Jamaican Government 0-6-0 Locomotives in Jamaica

Class 1 (Locobase 20712)

Data from. Works numbers were 2287 in 1879, 2298 and 2361 in 1880. JGR #4 (works number 2631) was delivered with three others in 1884 and JGR #8 (works number 2905 in 1888) finished the Kitson tanks.

These were the first six-coupled locomotives delivered to the JGR and were fitted with cow-catchers at the outset. Smaller than any of the preceding locomotives, the class had boilers with a raised firebox and a middle ring made from a single plate curved endlessly into a cylinder. The awning over the footplate was replaced by a "proper" cab in 1884.

Each of the first three locomotives experienced a career distinctly different from other two according to Dewhurst's account. The shortest run belonged to the 3. After being shifted by sea from Kingston to Port Antonio on the northeast coast, a spectacular accident just outside Gibraltar Tunnel near Bog Walk (north of Spanish Town) shortened the 3's career. A derailment on 28 October 1892 killed the fireman as the engine landed in the Rio Cobre riverbed 60 feet (18.3 m) below. Although heavily damaged, the 3 was repaired and ran until 1899.

The 1 received longer side tanks that held 780 US gallons in 1904 and the boiler originally mounted in #4. In 1913, the engine was torn apart in a violent boiler explosion in which, Dewhurst wrote, the vessel was "blown through the [Kingston running] shed roof" and landed 200 yards (183.5 m) from the firebox. The irreparable and aging #1 was scrapped.

The 2 underwent two tank changes. The first fitted a semi-circular saddle tank in 1905 that held an impressive 1,140 US gallons; its cross-section showed straight side sections and a semicircular top. Fitting the injector clack boxes on the firebox shell was very unusual, Dewhurst wrote, as the location fed water against the firebox's back plate, which was "trying to the steel inside firebox." Thicker side tanks in 1913 held 985 US gallons. So modified, the 2 left service in December 1915.

#4 arrived in 1884 and essentially repeated the design of the 1-3, but had a "proper cab" and carried 1 1/4 short tons of coal. Dewhurst wrote later that the #8 was "identical" to #4. See also Locobase 20714 for the 5-7, which featured a new boiler and firebox.

Class 4 (Locobase 20706)

Kitson-Meyer type.

The data here is from Wiener (1930).

Class 5 (Locobase 20714)

Data from P C Dewhurst, "The Jamaica Government Railway and its Locomotives", Locomotive Magazine, Volume 25 (15 May 1919), p. 68-69; and (15 December 1919), p. 211. Works numbers were 2632-2634 in 1884 and 4937 in 1913.

Repeats of the earlier Kitson six-coupleds of 1880 (Locobase 20712), the order included 4, which had the raised firebox as on the 1-3, and 5-7 which had a flush-topped boiler with a construction reverting to the usual longitudinal seam in the middle course. Sixteen more tubes added 58 sq ft (5.39 sq m) to the tube heating surface area and a new firebox presented 4 sq ft (0.37 sq m) more of direct heating surface area.

Like the 4, the 5-7 were delivered with a cab. Increased in coal bunkerage and other details led to a signficant increase in engine weight. Ultimately all eight Kitsons had the flanges on their middle drivers (the driven axle) deleted.

5 was later shipped from Kingston on the southeast coast to Port Antonio on the northeast coast to support construction in the mountains.

At the time of Dewhurst's writing, only the 7 had been retired. #8, originally built to the 1880 specs received a new boiler of the 5-7 flush-topped design in 1917. The 3 followed the original plans by the original builder and appeared in 1913. Two changes affected the firebox, now steel instead of copper, and the side tanks, which were higher and fitted with wings.

Dewhurst summarized the Kitsons' contribution, writing that they had "given very good sevice.". All of the boilers delivered more than 30 years of service, although they had seen their original copper fireboxes replaced by inside steel furnaces, and it could "certainly be said that these boilers earned their retirement."