Jamaican Railway 2-2-2 Locomotives in Jamaica

Class Emancipation (Locobase 20710)

Data from P C Dewhurst, "The Jamaica Government Railway and its Locomotives", Locomotive Magazine, Volume 25 (15 February 1919), p. 21. Works numbers were 312-315 in 1845.

Immediately following the Patriot pair of tender engines were these four tank locomotives. Dewhurst wrote that they were essentially the same, but that the design was tweaked. Cylinder volume decreased, but heating surface area grew slightly thanks to the provision of more tubes of slightly smaller diameter (i.e. from 106 tubes of 2" to 147 of 1 3/4"). Their well tanks rode under the boiler between the front carrying axle and the driving axle.

The four were given promotion-oriented names: Emancipation, Enterprise, Perseverance, and Success. They were wood-burners and were fitted with diamond-type spark-arresting stacks.

Dewhurst added that the two tender and four tank engines were enough for the JRys until they opened the Old Harbour extension in 1869. In 1870, the JRys replaced the original rubber bearing front springs with steel laminated springs and mounted cow catchers on the class in 1875. One of the class was converted to a saddle-tank design and renamed "Our Own"; this engine was withdrawn in 1877 or 1878. By 1879, Enterprise alone remained unaltered.

Class Patriot (Locobase 20709)

Data from P C Dewhurst, "The Jamaica Government Railway and its Locomotives", Locomotive Magazine, Volume 25 (15 February 1919), p. 21. Works numbers were 302 and 305 in 1844.

Dewhurst commented in The Locomotive of 15 January 1919 that the Jamaica Railway project begun so early in the railway era was remarkably ambitious for a colonial economy. Such was the sense of urgency in getting started that the JRy's partners were able to buy two of the four locomotives then under construction for the Berlin-Hamburg Railway.

The design bore all the hallmarks of its era, although Sharp was already known for its quality. A tall cylindrical dome topped with a rimmed hemispherical cap sat on the three-section boiler just behind the even taller chimney. Slotted splashers enclosed a small upper part of the drivers, which were driven directly by outside cylinders. The footplate was entirely unprotected. Sharp's standard tender carrying coke fuel trailed behind.

The second of the two engines was dubbed "Projector." They were followed by four tank engines of nearly identical design; see Locobase 20710.