Central Boca Chica has always been a mill for which little railroad information or photographs were found over the years of my research. In recent years I was able to buy a photograph of their #4 on Ebay at a modest price. But the picture has appeared in many places since that time, as the seller used a decent resolution picture for his listing. The photograph was taken by a US serviceman, who also took pictures of a large steam tractor working near the locomotive, as well as some photos of workers cutting cane. A year or so later I was able to find a builders photo of #4. Oddly, this was the only locomotive ever factory-lettered for Boca Chica. Boca Chica had a very extensive railroad system, and from the Wirshing family I was able to get the blue print of the mill yard and all the surrounding fields owned at the time of that blueprint. All of those fields were connected to this rail system. Roger Aponte should have that in his possession in the next few days and hopefully will be able to transform this huge map into a more manageable size so it can be shared. I visited what few traces were left of this mill site in 1968 and found several small .sections of rail in concrete near road crossings. The gauge was 60cm. This narrow gauged system was powered by teams of oxen. There was an old meter gauge section just north of the mill site, again embedded in concrete at a roadway. The mill had a meter gauge connection with the ARR near its junction with the Fortuna RR. According to Marco Amaro at Aguirre, the original #1 from the P&G (Baldwin 0-6-0 tender locomotive) first worked the mill connection when acquired in 1912. When the Serralles interests became principal owners, they extended a 26 gauge line to Boca Chica and around 1935 assigned two Plymouth locomotives to the mill. These were relettered for Boca Chica and assigned #2 & #3. The #4 locomotive we see in the two photos, was the first one ordered by Serralles for the mill and was shipped lettered for the mill. It was a Whitcomb 4 wheel diesel-mechanical unit, serial #40110 built December of 1940, rated at 6 tons and model # 6DM-35, and was 26 gauge. Shortly after the 26 gauge line was extended to Boca Chica, the meter gauge line was torn up and Baldwin #1 was scrapped. Serralles would add two more Whitcombs to the roster, but they would first go to Central Mercedita where #2 & #3 began their careers. When Mercedita discontinued the use of 26 gauge railways, the line was relaid in meter gauge. I photograph several movements over that line in the late 1960s and early 1970s, mostly south of the PR Rte 1 crossing east of Mercedita. A photo of one of the GE 45 ton centercabs accompanies this posting. Also seen is CM Plymouth 44 ton diesel-electric #8 bringing a train off of the Boca Chica line.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 01:36:46 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015