulen & Company contracted in 1924 to build a terminal to improve the sea-river terminal facilities and bought this set of engines to serve their project.

By the end of 1928, the improvement program was being described as a white elephant in a scathing newspaper report in November 1928. Uribe Cualla imagined that when they signed the contract with Ulen & Company, they were getting a contractor with great echnical capacity who would apply its skills in short order to open the Bocas de Ceniza. He claimed to be unable to think of another reason to explain the generous scope and limited oversight found in the contract they awarded.

But as competent as Ulen & Company may have been in other projects, they fell far short at the Bocas. The engineer in charge of the works was "mediocre" and "in such questions of organization, vanity played a great role." As a result, the project was run by whim rather than by committed, technical leadership, according to Uribe Cualla. And they were ill-equipped to deal with the unforeseen calamities that afflict every engineering effort. The whole article is quite an indictment. "Day by day, "Uribe Cualla concludes,"Boca de Ceniza is nothing but a costly laboratory rabbit in the control of inexperienced hands. But this rabbit, in a rare metamorphosis, is aquiring the proportions of a white elephant."

Ulen & Company in turn accused the government of failing to meet its contractual obligations, only slowly paying its bills, and entangling the project in bureaucratic delays.

When their efforts ground to a halt in 1929, the project languished as local businessman (and Iowa native) Karl C Parrish made the rounds of financial institutions and finally secured the funds needed to persuade the national government to award a contract to the Winston Brothers company to finish the work. The facilities were formally inaugurated in 1936.

Principal Dimensions by Steve Llanso of Middle Run Media
Class1
Locobase ID15378
RailroadBocas de Ceniza
CountryColombia
Whyte2-8-2T
Number in Class6
Road Numbers1-6
GaugeStd
Number Built6
BuilderBaldwin
Year1925
Valve GearWalschaert
Locomotive Length and Weight
Driver Wheelbase (ft / m)11.50 / 3.51
Engine Wheelbase (ft / m)25.83 / 7.87
Ratio of driving wheelbase to overall engine wheelbase 0.45
Overall Wheelbase (engine & tender) (ft / m)25.83 / 7.87
Axle Loading (Maximum Weight per Axle) (lbs / kg)
Weight on Drivers (lbs / kg)104,000 / 47,174
Engine Weight (lbs / kg)130,000 / 58,967
Tender Loaded Weight (lbs / kg)
Total Engine and Tender Weight (lbs / kg)
Tender Water Capacity (gals / ML)1800 / 6.82
Tender Fuel Capacity (oil/coal) (gals/tons / Liters/MT)650 / 2460
Minimum weight of rail (calculated) (lb/yd / kg/m)43 / 21.50
Geometry Relating to Tractive Effort
Driver Diameter (in / mm)41 / 1041
Boiler Pressure (psi / kPa)180 / 1240
High Pressure Cylinders (dia x stroke) (in / mm)17" x 22" / 432x559
Tractive Effort (lbs / kg)23,726 / 10761.95
Factor of Adhesion (Weight on Drivers/Tractive Effort) 4.38
Heating Ability
Tubes (number - dia) (in / mm)139 - 2" / 51
Flues (number - dia) (in / mm)
Flue/Tube length (ft / m)13 / 3.96
Firebox Area (sq ft / m2)76 / 7.06
Grate Area (sq ft / m2)17.70 / 1.64
Evaporative Heating Surface (sq ft / m2)1016 / 94.42
Superheating Surface (sq ft / m2)
Combined Heating Surface (sq ft / m2)1016 / 94.42
Evaporative Heating Surface/Cylinder Volume175.79
Computations Relating to Power Output (More Information)
Robert LeMassena's Power Computation3186
Same as above plus superheater percentage3186
Same as above but substitute firebox area for grate area13,680
Power L12971
Power MT251.92

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