Central Najasa / Central Narcisa / Central Niagara 2-6-0 Locomotives in Cuba

Class 1 (Locobase 14831)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 64, p. 67. Works number was 54263 in January 1921.

The Province of Camagney had been known as a cattle-ranching region, but the world-wide demand for sugar led to a complete agricultural turnover in favor of sugar cane.

The Najasa took delivery of this small multi-fuel plantation Mogul as its first engine before the Central opened at Hatuey in March 1921. At the time, the Compania Azucarera Najasa expected the mill to process 150,000 bags of sugar per year.

After the 1959 Revolucion and expropriation, the Najasa was renamed for Alfredo Alvarez Mola.

Class 1 (Locobase 14835)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 64, p.78. Works number was 55198 in November 1921.

Central Niagara was built in Pinar del Rio Province on the western end of the island of Cuba. It opened in 1922 and ran this small plantation Mogul to move the cane and sugar.

Class 3 (Locobase 14836)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 64, p.80. Works number was 56920 in August 1923.

This plantation Mogul was a bit bigger than the first Central Niagara Baldwin, but it too was constrained by both track and loading gauges. Its later history varies a bit from most Cuban sugar engines. It later operated on the Central Mercedita mill at Mariel near Havana. After the 1959 Revolucion and expropriation, the engine belonged to the Augusto Cesar Sandino. Unusually, it was numbered 2 rather than the usual 4-digit number.

And its final resting place was on the Lenin Park Railway, which [] tells us runs through much of Lenin Park in northern Havana and is a proper tourist attraction.

Class Dick (Locobase 13287)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 32, p. 9. See also Luis A Perez, Cuba Under the Platt Amendment, 1902-1934 (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1986), pp. 127-128. [See also Locobase 12041 for a citation to another history of Cuba: Sugar and Railroads.] Thanks also to Marcos Iglesias, who emailed Locobase in January 2013 with some much-appreciated corrections. Works numbers were 33067 in December 1908 and 38694 in November 1912.

"Dick" was ordered by the North American Sugar Company for the Central Narcisa; "Nun+" was given #7 and arrived almost 5 years later. According to Marcos Iglesias: "The name was changed to (Ra+l, later on. There is a Nun+ still living in New Orleans. Probably the Nun+ that you mention was a granddaughter of the one still living. Ra+l was the name of Ra+l Menocal, later Mayor of Havana and married to a daughter of Alberto Fowler, who was the administrator of Ferrocarril CaibairTn Morón."

The 2-ft 3 1/2" gauge given in the specs is equivalent to 698.5 mm, so Locobase rounded up to 70 cm, which was used by several light-rail sugar operations. Baldwin plantation Moguls of just this size served in several countries.

North American Sugar, which owned sixty kilometres (37 1/4 miles) of sugar properties between Caibarien east to the Jatabonico River. Perez notes that that railway was named the Caibarien a Moron and it competed with a Cuban-government-subsidized Caibarien a Nuevitas line. As the Americans saw it, according to Perez, the "Palace Clique" within the Cuban government that pushed the bill to authorize the C a N was highly corrupt and, moreover, not American.

Class unknown (Locobase 14832)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 64, p. 69. Works number was 54239 in January 1921.

As the CN prepared to open in 1921, it bought this relatively large oil-burning plantation Mogul from Baldwin's stock. It faced relatively gentle operating conditions on this Camagney Province central. Adverse grades with load amounted to a mild 0.7% and the main line's Number 8 frogs were curved to radii of 603 feet (183.8 metres). Within the Batey, the tighter Number 6 frogs still allowed radii of 339 feet (103.3 metres). Rail weights were a relatively sturdy 60-65 lb/yard (30-32.5 kg/metre).