Ferrocarril Pacifico de Colombia Beyer-Garratt Locomotives in Colombia

Class 29 (Locobase 584)

Data from Gavin Hamilton (RIP 2021) at "A Complete list of Garratt Locomotive dimensions", [], last accessed 1 October 2022. See also Colombia. Ministerio de Obras P blicas y Transporte, Memoria del Ministro de Obras Publicas al Congreso de 1925 (Bogota: National Printing, 1925), pp. XVIII-XIX. One of only two classes of Garratts turned out by this builder. Works numbers 565-566 in 1924.

Like virtually all Beyer, Peacock Garratts, this locomotive used a Belpaire firebox. Soon after delivery, the Public Works and Transport Ministry reported to the Colombian congress on the initial difficulties in obtaining this pair and the considerable increase in hauling ability they demonstrated once they entered service.

As Locobase translates the commentary, a considerable expansion (more than 150 km/93 miles) created a demand that led to orders from European and North American builders. The ministry said that problems arose with Armstrong Whitworth in which some "mild deficiencies" occurred because specifications either weren't sent or were incomplete. In 1923, the Director of Railways sought to put a final point on "traditional errors, deficiencies and high prices". Once the locomotives entered service, their qualities "definitively ended this pitiful episode."

The report noted what the Garratts brought to the Pacifico: "The higher percentage of adhesion weight of the vehicles of this system, the particular characteristics of the articulation and the great boiler capacity ...[help to resolve] the peculiarly local problems of our singularly mountainous lines."

And, according to the Ministry, the two Garratts lived up to their billing, either one showing the ability to pull a 200 ton load up a 4% grade, which represented a 50% higher output than the maximum capacity of the railway's earlier locomotives. The increase in tractive power "constitutes an incalculable economy" in moving tonnage over the road.

Gavin Hamilton (RIP 2021) wrote [] -- wrote that the pair were retired in 1944 as being "unsuited to the Pacifico's needs".