Central Mexicano / Internacional Mexicano / Sonora 4-4-0 Locomotives in Mexico

Class 2/C-3/C-11 (Locobase 11553)

Data from Catalogo de Locomotoras 1890-1921, last accessed 17 November 2014 at [] . Works number was 717 in September 1879.

This was one of the smallest standard-gauge Eight-wheelers to go into service in North America at the time of its introduction.

Class 71 / C-8 / C-15 (Locobase 11554)

Data from Catalogo de Locomotoras 1890-1921.

Produced for the CM 8 years after a similar Taunton product (Locobase 11553) , this engine had the same power dimensions, but a slightly bigger boiler and grate. The latter was in a shallower firebox. It was also oil-fired.

Class 73 / C-10 / C-16 (Locobase 11557)

Data from Catalogo de Locomotoras 1890-1921.

The CM was pretty indisciminate in its choice of locomotive builders, perhaps, having procured locomotives from Baldwin, Dickson, Rogers, and this small, Maine-based builder. But the Portlands were a step up in size and power compared to those that had come on the line earlier in the decade. Granted the difference was that great, but the boiler in particular gained a healthy percentage of heating surface area.

That said, these were still small engines compared to what was being put in service in North America. Still, this Portland locomotive bore comparison with the run-of-the-mill Norteamericanos in size and power.

Class 9/C-14 (Locobase 11556)

Data from Catalogo de Locomotoras 1890-1921 ([]). Works numbers were 1806-1808 in June 1887.

Class Magdalena/C-4/C-13 (Locobase 11555)

Data from Catalogo de Locomotoras 1890-1921 (partial copy of Nacional de Mexico diagram book). Works numbers were 2733-2734 in April 1881 and 2739-2740 in May.

When the Sonora was rolled in the Mexicano Central, #9Magdalena was renumbered 30. After nationalization, the NdeM placed it in clase C-4 and renumbered it 86.

The diagram credits the Eight-wheeler with a 750 ton trailing load on level track, 275 tons up a 1% grade, and 140 tons up a 2% grade.

Class Tula/31/ C-5/C-12 (Locobase 11552)

Data from Catalogo de Locomotoras 1890-1921; see also DeGolyer, Volume 10, p. 249. Works numbers were 5828-5829 in September 1881; 5900-5901 in November; 6005-6006 in January 1882.

As delivered to the CM, these Eight-wheelers were named, in works-number order: Tula (7), Leon (8), Huehuetoca (10), San Juan (9), Zacatecas (16), and Jalisco (17). Leon and Zacatecas (later numbers 31 and 36) were the only two to be taken into the Nacional de Mexico in 1908.