Steam Relics in Guatemala, 2019

Thomas Kautzor has visited some years after James Waite's brief trip in 2012 which included some of the sugar mills covered below. There are more pictures from a happier time which include those of a special steam hauled train and the works which are now off limits in my own visit report from 2004.

We measured the gauge of all of these locomotives at around 30-inch, even though the locomotives at Pantaleon are listed at 3-foot and some of the locomotives at El Baul at 600mm on both steamlocomotive.com and .info. 0-6-2T No. 2 (OK 11256/1926) at Ingenio Concepcion (which also belongs to the Pantaleon Group) in Escuintla is 3-foot as it was used on the branch with IRCA.

At Ingenio Pantaleon (89 km west of Guatemala City) there are three locomotives:

Baldwin 0-4-2ST No. FP001 outside the workshops;

Baldwin 0-6-2ST No. FP002 inside the main gate: the numbers “3543” and “8497” are stamped on the firebox door

2-truck Shay No. 4 (Lima 2374/1910) at the social club: it still has its builders’ plate.

Ingenio El Baul (now Finca El Baul), 6 km away, is not an active mill anymore and only used to house agricultural equipment. It is also the site of the company’s private museum, with a large collection of Meso-American artifacts found in the area, as well as a portable steam engine (R. Wolf, Magdeburg-Buckau No. 7382/1900) and four more locomotives:

Baldwin 0-4-2ST: stamped on the firebox is the number “96230”:

0-6-2T SUJUYES (OK 11396/1927, 750mm, new to Nottebohm & Co.): builders’ plates attached

0-4-2T LA MARUCA: it has an Arthur Koppel plate on the cab and “1927” stamped on the nameplate: (It has been said that it is an Orenstein and Kopel product, based, I assume, on the presence of the plate. AK was an agent and supplied locomotives from a number of builders including OK. I have seen plates like this in Java - on Jungs - and I have one at home, they were applied to locomotives built before OK and AK came together in 1909. La Maruca does not appear in Martin Murray's list of preserved OK locomotives although 11256 and 11386 do. AK's agents in Guatemala were Frege & Paetau. RD)

Ruston & Hornsby 6wDM, said to be 100DL 302765 of 01.1958, 30-inch gauge, 14.5 tons, new to S.T. Gaywood Ltd.: stamped on the motions are the numbers “1R14212” and “R1424X” (last digit 3 or 5)

A further 56 km west of Pantaleon, there used to be two locomotives plinthed at Ingenio Palo Gordo (IPG S.A.) in San Antonio Suchitepéquez, a Henschel 0-4-0T and 0-6-0T No. 2 (also possibly Henschel). I do not know their gauge, but on photos it appears to be narrower than 3-foot. We had made no arrangements for a visit, but when we drove by the name rang a bell for me and we stopped to ask at the gate. There was some confusion until we were asked to talk to a lady on the phone. When she called back she told us that the locomotives had been scrapped, but that might also have been a way to get rid of us. I've seen three pictures of the locomotives as plinthed on Facebook.