International Railroad Discussion > The last Kitson-Meyers

My thread about Mendoza, Argentina had a bit of a discussion about Kitson-Meyer articulateds.  The last of the type operated in Chile until October 1977.  The Taltal Ry. in northern Chile was a 157-mile, 42 inch gauge line built over the years 1882-1905.  It hauled mainly nitrate (caliche) to the Pacific Ocean port at Taltal from mines in the interior.  It also hauled a bit of gold, silver and copper ore from small mines in the area.  Originally the line used conventional tank engines but from 1904 to 1907 they took delivery of ten 0-6-0+0-6-0T Kitson Meyers from Kitson & Co. in Leeds. England.  Even though the Chilean nitrate industry was in steep decline by the 1930s,  Taltal acquired eight more Kitson-Meyers from Anglo-Chilean Nitrate to be used as parts supply and replacement of worn out engines.   Anglo-Chilean in its present form of SQM was famous for its 1925-era GE box-cab electric operation which ceased in 2015 when a flash flood destroyed the line to a degree that SQM shut down their railroad operations. Their two remaining nitrate processing plants were closed soon thereafter.  Today, SQM is the second largest lithium producer in the world but lithium doesn't require rail haul.

By the 1970s, there were only two or three Kitsons still operating on the Taltal. The attached photos of No 59 in operation around Taltal were taken in June 1973 by Allan Jorgensen,  who flew over from South Africa to record them in action. After the 1977 close and subsequent scrapping of most of the railway,  No. 59 survived and was soon in derelict condition. It was saved from scrapping through the efforts of a number of railfans around the world. The engine was cleaned up and painted in the early 1990s..  Later it  was declared a Chile National Monument and is now displayed in front of the Taltal museum in a dark green livery that is reportedly close to the original colors.



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/20 14:38 by masterphots.

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No.59 at Taltal in 1995    Detlef Kurth photo

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Love the second shot because it gives me
an idea of what the area looks like.

Uncle Joe

Amazing stuff, Alan.

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ