Just ran across this tiny, vertical boiler engine rusting away in Belize..

http://www.belize-vacation.com/belize/belize/hopkins.htm
bobyar2001@yahoo.com

I've visited this locomotive inthe abandoned sugar plantation. She's heavily rusted due to daily rainfall, mostly intact, and shows elegant iron work, curves and filigrees. Around her lays the wreckage of massive iron cane crushers and boilers. It must have been Hell to work in this place. Alongside the locomotive is a massive kapok tree, twisted in strangler figs tendrils. The builders plate on the loco shows that she was made in England in the 1830's or 40's and shipped into the jungle.


glueck@saturn.caps.maine.edu

Richard,

This one is new to me. Do you have a picture of it I can use in "Surviving World Steam Locomotives", and more details from the builder's plate?

If the dates you gave are correct, that would be among the oldest steam locomotives in the world.

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a

> I've visited this locomotive in the abandoned
> sugar plantation. She's heavily rusted due
> to daily rainfall, mostly intact, and shows
> elegant iron work, curves and filigrees.
> Around her lays the wreckage of massive iron
> cane crushers and boilers. It must have been
> Hell to work in this place. Alongside the
> locomotive is a massive kapok tree, twisted
> in strangler figs tendrils. The builders
> plate on the loco shows that she was made in
> England in the 1830's or 40's and shipped
> into the jungle.


Surviving World Steam Locomotives
james1@pernet.net

Dear Bob:
Earl Pardini and Beth Waterman from Catskill Mt. Railroad the Empire State Railway Museum discovered this loco several years ago while on vacation.
The builders plate on it says "Tredegar Iron Works" Tredegar (located in Richmond, VA) built small locos, but there is no record of one like this one, which appears to be a "Chapin" (?spelling) of English design and manufacture. We send photos of it to Jack White and Robert Johnson, both felt that it was a Chapin, but the plate makes the loco a mystery.
There is another steam loco. in Belize, a Porter 2-6-2 narrow gauge. Glen Guerra found that one.
Contact me off line if you want more info.
J.David


jdconrad@snet.net

James:

I have it on videotape for certain, but I'll have to dig a bit to see if I have a print. Incidently, when we opened some of the boiler doors at this site, they were full of sleeping bats!
I have no other information regarding the b/p, but I believe the post below has solid information, although I believe she's an English loco.


glueck@saturn.caps.maine.edu

J. David et. Bob;

"Chapin" is probably "Alex Chaplin & Co.", a builder out of England. A vertical boiler engine very similiar to the Belize engine and built by Chaplin in 1885 is on display at the Museum of Transport, Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, Scotland, UK. Another Chaplin-built engine which may be also of be of similiar construction is on display in Roskilde, Denmark.

I would like to know more about the Porter 2-6-2 in Belize; if you don't mind sending it to me as well.

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a

> Dear Bob:
> Earl Pardini and Beth Waterman from Catskill
> Mt. Railroad the Empire State Railway Museum
> discovered this loco several years ago while
> on vacation.
> The builders plate on it says "Tredegar
> Iron Works" Tredegar (located in
> Richmond, VA) built small locos, but there
> is no record of one like this one, which
> appears to be a "Chapin"
> (?spelling) of English design and
> manufacture. We send photos of it to Jack
> White and Robert Johnson, both felt that it
> was a Chapin, but the plate makes the loco a
> mystery.
> There is another steam loco. in Belize, a
> Porter 2-6-2 narrow gauge. Glen Guerra found
> that one.
> Contact me off line if you want more info.
> J.David


Surviving World Steam Locomotives
james1@pernet.net

I'm curious about the talk or lack thereof on the board, in preserving this locomotive. Any efforts underway?

God Bless,
Gerald Kopiasz

> J. David et. Bob;

> "Chapin" is probably "Alex
> Chaplin & Co.", a builder out of
> England. A vertical boiler engine very
> similiar to the Belize engine and built by
> Chaplin in 1885 is on display at the Museum
> of Transport, Kelvin Hall, Glasgow,
> Scotland, UK. Another Chaplin-built engine
> which may be also of be of similiar
> construction is on display in Roskilde,
> Denmark.

> I would like to know more about the Porter
> 2-6-2 in Belize; if you don't mind sending
> it to me as well.

> -James Hefner
> Hebrews 10:20a


Heartland Railroad Historical Society
hrrhs@aol.com

> The builders plate on it says "Tredegar
> Iron Works" Tredegar (located in
> Richmond, VA) built small locos, but there
> is no record of one like this one, which
> appears to be a "Chapin"
> (?spelling) of English design and
> manufacture. We send photos of it to Jack
> White and Robert Johnson, both felt that it
> was a Chapin, but the plate makes the loco a
> mystery.

If anyone can possibly confirm or refute the Tredegar connection, that might be useful. The National Park Service has an incredibly handsome preservation set-up in Richmond at the old Tredegar Iron Works, built into and around the surviving buildings and foundations. This serves as both the NPS's Civil War visitors center for Richmond (its primary title and function) and a terrific industrial-archaeology preservation site. Tredegar was apparently the biggest iron works in the South, before and after the Civil War. As examples of the various crafts, they have a small 0-4-0T and an RF&P caboose on hand (both of which have less connection to the Civil War or Tredegar than much of the controversial exhibits at or now gone from Steamtown).

If the engine is indeed a Tredegar (unlikely but admittedly NOT impossible), its repatriation to Richmond would indeed be warranted. (Just trade the nondescript 0-4-0T for the jungle relic!)

First article of the series
lner4472@bcpl.net

The locomotive sits in the open in the rain forest, under a large kapok tree. It is enveloped in vines itself, and completely rusted. The sugar mill is now a government preserve, although it is not gated. I can promise you that the engine is not going anywhere. It would be nearly impossible to move it from it's location. As far as moving parts are concerned, they were rusted solid decades upon decades ago.
The little engine tells her story beautifully where she is. I think it might be presumptuous for a group of "well meaning gringo railfans" to insert themselves into this piece of Belizean self identity. I suspect she'll be telling her story decades after I am dust, too!

glueck@saturn.caps.maine.edu

I am virtually positive that it is an English steam locomotive, imported by ship to the colony of British Honduras, now known as Belize. Leave the little locomotive were she earned her living, and give the Belizean people their own heritage.


glueck@saturn.caps.maine.edu