United Fruit 2-6-0 Locomotives in Costa_Rica

Class 1 (Locobase 12498)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines, 1903, as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 23, p. 284. Works numbers were 18985-18986 in May 1901 and 25280-25281 in March 1905.

As United Fruit started stocking its Central American railways, the company bought eight Moguls from Baldwin in 1901. The four small engines are shown in Locobase 14297. The larger 2-6-0s appear here. They used the same design as the trio sent to the Sudan earlier and shown in Locobase 12325.

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Class 3 (Locobase 12497)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines, 1903, as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 23, p. 284. Works numbers were 18926-18927 in April 1901, 19742 in November, and 21577 in January 1903.

United Fruit was founded in 1899 by Andrew Preston and Andrew C Keith and quickly began building its network of Central American plantations, shipping companies, and railways.

To pull the trains, United Fruit bought two different batches of Moguls. The earlier order concerned these quite small 2-6-0s for the 3/4 gauge; 4 larger Moguls appear in Locobase 12498. They were the first of dozens that would operate in costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Panama.

The tenders of 3 & 4 were lettered for the Northern Railway of Costa Rica. Both 5 -- named Limon on delivery -- 6 operated on the FC de Sur (Southern Railway of Costa Rica). 3 later worked for the Truxillo Railway in Honduras.

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Class 43 (Locobase 13171)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines, 1903, as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 30, p. 282. Works numbers were 31807, 31825 in September 1907; 31846, 31880, 31894, 31896-31897 in October.

Locobase 12498 shows a large order of Moguls delivered to United Fruit in 1901. Six years later, the big fruit trust returned to Baldwin and repeated the design in this septet. The only significant difference was a 20-psi increase in boiler pressure.

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Class 7 (Locobase 11485)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 26, p. 182. Works number was 23531 in January 1904 and 23881 in March.

The 7 actually went to the Trujillo Railway in Honduras. The 9 joined her later.