ENAFER 4-8-0 Locomotives in Peru

Class FCC 110 (Locobase 4585)

Ex 4-8-2 Data from Dr Jonathan Smith, [], supplemented by D[ennis] Rock Carling, 4-8-0 Tender Locomotives (New York: Drake Publishers, Inc, 1972), pp. 40-41 and serial 211 on table XII [12], pp.106-107.

Carling described the Central of Peru as "no ordinary railway.", singling out a 117.5 km (73 miles ) stretch that inclined at an average 1.75%. This was the Chosica-Ticlio main-line section which rose from 857 m (2,812 ft) at Chosica to Ticlio, an astonishing 4,758 m (15,610 ft) above sea level. Carling heaps up the improbables--ruling grade of 4 1/2%, "constant loops and curves to gain height in the narrow, twisting, and precipitous valley". It also offered 13 reversing places along the way.

2-8-0s handled most of the traffic because of the high ratio of adhesion to engine weight. But the CP also had 4-8-2s (Locobase 4586) that proved prone to slipping. The railway eliminated the rear truck and shortened the boiler tubes, which brought the firebox forward and over the drivers. So rebuilt, notes Carling, they may have been "nominally less powerful", but they were "more practical operating units."