Agricola de Guatemala 2-8-2 Locomotives in Guatemala

Class 157 (Locobase 15425)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 79, pp. 88+. See also J B West's blog A Life Wasted Chasing Trains, "Some history [relating to the IRCA] at []. Works numbers were 61991-61995 in April 1936.

Locobase assumes that the postwar orders were built to the same specifications as the 1936 engines. Except for slightly higher weights, the 1936 batch (157-161) were identical to the 150 and 151 of 1928 shown in Locobase 15424. West explains that soon after the International Railways of Central America (IRCA) reached its maximum length in 1929, the Great Depression rendered any attempt to gain long-term financing impossible and the company's plans for further expansion stalled.

By 1936, the IRCA sold out to United Fruit, which took a consistently profitable business and improved on it. Among other purchases, West notes, were these oil-burning Mikados that moved the "fruteros" (banana trains) through Guatemala.

But the CA of G was not a banana road, West adds; only 15-20% of the freight traffic related to bananas and this 2-8-2 design became the signature power. 30 more were ordered in the postwar years; see Locobase 5506.