El Museo del Transporte, Caracas, Venezuela, 2013

Glen Beadon (18th September 2014) has written with some comments and corrections. These appear in RED below.

Thomas Kautzor (4th October 2014) tells me "Philipp Kurasch is certain that the frame of the steam mock-up 0-4-0 steam loco is not from a Plymouth but from a Jung MS 130 or 131, such as the one being currently restored at the Netherlands' Narrow Gauge Museum http://www.smalspoormuseum.nl/Materieel/Motorlocs/mloc19.htm (rounded ends, link dead by 25th August 2015). The one I found in Martinique has square ends. Prior to my finding, there were only seven locos of this type known to exist in the world, out of circa 430 built between 1929 and 1933. Jens Merte's Jung builders list shows only one Jung loco delivered to Venezuela: No. 8651/1939 model VL 134, delivered 31.07.1939 to Glaser & Pflaum, Berlin, for Venezuela (type & gauge not shown). Out of 22 units built 1937-40 (including B-dm versions for standard gauge and C-dm versions for narrow gauge), no type VL 134 is known to have survived into preservation."

Note (RD), this is one of the pictures of the Martinique diesel:

Steen Larsen writes:

On a business trip to Venezuela I had the chance to visit the Caracas transportation museum on 20th October 2013. The museum is located at Parque del Este in Caracas and is open only on Sundays. The museum possess 13 steam locomotives and the remains of one locomotive as a boiler on wheels, all static displays. Some of the locomotives are under cover and in very good preserved condition while others in the open air suffer from the lack of general maintenance.

The museum webpage: http://www.automotriz.net/museo-del-transporte/ - link broken by 1st November 2018.

Some references from the web re. Venezuelan railways

• La Guaira and Caracas railway: http://www.tramz.com/ve/lc/lc.html
• Venezuelan railways: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiguos_Sistemas_Ferroviarios_de_Venezuela
• Railways of Venezuela: http://www.sinfin.net/railways/world/venezuela.html

The Venezuelan government started a very ambitious project in 1999 to build and recover what is stated in different references as numbers from 4000-13000km of railways to cover most of Venezuela by 2030. The first line, the 41 km from Caracas to Cua was inaugurated in 2006. The 108 km from Puerto Cabello (Valencia) to La Encrucijada should have been inaugurated in 2012 but is now postponed to 2014. Driving on the highway from Caracas to Valencia in October 2013, one could see the line in a relatively progressed state but with very little construction activity.

• http://www.ife.gob.ve/index.php
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instituto_de_Ferrocarriles_del_Estado

Thomas Kautzor adds "One other loco belonging to the museum, Gran FC de Venezuela (1067mm) 4-4-4T No. 820 HALCON (Hartmann 2028/1894) is at the closed FC Historico de El Encanto in Los Teques near Caracas."

Click on a thumbnail for a full sized picture.

	Builder	Number	Year	Wheel arrangement.	Gauge	Comments	Reference
	Tubize	755	1889	0-6-0T	36in (914 mm)	Ferrocarril Carenero-El Guapo No 129	1, 3
	Hunslet	475	1888	0-4-0T	3ft 6in (1067 mm)		3, 6
href="display.htm?page=venezuela01.htm&bookmark=03&title=Caracas&photter=Steen_Larsen&image=pics13/venezuela13003.jpg">	Nasmyth Wilson Note1	407	1891	0-6-2T	36in (914 mm)	Ferrocarril de La Guaira a Caracas No 15 Informed opinion is that this looks more like a Beyer Peacock product... See notes.	3, 4
	Porter	5938	1917	0-4-4T	3ft (914 mm)	Gran Ferrocarril Central No 3 Sister No.4 is extant and plinthed in a park in western Venezuela 1 (5697/195) is also plinthed in a zoo in the city of Maracaibo and is now almost derelict.	3, 6
	Sentinel	9230	1935	4wVBT	36in (914 mm)	La Guaira Servico Portuario No 51N2	2, 3
	OK	13105	1938	0-6-0T	36in (914 mm)	Ferrocarril Carenero-El Guapo	3, 5
	Glover	121645	1925	2-6-2T	1000 mm	Central Mercedita (Puerto Rico) 2-6-2T 4 built as 0-6-2T, 27 tons, 1972 ex storage in Caguas, 1957 ex Ctl. Mercedita, restored for use on the FC Historico de PR in Fajardo, after closure in 1975 to Museo del Transporte	1
	Baldwin	59637	1926	0-6-0ST	3ft 6in (1067 mm)	Ferrocarril del Tachira No 11 “Maracaibo” Possibly 60660/1926 which is consistent with the rest of the FdT fleet.	1, 2, 3
	Baldwin	xx64x	1939	0-6-0ST	1000mm	Ferrocarril del Tachira “Encontrados” This may not be "Encontrados". There is a plate on it which carries the extra order number 153 of November 1939 from the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia. There are people who say this locomotive was rigged to look like Encontrados. Stamped on the frames are the initials Gr F CdeV (Gran Ferrocarril Central de Venezuela).	1, 2, 3
	Hunslet	1128	1913	0-6-4T	24in (610mm)	Ferrocarril de Bolivar No 8	3, 6
	Baldwin	60181	1927	2-8-0	1000 mm	Central Juncos (Puerto Rico) 8 “LUISA”, 36 tons, new to Central Pasto Viejo 8 (30”-gauge), 1928 to Central Juncos 8 (regauged to 1000mm), then Eastern Sugar Assocs. 8, then Fajardo Eastern Sugar Assocs. 8, then C. Brewer de PR E462, 1968 to J. Wirshing, in use on FC Historico de PR in Fajardo from 1971, after closure in 1975 to Museo del Transporte	1
	Bell	209		0-4-0T	24in (610mm)	Shell San Lorenzo refinery	1, 3
	?			0-4-0(T?)		Ferrocarril La Vela - Coro	3
				"0-4-0"	?	Steam mock up, possibly on a Plymouth diesel chassis (now thought to be Jung - see top of the page)

Note 1: Ref. 6 refers the engine to be a Beyer Peacock but if the engine No 15 is correct Ref. 4 makes it a Nasmyth which also corresponds with Ref. 3.

References:

1: Builders plate on engine

2: Identification on engine

3. http://www.steamlocomotive.info/country.cfm?which=venezuela

4: http://www.tramz.com/ve/lc/lc.html

5: Preserved OK: http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/org/murray/okpres.htm

6: Caracas Transport Museum 1975 and 1996: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fqy91N0OM1w (DO NOT RELY ON THE DATA QUOTED)

7. Gran FC de Venezuela (1067mm) 4-4-4T No. 820 HALCON (Hartmann 2028/1894) is at the closed FC Historico de El Encanto in Los Teques near Caracas as per Thomas Kautzor. You can see HALCON in action in this short video: http://youtu.be/4-vnvjeZ1OY Alas HALCON is now in a derelict neglected state at the far end of the El Encanto line where nature now reclaimed the station area.

8. Glen Beadon's video taken in 1997 of the El Encanto Railway shows what it was like when the railway was last in operation. It closed one year later. This can be seen at: http://youtu.be/sjvnsWXA290.

9. Glen Beadon's video on the Locomotives of Venezuela at: http://youtu.be/nTXYcx8--Mk.