Banes Railroad 2-8-0 Locomotives in Cuba

Class 12 (Locobase 11522)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 26, p. 182. See also Joshua Henry Nadel, Processing Modernity: Social and Cultural Adaptation in Eastern Cuba, 1902--1933 (University of North Carolina Press, 2007), especially pp. 88-100. Works number was 23786 in February 1904.

Banes was already the center of a banana-growing region when Boston Fruit put down stakes in 1897. Boston Fruit then merged with Tropical Trading and Transport to form United Fruit. UFC began constructing a large and modern sugar processing plant at Central Boston in 1901.

The company's substantial investment in its sugar-growing and processing operations on one bank of the Banes River prompted a boom in the small agricultural settlement served by a small narrow-gauge railway. Nadel reports, however, that it was only when Banes established itself as an independent municipality that expansion and modernization, greatly aided by the United Fruit infrastructure across the river, could mushroom.

The town's residential areas were divided into barrios according to a hierarchy of skills and authority with the barrio Americano hosting the upper-level managers in large homes, mid-level managers in smaller homes on less property, on down to the barrio amarillo, which consisted of small, yellow-painted dwellings for the laborers. Cuban historian Jose Vega Sunol argues that race and class had as much to do with this segregation as did company hierarchy. Nadel describes the impetus as a "rationalized production of space conveying both social and racial hierarchy."

Small locomotive to serve banana plantations - in fact quite a bit smaller than many other narrow-gauge Consolidations being built in the first decade of the 20th Century. Its diminuitive size is attributable to the lightness of the 40-lb/yard (20-kg/metre) rail used on the 29 miles (46.7 km) of track built by H Dumois before he sold his holdings to Boston Fruit. The Banes connected with the much larger Cuba Railroad at Antilla in Nipe Bay.

Sold by March 1935 to Panama's FC Nacional de Chiriqui as its #3. (Locobase wonders how much trade there must have been in shipping used locomotives around the Caribbean. Obviously someone thought it was worth the trouble and expense to move this little Consolidation.)

Class 13 (Locobase 12989)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 29, p 135. Works numbers were 28524 in July 1906, 28828 in August, and 28969 in September.

Class 18 (Locobase 13751)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines, 1903, as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 36, p. 21. Works number was 35725 in December 1910.

The Banes had bought a very similar engine from Baldwin in 1904 (Locobase 11522). A note on the specs said the 18 had to produced "in time for steamer sailing from New York Dec. 28th, 1910". The order date of 10/29/10 indicates how responsive the big Philadelphia could be.

Several years later, the 18 took an even longer trip than her sister when she was transferred to the Santa Marta Railway in Colombia as their 28. Santa Marta was a Caribbean port served by this 99-mile (160-km), British-owned railway from the interior.

By 1926, the SMRwy had been renamed the Magdalena.

Class 19 (Locobase 14444)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 54, p 185. Works numbers were 44273 in October 1916.

A later Banes Railroad Consolidation order (Locobase 14445) noted that the boiler on this plantation 2-8-0 "gave trouble on account of leaks".

Class 20 (Locobase 14445)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 66, p 1. Works numbers were 51447-51448 in March 1919.

Locobase 14444 noted that the Banes Railroad had complained that their 1916 Baldwin Consolidation had leaked. Indeed, the note had a chiding tone: "Careful attention is to be given to workmanship on boiler and firebox to prevent leaking at seams." Perhaps the pains Baldwin took are the source of a 3 1/2 ton (3.2 metric ton) increase in adhesion weight and a 4-ton (3.6 metric ton) increase in overall engine weight. Moreover, the back of the firebox measured 6 1/2" (165 mm) deeper than in the 1916 engine.

The redesign may have done the trick as the next set of Consolidations mated a superheated boiler to the firebox; see Locobases 14446 and 14447.

In the 1930s, United Fruit moved this pair to Guatemala.

Class 22 (Locobase 14446)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 66, p 4 and 8. Works number was 52025 in July 1919.

Locobase notes that the firebox area in this plantation Consolidation is given as 79 sq ft(7.34 sq m) on the Baldwin specification page. However, all of the firebox dimensions are identical to the earlier engines and at first he was tempted to adopt the latter measurement. On the other hand, all of the boiler tubes were shorter by 4 1/2 inches (114 mm), so the design of the boiler is clearly different. The big change from the two earlier engines was the adoption of a useful amount of superheat in a relatively small setup. Its firebox was designed to be readily convertible to oil-firing.

The next three locomotives (Locobase 14447) were oil-fired.

In the 1930s, United Fruit moved this engine to the Tela Railway in Honduras as their 42.

Class 23 (Locobase 14447)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 64, p 8. Works numbers were 54245-54246 in January 1921 and 55258 in January 1922.

Now that the Banes had superheated its Baldwin plantation Consolidation design (Locobase 14446), its next change was to adopt oil firing. The fuel switch may account for the drop in firebox heating surface owing to the installation of fire brick as a lining. The design still used 8" (203 mm) piston valves.

While the locomotive was otherwise untouched, the tender added 3 tons (2.7 metric tons) of weight as it now contained 1,500 US gallons of oil. (5,678 litres).

In the 1930s, all three would move to the Tela Railway in Honduras and be renumbeed 43-45