Francisco Sugar 2-6-0 Locomotives in Cuba

Class 4 (Locobase 12936)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 28. p. 238. See also Ana Margarita Cervantes-Rodrfguez, Alejandro (FRW) Portes, International Migration in Cuba: Accumulation, Imperial Designs, and Transnational Social Fields (State College, PA: Penn State Press, 2010) and Cesar J Ayala, American sugar kingdom: the plantation economy of the Spanish Caribbean, 1898-1934 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1999). Works numbers were 27084 in January 1906 and 36576 in May 1911.

These Moguls were delivered with fireboxes that could burn either wood or coal. When hauling wood, the tender could hold 3 1/2 cords.

Francisco Sugar in Camaguey Province was founded by one of three nephews of a prominent Spanish-born Cuban Joaquin Polledo Rionda. Eventually, all three -- Franicisco Joaquin, and Manuel -- would attain positions of importance in international sugar companies.

In 1909, the railway that moved the processed sugar from the mill to the wharf covered 10 miles and used 45 to 60-lb/yard (22.5 to 30-kg/metre) rail.

Class Francisco 1 (Locobase 12504)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 24, p. 16. Works numbers were 19183-19184 in July 1901.

The Francisco Sugar Company cut its first cane on the south coast of Cuba near Camaguey in 1895. Founded by Francisco Rionda, the company was buffeted by the War of Independence, Francisco's death in1898, and the US landings in 1898. Brother Manuel Rionda struck an agreement with owners of the W. J. McCahan Sugar Refinery in Philadelphia. At the time the Francisco estate encompassed 80,000 acres (32,389 ha).

McCahan retained a stake in the company until 1909 when the Rionda family bought them out.