Tela 2-8-0 Locomotives in Honduras

Class 40 (Locobase 15427)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 79, p. 100. Works number was 60488 in May 1928.

Five years after the Tela bought the long-winded 44 (Locobase 15060), the railway returned to Eddystone for a smaller Consolidation. Still an oil-burner, this engine weighed less and had a smaller boiler served by a proportionately larger firebox.

Class 41 (Locobase 15428)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 79, p. 105. Works number was 60835 in May 1929.

Baldwin's building pace had slowed considerably in the year after Eddystone produced the Tela's #40 (Locobase 15427); fewer than 450 builder's numbers had been assigned in the twelve months between the 40 and 41. The new Consolidation was based on the 40 but had a bigger boiler and wider firebox, but the latter was to ride above the wheels, which decreased firebox heating surface area. All the Tela's Baldwin Consolidations were oil-burners, but the 41 weighed the most of the three.

Class 44 (Locobase 15063)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 66, p. 72. Works number was 56120 in January 1923.

Locobase notes with interest that this locomotive's "length of haul" was expected to be 120 miles (193 km), a long distance for so small an engine. Traveling on 50 lb/yard (25 kg/metre) rail on sleepers laid 24" (610 mm) apart, the 44 faced ruling grades of 1.25% and curves of 17 degrees (radii of 338 feet/103 metres).

Together with the Truxillo, the Tela marked a significant step for United Fruit in that it was an entrance into the Honduran growing areas. The railroad led from the northern Caribbean port of Tela (actually a contraction of Triunfo de la Cruz in common use by 1829). Begun after gaining a large land holding from the Honduran government in 1913, the Tela's railroad mileage amounted to 93.2 (150 km) by 1915.