Looks almost like something from Disneyland, but its real, apparently taken in 2004:

http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?s ... illena.jpg

Might also look at home on the Mt. Washington Cog Railway!

Very cool photo!

Explain this please, whats wrong with this engine's frame?
Is it a optical illusion or is the frame really bent, or is the cab supports drooping down?

Alan

I have several photos of this loco taken through the 1980s and 1990s, and they all show the same droopy cab. My guess is either frame fatigue, collision damage too great for the blacksmith to pound out, or perhaps the crew needs to exercise more, I dunno.

(Start fueling it with spent sugar cane--THAT'LL keep the fireman slim!)

Regarding the frame sag on this engine: You can see from the picture of the Cuban engine that the rear truck is toward the front of the water tank, which then tries to lift the front of the engine. We've seen the same problem at the WW&F Ry Museum on our Vulcan #10. Where the rear section of the frame passes through the ashpan it lost some strength from corrosion by the ashes and heat. This allowed the lower bar to buckle from the weight of the water in the tank and the tank then sags lower. We're replacing this piece to restore the frame integrity and tram and will eventually rebuild the tank frame and move the truck bolster rearward to better balance the tank weight on the engine.
I'm not sure about the particulars of the frame on this Baldwin engine, but it looks like the forces are similar and it's not surprising that the frame would buckle after 118 years.

Actually, looking at the drivers as a reference parallel with the track surface, it looks like the boiler and cylinders tilt downward toward the front, while the tank and cab tilt even more so downward toward the back. It also looks like they installed a clever, new gangway stirrup that is skewed to mount in the same holes, but have its rung level with the track. Maybe they just let the frame sag and keep patching and compensating as they go.

RTK

This little standard gauge loco was one of the regular stops at Villena Mill on tours to Cuba. I was there in 2003 with TUT for a LEGAL tour to Cuba. This was nearly the last US/Cuba train tour that was allowed. Just after this tour Fidel had three people executed for a boat hijacking. Ya, there was a trial and the sentence was carried out within weeks. Then the US State Department drastically cut back on permits for such tours to Cuba. Train tours were not considered full Cultural Tours.

The loco was used on our excursion from Villena Sugar Mill to the Junction with another nearby Mill. Sorry can't seem to remember the name of the other (Colona?) mill right now. The railroad was going to run this on the headend infront of a 2-8-0 that was 4 times it size. So with a little work and being in charge of this segment we negotiated to have it towed in behind a caboose in front of a rider flatcar. This way it could be cut off at runbys and used in a second runby. This way it didn't look out of place in the runbys.

Unfortunately the charter was also a regular transfer of Cane to the Jct. We ran a little behind time and had to catch a Hershey Electric to Havana that afternoon. So we had only a few runbys and returning to Villena Mill we had the loco towed backwards. The paint job is from a Steam Festival that was held in Cuba about that time. The best paint job won a award.

They still steam this up for Gringos (mostly Brits and Germans) these days. The Cuban steam scene is only a shadow of itself. The Cubans were trying to sell off some excess steam locos. However the conditions, locations and prices make a expensive transaction. We Americans can not directly trade with Cuba for such things. Besides we have too many US locos to repair. Would be nice to see some of the remaining examples of railroads that have long since been gone, returned to the US.