Central German / Central Guipuzcoa / Central Guira 2-8-0 Locomotives in Cuba

Class 4 (Locobase 14812)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 64, pp. 22. Works number 52574 in November 1919.

Cuban 30"-gauge sugar roads bought several of this plantation Consolidation design from Baldwin for more than a decade. The Central Guira, located at Guira de Melena in Havana Province, presented a typical set of operating conditions including 40 lb/yard (20 kg/metre) rail and curve radii as low as 90 feet (27.4 metres).

The CG did find one detail in need of correction. Apparently the valve train set up choked the engine down a bit because a "Hereafter" note requested that in the future "Reverse links to be made 2" longer to provide for 4 1/2" valve travel."

The Central Guira found itself in a region heavily laced with sugar mills and was rumored in 1918 to be moving elsewhere. It did not do so, at least right away. But perhaps it did so later because the 4 later operated on the Azucarera de Guines Central Providencia. This mill was renamed Osvaldo Sanchez after the post-Revolucion expropriation of all private property.

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Class 5 (Locobase 14856)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Vol 64, p. 132. Works number was 53563 in July 1920 and 53954 in November

Originally ordered by the Central Baguanos in Oriente Province, then resold to the Central Ramona in Santa Clara Province, these oil-burning plantation Consolidation was actually delivered to San Germán, which was located at Urbano Noris, also in Oriente. The second was one of two originally ordered by the Central San Cristobal. The pair was then ordered by San Germán, but one of these was diverted to the Southern Sugar Company for their Central Union.

The Antilla Sugar Company, a subsidiary of the Punta Alegre Sugar Company (in turn controlled by Chase Bank), bought the San Germán (and the Presidente) in 1925. After the 1959 Revolucion and expropriation, the San Germán was renamed for the town of Urbano Noris.

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Class unknown (Locobase 15014)

Data from Roy V Wright (Ed.) 1922 Locomotive Cyclopedia of American Practice, Sixth Edition (New York: Simmons-Boardman Publishing Company, 1922), p. 1008.

This sugar mill was located at Martf in Matanzas Province. After the 1959 Revolucion and nationalization, the mill was renamed for Esteban Hernandez.

NB: 22 inches (559 mm) was the stroke length given in the Locomotive Cyclopedia. However, that yields 18,236 lb (8,272 kg) tractive effort, much higher than the value given in the same listing. When stroke length is adjusted to 20", it results in a nearly identical TE to that given. Of the 55 other 2-8-0s running on the762 mm gauge in Locobase at the time this entry was created, none had a stroke length longer than 20".