Cananea, Rio Yaqui & Pacifico / Cananea, Rio Yaqui y Pacifico / Southern Pacific of Mexico 2-6-0 Locomotives in Mexico


Class Details by Steve Llanso of Sweat House Media

Class 17/EF/M-6 (Locobase 12616)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 25, p. 7. Works number was 20458 in May 1902.

For years, Locobase couldn't zero in on this engine's identity in any of the Baldwin production compilations including Gene Connelly's 99.99% accurate version

Finally, a 4 AM thought in May 2024 made him realize that he may have incorrectly identitfied the 15 as a 2-8-0. Returning to the original spec uncovered this Vauclain compound Mogul. Problem solved ....or not. The Cananea Consolidated Copper Company ordered this engine in February 1902. At that time, Baldwin's spec showed its road number as 15.

All of the sources state report the Cananea, Rio Yaqui & Pacifico #17 as the locomotive ordered by the CCCC in 1902. Investigation of the single CRY&P roster supplied by Allen Stanley's Rail Data Exchange shows some of its locomotives as having originally come from the CCCC. Its delivery coincided with the CRY&P's June 1902 incorporation to take over the CCCC's operation of a portion of the line the latter had been awarded by the Mexican government in 1900.

It was then, Locobase supposes, that the 15 became the 17. As the 17, this engine proved too heavy for the CRY&P at around the same time the railroad transferred all of its stock to the Southern Pacific. So the 17 went into service on the Texas & New Orleans as their M-35 and remained on their books until the SP took over in 1906 and placed it in class M-6 along with the other Texas & New Orleans engines shown in Locobase 4135.

In January 1907, the SP shops converted the 1803 to simple expansion by replacing the compound components with two 22" x 26" cylinders.They later bushed the cylinders to 21" and in 1919, added a superheater as shown in the M-6s entry described in Locobase 7282.

Like many of the other light-footed M-6 moguls, the 1803 ran until the early 1950s.


Class E-1/EG/ M-63/M-9 (Locobase 13534)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 33, p. 270. Works numbers were 33817, 33823, 33831-33837 in September 1909; 33878-33880, 33915-33917 in October.

This set of Moguls were derived from the Associated Lines Harriman Common Standard 2-6-0 design but had large fireboxes with a length of 108" (9 feet) by 96" (8 feet) to burn Sonora or Farranca low-calorie lignite coal. Piston valve measured 12" (305 mm) in diameter. They trailed Vanderbilt-design tenders.

They were ordered by the Cananea, Rio Yaqui & Pacific, but were lettered for the Sud-Pacifico de Mexico.

Few stayed SPdMe for very long. 518 was sold to the FC del Pacifico in December 1951, 525 was scrapped in May 1949, and 526 was renumbered 503.

All of the others were sold to other SP subsidiaries in 1912. The Arizona Eastern bought the 516, 520, 524, 527-529 as their 570, 576, 571-574, respectively; these were superheated as M-11s and are described in Locobase 8664.

Another 5 -- 517, 519, 521-523 -- went to the Houston & Texas Central as their 560-564; these too were superheated and are described in Locobase 8663.


Class EG/E-1 (Locobase 11186)

Data from "Engines for the Associated Lines," Railway and Locomotive Engineering, Vol 21, No 12 (December 1908), p. 524-525. See also Gustavo A Moreno Martinez, "Los Ferrocarriles en Cananea (Parte III)", an 8 de noviembre 2016 entry in Cronicas de Cananea at [link]; and Alfredo Nieves Medina, "Los ferrocarriles en Sonora", Mirada Ferroviaria, Revista Digital, Numero 7 (enero-abril, 2009), pp. 20-29. last accessed 20 September 2018. Works numbers were 45005-45019 in February 1908.

This entry describes fifteen of the 30 Moguls mentioned further down. Relatively large and modern, the low-drivered class used piston valves for their steam admission.

The EGs in this entry went to a railway in northwest Mexico's Sonora State that was originally built from Naco on the Arizona border to the mines of Cananea. From Wiliam C Greene's point of view, the rich veins of ore near Cananea needed to be more directly linked to the rest of Sonora State's railway system. The central government under Porfirio Diaz felt keenly the separation of such wealth from the rest of Mexico. Indeed, Nieves notes that Sonora--a "state of contrasts"--had deserts, mountains, deep valleys, and broken coastline, terrain that conspired with climatic extremes to isolate the State, which was wedged between the Gulf of California on the west and the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains to the east. .

In the last decades of the 19th century, however, the Diaz push to modernize encouraged the development of rich mineral resources and agricultural products. A legal change to allow foreign investment in Mexican railroad construction encouraged railroad development, but the terrain meant that main line of the Sonora Railway headed due north from Guaymas to Arizona. encouraged the construction of more railways to redirect that commercial traffic.

The CRY&P, which had a large concession that the railroad would never actually develop, was the intermediary that permitted the Southern Pacific of Mexico to gain control of the Sonora. A branch line from Del Rio, southwest of the border town of Naco, headed west, skirting the Sierra Madre and meeting the Sonora just south of Nogales at Lomas. It was the only way across the mountains anywhere north of Guaymas.

Soon after the class arrived on the CRY&P, that line was absorbed by the Southern Pacific of Mexico (FC de Sud Pacifico de Mexico) in 1909. At that time, almost half the class--500-501, 553-554, 508, 512, and 514--came under the control of the Houston & Texas Central in 1912 as their M-9 class 550-556. These were later superheated; see Locobase 8661.

The SPM acquired the rest, but sent 509-510, 513 to the Arizona Eastern in 1912, which renumbered them 567-569 in keeping with parent Southern Pacific's system.

Principal Dimensions by Steve Llanso of Middle Run Media
Class17/EF/M-6E-1/EG/ M-63/M-9EG/E-1
Locobase ID12616 13534 11186
RailroadCananea, Rio Yaqui y Pacifico (SP)Southern Pacific of Mexico (SP)Cananea, Rio Yaqui & Pacifico (SP)
CountryMexicoMexicoMexico
Whyte2-6-02-6-02-6-0
Number in Class11515
Road Numbers15/17/1803515-529500-514/see notes
GaugeStdStdStd
Number Built11515
BuilderBurnham, Williams & CoBaldwinAlco-Brooks
Year190219091908
Valve GearStephensonStephensonStephenson
Locomotive Length and Weight
Driver Wheelbase (ft / m)15.17 / 4.6215.17 / 4.6215.17 / 4.62
Engine Wheelbase (ft / m)23.67 / 7.2124 / 7.3224 / 7.32
Ratio of driving wheelbase to overall engine wheelbase 0.64 0.63 0.63
Overall Wheelbase (engine & tender) (ft / m)53.17 / 16.2153.23 / 16.22
Axle Loading (Maximum Weight per Axle) (lbs / kg)51,000 / 23,133
Weight on Drivers (lbs / kg)127,000 / 57,606150,000 / 68,039152,500 / 69,173
Engine Weight (lbs / kg)147,000 / 66,678175,000 / 79,379196,200 / 88,995
Tender Loaded Weight (lbs / kg)133,095116,800 / 52,980
Total Engine and Tender Weight (lbs / kg)308,095313,000 / 141,975
Tender Water Capacity (gals / ML)6000 / 22.737000 / 26.527000 / 26.52
Tender Fuel Capacity (oil/coal) (gals/tons / Liters/MT)1414 / 13
Minimum weight of rail (calculated) (lb/yd / kg/m)71 / 35.5083 / 41.5085 / 42.50
Geometry Relating to Tractive Effort
Driver Diameter (in / mm)63 / 160063 / 160063 / 1600
Boiler Pressure (psi / kPa)200 / 1380200 / 1380200 / 1380
High Pressure Cylinders (dia x stroke) (in / mm)15.5" x 28" / 394x76221" x 28" / 533x71120" x 28" / 508x711
Low Pressure Cylinders (dia x stroke) (in / mm)26" x 28" / 660x762
Tractive Effort (lbs / kg)26,785 / 12149.4933,320 / 15113.7230,222 / 13708.48
Factor of Adhesion (Weight on Drivers/Tractive Effort) 4.74 4.50 5.05
Heating Ability
Tubes (number - dia) (in / mm)310 - 2" / 51309 - 2" / 51297 - 2" / 51
Flues (number - dia) (in / mm)
Flue/Tube length (ft / m)13 / 3.9612.67 / 3.8612.67 / 3.86
Firebox Area (sq ft / m2)160.30 / 14.90170 / 15.79146 / 13.57
Grate Area (sq ft / m2)49.50 / 4.6072 / 6.6949.50 / 4.60
Evaporative Heating Surface (sq ft / m2)2257 / 209.762206 / 204.942102 / 195.35
Superheating Surface (sq ft / m2)
Combined Heating Surface (sq ft / m2)2257 / 209.762206 / 204.942102 / 195.35
Evaporative Heating Surface/Cylinder Volume369.16196.61206.48
Computations Relating to Power Output (More Information)
Robert LeMassena's Power Computation990014,4009900
Same as above plus superheater percentage990014,4009900
Same as above but substitute firebox area for grate area32,06034,00029,200
Power L1373357205842
Power MT194.41252.21253.37

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