Steam & Excursion > The Wood-eaters of Paraguay

The wood-eaters of Paraguay. Sounds like a National Geographic special, but it isn't.

This is an answer to the question asked by Geodyssey on 06/22/17.  That question was "What were the largest and last built wood-burning  steam locos?"  The largest built was answered but not so, the last built.

My answer will be, the last built standard gauge, wood-burning steam locomotives could be engines #151 and #152 of the Ferrocarril Presidente Carlos Antonio Lopez; a 240 mile line which ran in Paraguay. These two engines, 2-6-0 tender locos, were built new by Yorkshire Engine Company in 1953. They were not the most modern, but certainly one of the last standard gauge, wood-burning steam locomotives ever built.

A small group of us witnessed them in action in 1996.

Picture 1  -  Here is FPCAL #152 and #110. Both are wood-burning 2-6-0s. The location is Villarrica, Paraguay. The #152 was built by Yorkshire Engine Co. in 1953. The #110 was built by North British in 1910. The front buttons on these engines are not builders plates.

Picture 2  -  Here it is; the wood-eating firebox. Controls are as basic as are needed.

Picture 3  -  The local freight heading for Asuncion, pauses at Villarrica. In fact it was "pausing" all day as there was a National Railroad Strike!  But out here, far from the Capital, they moved the engines around for us. I will add that container traffic was seen being hauled by these wood-burning steam locomotives, just to put these old technology locomotives in step with modern ways.

 

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That last photo makes me smile. What a comparison between that photo and the scene in Portland, Oregon Union Station this morning! I'm sure we'll see photos in just a couple of hours and it sure won't be the same!!

Ed

Thanks Ed!  I have fond memories of walking downtown and seeing the 4449 right here in Owosso, Michigan. I would love to see it at Portland Union Station.

Is either one still around?

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That backhead is about as sparse as anything I have seen. And, no seats for anyone.

tomstp Wrote:
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> That backhead is about as sparse as anything I
> have seen. And, no seats for anyone.


Seats were optional on the '53 models. They did come equipped with advanced passive air conditioning.

Is that a two-handle throttle, I see?

W.

Yes, that is a two handed throttle.

Generally they ran with two firemen, as the logs had to be passed from the following gondola, as well as the tender. Riding the tender deck at night was like standing at the rim of a volcano. What a fiery show. The folks riding the coach vestibule facing the engine became firemen in their own right. They had to keep putting out the fires that the sparks would ignite on the canvas roof covering. Every once in a while the engine would just slow down and stop and the crew would build up the fire again and get a good head of steam. Absolutely fascinating.

As for what is left. Well the fatal derailment of the tourist train in 2000 all but shut it down. By that time there was no through traffic to Encarnacion. The traffic interchange between Encarrnacion and Argentina was very active at that time, but even that came to an end with the construction of the Yacyreta Dam on the Parana River. The railroad facilities at Encarnacion were flooded and believe that five steam engines were stranded there. 24 boxcars destined for Archer Daniels Midland were stranded, also, as the rapid rate of the flooding took everyone by some surprise. The tourist trains out of Asuncion have been an on and off again affair ever since their reinstatement in 2004. While it is only a guess on my part, it would be a good assumption that the remains of the FPCAL are stored at Sapucai; the railroads backshops. Sapucai is worth a trip on its own merit.

It wasn't noted but the first picture does show some modernization as the #102 is a slide valve and the #152 is a piston valved locomotive.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/17 06:37 by Labby.

Not too far away in Argentina the Ferrocarriles Argentinos burned wood well into the 1970's. The Chaco was covered with a scrub hardwood called quebracho, and there was little one could do with quebracho except burn it. So it was cheap fuel. Here are a couple of pix from 1972.

JBWX

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The Paraguay locos had Belpaire fireboxes, too.
Thanks for the look at things down in South America.

James R.(Jim) Baker
Whittier, CA

JimBaker Wrote:
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> The Paraguay locos had Belpaire fireboxes, too.
> Thanks for the look at things down in South
> America.

Belpaire fireboxes were very common on Argentine locos.

JBWX

Wow what a lot of oil and grease on the ground in the final photo. Must have made walking around quite difficult.

A Google search of Sapucai Shops shows the facility as a train museum and the 2-6-0s #151 and #152 are both there. The #151 is stored outside by the station and the #152 is inside the shop.

A further search of Encarnacion shows that five steam engines were stranded there and after the impound water of the dam on the Parana River severed the line.