Front Page News: Trying to Unravel the Story of the Chilean Transandine Esslingen Rack Equipped 0-6-8-0Ts

摘要

The author of this note is an avid collector of Donald Binn's books on Kitson-Meyer locomotives, having bought a copy of all three editions since the first one emerged in 1985. Whilst admiring Donald's knowledge and enthusiasm for the locomotives of the said type, I beg to differ with him regarding their main steam age competitor on the Chilean Transandine Railway (FCTC), i.e. the Esslingen rack fitted 0-6-8-OTs. In the 1980s as in his recently published, and highly recommended, 'Kitson Meyer Articulated Locomotives' [D. Binns, Trackside Publications, 2003], he maintains that the second FCTC Esslingen was renumbered 3351 by Chilean State Railways, sometime after 1934. There never was a Chilean State locomotive No. 3351 since one of the Esslingens was, according to my findings, written off before its renumbering would have taken place, in the latter half of 1946. The following brief article attempts to trace the history of the FCTC Esslingens and to identify the one that survived into the 1960s. The one that disappeared is the subject of asearch and rescue attempt that has become front page news in Chile.