Mercedita 2-6-0 Locomotives in Cuba

Class 3 (Locobase 13627)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 44, p. 282. Works number was 39006 in January 1913.

Among Cuban American Sugar's holdings in Cuba was the Mercedita some 40 miles out of Havana. By 1912, the mill had made 84,558 bags and would reach 112,000 bags in 1913 from 10,000 acres of sugar-cane.

Although this locomotive was labeled for the Mercedita and given the number 3, it apparently changed its number very quickly to 20 because another #3 (Locobase 13629) came along before the end of the year.

Class 3 (Locobase 13629)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 49, p. 34. Works number was 40595 in September 1913.

This is a little curious. At the beginning of 1913, Cuban American Sugar bought a medium-size skinny-gauge Mogul for its Mercedita plantation in Cuba and gave it #3; see Locobase 13627. Eleven months later, the Mercedita ordered another Mogul with much smaller dimensions for the same road and bearing the same number. Que pasa?

The 3 would toil on the Mercedita rails for decades. After the 1959 Revolucion and expropriation, the Central was renamed for Augusto Cesar Sandino and the 3 was renumbered 1210.

Its final destination was the Lenin Park Railway in northern Havana, where it regained its original number and operated tourist trains.