#12 is a 36” gauge Consolidation (2-8-0) type locomotive
built by Baldwin in 1911 for the Ferrocarril Coahuila-Zacatecas in Saltillo, Mexico. It weighs 109,000 lbs, 100,00 lbs on its 42” drivers, with Walschaert valve gear and an engine wheelbase of 19’ 5” and driver wheelbase of 12’. The cylinders are 18” x 22”, the grate is 18.7 sq ft and the
firebox 104 sq ft. With a total heating surface of 1,685 sq ft and operating at a boiler pressure of 170 psi, it delivered 24,524 lbs tractive effort. The tender weighs 100,000 lbs light and has a capacity of 5,000 gallons of water and 6 tons of coal.
The Ferrocarril Coahuila-Zacatecas was a narrow gauge railroad that began operating in January 1898 linking
Saltillo and Avalos in central Mexico mainly hauling iron ore to smelters in San Luis Potosi, Monterrey and Torreón as
well as providing transport for several thousand mine workers and their families. In 1959, operations were suspended. Six years later, #12 was sold to Early West Railways, Inc., in La Verne, CA, along with several other Mexican narrow gauge locomotives, including 4-6-0 #6, which is shown on the Ferrocarril Coahuila y Zacatecas #6 page of this website.
Early West Railways hoped to start a tourist excursion railroad in Pomona, CA, but the plans came to nothing.
#12 was sold to Specialty Restaurants, Inc., in Anaheim, CA, then donated to the San Bernadino Railway Historical Society in 1984, on to the American Railroader Historical Foundation in Mt. Pleasant, TX, and next went on display outside a bank in Palmer Lake, CO, liveried as D&RG #71. It was then sold and moved to Black Hawk, where it bears the name Colorado Central RR, a short lived narrow gauge operator in the 19th Century.
