2-8-0 Steam Locomotives in Cuba

Class 10 (Locobase 14438)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 54, p. 175. Works numbers were 42204-42205 in July 1915, 46967-46968 in November 1917, and 47235-47236 in December.

Baldwin repeated the 1914 plantation Consolidation design (Locobase 14437) for the MSC, the only change being a shift to coal. Rocking bars helped sift the ash and a straight stack did for the exhaust. Otherwise the engines were identical.

Class 14 (Locobase 14439)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 54, p. 183. Works numbers were 343983-43986 in July 1916.

The 1912 plantation Consolidations shown in Locobase 14022 were of the slightly larger of two designs that the Manati adopted for its 2-8-0s.When MSC repeated the design in a four-engine order in 1916, its sole change was the resort to coal fuel and the use of a straight stack and rocking bars.

By 1920, the MSC would report that it had 223 km (139 miles) of 3-foot gauge railroad in service. Its rolling stock for this gauge included 29 locomotives, 700 cane cars, 163 flat cars, 25 tank cars, 10 box cars, 4 cabooses, and 4 auxiliary cars.

Class 3 (Locobase 14022)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 44, p. 294 and 49, p. 48.Works numbers were 38971 in December 1912 and 40111 in July 1913.

Wood-burning Consolidations that served this sugar processor, which began construction in 1912 of its 45 lb/yard (22.5 kg/metre) rail network that served the 76,000 acres (31,667 hectares) of sugar cane in the Oriente Province. The system opened in 1914.

[Mark J Smith analyses the approach to sugar biotechnology undertaken at the Central Manati in Susan Schepfer and Philip Scranton (eds), Industrializing Organisms: Introducing Evolutionary History (New York: Routledge Psychology Press, 2003), pp. 97-104. In "Creating an Industrial Plant: The Biotechnology of Sugar Production in Cuba," Smith notes that the well-known Rionda family sought ways to avoid exhausting the land and get more sugar out of a ton of cane and more cane out of an acre. "The integration of plants, science, technology, and corporate management added up to substantial profit for the Manati Sugar Company," says Smith.]

Class 6 (Locobase 14437)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 54, p. 173. Works numbers were 41514-41515 in June 1914.

This pair of wood-burning plantation Consolidations were scaled down from the two 1912 locomotives shown in Locobase 14022. Tube diameter and length decreased as did weight and wheelbase, although the tender remained the same. They also sported spark-arresting Radley & Hunter stacks.

Class 61 (Locobase 14442)

Data from DeGolyer, Vol 64, pp. 353 and pp. 355. Works numbers were 54227-54228 in December 1920 and 57095 in September 1923.

Fowler Estates had ordered three plantation Consolidations in September 1920, one each for Parque Alto, Constancia, and Dos Hermanas Sugar companies. The crash in sugar prices may have prompted a retraction. In any case, two of the three engines wound up with Manati. They were a bit smaller than the MSC's 4-6-0s as well as lighter and not superheated, but had longer wheelbases and were available "off the shelf". A third built to the same design arrived two years later.