South West of Venezuela & Quebrada 0-4-2 Locomotives in Venezuela

Class 1 (Locobase 20989)

Data from "South Western of Venezuela and Quebrada Railways 0-6-2T", Locomotives Manufactured by Messrs Kitson & Co Ltd, Leeds. See also Walter Merivale,"Relative Advantages of Long Easy Gradients, and of Short Steep Inclines, for ascending Mountain Passes : as exemplified by the South Western of Venezuela Railway and the Puerto Cabello and Valencia Railway, Venezuela, Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Paper No. 3306 delivered 3 December 1901, Volume 147, pp. 280-289. Works numbers were 3122-3123 in 1888.

Merivale's 1901 paper provides a wealth of useful information about this skinny-gauge line. He begins by pointing out that like the Puerto Cabello, the SWofV had to figure out how to ascend 1,950 feet (65 ft per mile or about a 1.23% grade). . It began as the Quebrada, a small railway carrying ore from the Aroa mines over a swampy 53 miles (85 km) to the port of Tucacas.

A 55 mile extension up into the table-land to reach Barquisimeto that left the Quebrada at La Hacha (MP 45) and climbed 1,952 ft over "a series of reverse curves of 120 ft and 200 feet radius" and a 3-3.4% adhesion gradient. Merivale's studies of the actual demand on these small locomotives showed that where the railway had 2.28% curves around the 200 ft curves, the work required the same effort as a straight climb up 3.4%. Up trains pulling 12 empy wagons could manage 36 tons, down trains could move about 80 tons.

Merivale noted that a relatively casual attitude by the permanent-way inspector in earlier years in compensating for curves--the rails"seem to have been thrown down and coupled up where they fell"-- had resulted in "thirty virtual gradients varying between 4 3/4 per cent. and 5 1/4 per cent.

His comments on the narrowness of the gauge are also worth noting. He wrote that the 2-ft gauge's "limited capacity" wasn't the only limitation. "On any gauge under 3 feet", he asserted," locomotives of any power are troublesome machines to handle; their parts are cramped for room", he noted and the engines were so small that collisions or derailments, they could "get seriously damaged." Moreover, working the cattle trade was "hardly possible", rolling friction developed by 20" wheels was high, decreasing the engines' practical pulling power on the ascent.