FNC1 (Dorada Railway) 0-6-0T No. 4 (9) 'Columbia' ('Dona Helena')
Barranquila, Colombia 		Location: Locomotive Square
Status: Display
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1 FNC Ferrocarriles Nacionales de Colombia National Railways of Colombia
Posted: Aug 9, 2018 @ 15:08:54 by Robin R Beck
In 1905 one of four Hudswell Clarke built locomotives were supplied to S. Pearson & Sons and shipped to Sabanilla, Columbia then presumably taken by riverboat up the Magdalena River to be used on the Dorada Railway Company. Works numbers 730 & 731 were 4-4-0T locos. Works number 732 & 733 were 0-6-0 tender engines. 733 received the name DONA HELENA. Can find no more history on this loco. An 0-6-0T plinthed outside the old railway station Estacion Montoya in Barranquilla has a plaque saying built by Hudswell Clarke 1904 becoming Dorada Railway Company No 4 named DONA HELENA. So presumed 733 was at some converted to a tank locomotive. Has a new name painted on its tanks. Dorada Railway Company was a British venture to build a railway around the rapids at Honda on the river Magdalena. Magdalena river is the third largest in South America. Navigable for 620 miles, Barranquilla to Honda. After the rapids it is navigable for another 150 miles. So the railway allowed goods to be carried the whole length of the navigable river. This helped Barranquilla become the largest port in Columbia.

Estacion Montoya (railway station), Barranquilla was built in 1871, the first railway station built in Columbia. The Bolivar Railway Company built an eleven mile railway from Barranquilla to Puerto Colombia to carry goods and passengers from the river at Barranquilla to the Caribbean coast at Puerto Colombia where a pier was built to load ships. The building of wharfs at Barranquilla for ocean going ships took the freight away from this railway

Posted: Jan 3, 2018 @ 09:01:46 by Mike Haddon
According to an item in Railway Magazine (UK) Jan 2018 page 91 this loco was built by Hudswell Clarke, Leeds, UK in 1904 (Construction No. 725) for the British owned Dorada Railway, Columbia as their No.4