Guayaquil a Quito 2-6-0 Locomotives in Ecuador

Class 10 (Locobase 12442)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works, Record of Recent Construction ((1903), No. 31, p. 20-21; and DeGolyer, Volume 23, p. 127. Works numbers were 18060 in August 1900, 18114 in September.

Bought by the "Ecuadorian Association of Scotland" (obviously a group bent on One-World Government), this pair were the freight version of the 48" drivered mixed-traffic engines shown in Locobase 10773. All the Moguls were wood-burners and used the same boiler design, but this duo had narrow grates that rode between the frames.

These Moguls were operated by the G & Q. #11 was rebuilt in 1955, renamed Duran and given number 8.

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Class 12 (Locobase 10773)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works, Record of Recent Construction ((1903), No. 31, p. 20-21; and DeGolyer, Volume 23, p. 126. See also "Ecuador", Monthly Bulletin of the Bureau of the American Republics, Volume X [10], No. 1 (January 1901), p. 71; and Kaushik Patowary, "The Devil´s Nose Railroad ", post dated 3 June 2016 on the Amusing Planet blog at [], last accessed 15 July 2021. Works numbers were 18427-18428 in December 1900, 19153-19154 in June 1901, 19346-19347 in July 1901

These Moguls were ordered on the same day (20 June 1900) as the pair described in Locobase 12442. They used the same boiler and burned wood for fuel, but not in the same firebox. This design's furnace was shallower to provide for the wider grate extending over taller drivers. Locobase supposes these were the mixed-traffic locomotives. All of Baldwin's weight estimates (driving, engine, and loaded tender) proved heavier than the commensurate values of the delivered locomotives.

Bought by the "Ecuadorian Association of Scotland" they were operated by the G&Q. (Locobase hasn't found any additional information about the owners of the G&Q.) The BAR's Monthly Bulletin reported that on 9 July 1900, the EAS had awarded a $16 million contract to build "sections" of the G&Q through the Andes mountains. Total length was to be 300 miles (483 km) of which the first 100 miles (161 km) will require "very heavy" work, "being mostly sidehill and rock work." Once on the Andes Plateau, 12,000 ft (3,658 m) above sea level, more level terrain would cover the rest of the distance.

"Great obstacles" presented themselves, such as the need to cross the Chan Chan river 26 times. According to the report,the G&Q's first 200 miles (322 km) would ascend 11,700 feet (3,566 m). One 50-mile (81 km) section would climb a continuous 4% grade. BAR noted that the line was to be "a first-class road in every detail."

Kaushik Patowary supplied details of the "obstacle": "Frequent seismic activity, heavy rainfall, jaguars, poisonous snakes, malaria, dysentery, and yellow fever delayed progress." Most imposing of all was the Nariz del Diablo (Devil's Nose), an 800-meter cliff between Alausi and Sibambe. The best the engineers could do was to create a "narrow cornice" rising at 3/5% on which they would build a series of switchbacks."

Workers on the Nariz del Diablo probably agreed with local belief tha tthe Devil hadn't want anyone to build a railway. Patowary noted that by the end of this section's construction, more than 2,000 workers (and chief civil engineer Major John Harman) had died "from disease, labor, or the climate." Grimmer still was the use of Jamaican prisoners who "were forced to work with promises of freedom".

Despite all the impediments, Nariz del Diablo saw its first completed ascent by the G&Q in 1902.

#9 would be sold decades later to Duran in July 1959.