Central Esperanza / Central Estrella 2-8-0 Locomotives in Cuba

Class 7 (Locobase 14802)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines, 1903, as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 63, pp. 415+. Works number was 55127 in September 1920.

Locobase 14016 shows the Central Esperanza with rails laid to the 70 cm gauge when Baldwin delivered the #2 in 1909. This oil-burning plantation Consolidation was built to run on the standard gauge on a relatively straight alignment and on maximum grades of 2%. So Locobase figures that this engine connected the processing mill with a main line like the Guantanamo & Western.

Certainly the note in the specs referring to the Norte's 2-8-0s (Locobase 14427) suggest as much. One construction detail was to have the "fire box ...supported to frames" like those of the Norte engines. The 7 also had 11" (279 mm) piston valves.

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Class 8 (Locobase 14801)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines, 1903, as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 63, pp. 413+. Works number 55127 in November 1921.

A year and a half after the CE took delivery of a standard-gauge Ten-wheeler (Locobase 14802), Baldwin produced this oil-burner to the plantation's 80 cm gauge (wider than the 1909 gauge of 70 cm). Even so, rails on the cane road were still very light at 35 lb/yard (17.5 kg/metre) and curves were particularly tight with radii of 190 feet (57.9 metres).

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Class Domingo Leon (Locobase 14804)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 63, pp. 422-423. Works numbers were 52297 in September 1919 and 53725 in September 1920.

See Locobase 14803 for an account of the establishment of this Central in 1918. The #5 was another example of the larger type of plantation Consolidations being delivered to Cuban processors in this period. In this case, the specification reports, the engine would run on the Cuban Central Railways' line where it would encounter a 2% grade running for 300 metres (984 feet).

When the second engine arrived, it burned oil; see Locobase 20803.

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Class Domingo Leon (Locobase 20803)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 63, pp. 424-425. Works number was 53725 in September 1920.

See Locobase 14804 for the first of two larger plantation Consolidations being delivered to Cuban processors in this period. In this case, the specification reports, the engine would run on the Cuban Central Railways' line where it would encounter a 2% grade running for 300 metres (984 feet).

The 5 burned coal, but when this second engine arrived, it burned oil with a BLW standard arrangement that put the burner at the front end of the firebox.