Chaparra Sugar Company 2-2-2 Locomotives in Cuba

Class Inspection (Locobase 13190)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 31, p. 53. (Thanks to Anthony Williams for his 20 October 2022 email correcting the 11's rail gauge from standard to 3 feet.) Works number was 32026 in October 1907.

The specifications for this tiny inspection locomotive required coal and water capacity for a 42-mile run over 45-lb/yard (22.5 kg/metre) track. Its engine was to be able to move the one car up a 2% grade at 20 mph (32 km/h) and to pull a trailing car weighing 15 tons (13,608 kg) up the same grade at 12 mph (19 km/h).

It had an engineer's compartment and a passenger compartment that would accommodate eight wicker chairs under a "firmly secured" roof and window openings protected by rain-proof curtains. Its cab was lettered unambiguously "Carro de Inspeccion".

A 1980 Cuban stamp, one in a series of "Locomotoras Antiguas", shows how the vehicle resembled a short tram car except for the pilot at each end, the cylinders driving outside, and the evenly spaced axles under the body.

Locobase was surprised to learn that Chaparra bought another inspection engine in 1919; see Locobase 14899.

Class Inspection 1919 (Locobase 14899)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 64, p. 256 and 258. (Thanks to Anthony Williams for his 20 October 2022 email correcting the rail gauge from standard to 3 feet.)Works numbers were 52130 in August 1919 and 53062 in March 1920.

Locobase figured that the tiny inspection engine bought by Cuban American Sugar Compan for the Chaparra Railroad in 1907 (Locobase 13190) would be unique. Discovering that there were two more of the same type delivered more than twelve years later was a pleasant surprise.

The motive power section duplicated that of the 11, except that the boiler now burned oil. And the design put on some weight thanks to the modified requirements for the passenger car, which the specifications spell out in detail:

"Body of car is to seat as many as possible comfortably (about eleven)." They'd sit on three cross-seats with end armrests. The "throw-over" seats used in trolley cars (Hale and Kilburn Corp. No 73 reversible seats) are described dow to the seat spring and arm rest. The "upholstery" was described as "twill weave, hard enameled, canvas lined rattan."

The engineer's window was to have an awning, which doesn't appear in a builder's photograph of the 33 that shows the tops of the three throw-over seats facing to the rear.