BACK TRACK
From Archangelsk to Kuala Lumpur, Issue 132
Martin Coombs writes:
These Mallets were Baldwin class 12-20/32DD nos. 1 to 53. Their specification is available online in the usual incredible Baldwin detail via the DeGolyer Library website, in spec. volume 57, pages 312 to 315.
The first ten locos, Russian nos. An101 to An110, had indeed departed from the Baldwin works by the time that the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk had been signed. They reached Seattle on their way to Russia and were still sitting there on the dockside in March 1921 when the General Equipment Co. advertised them for sale at a price of $US47,500 each. I found that advert some years ago in the Chilean government public works archive in Santiago, from where a Spanish translation had been circulated around possible Chilean buyers. As Harold Middleton has confirmed, nine of them did indeed go to the Anglo-Chilean Nitrate & Railway Co., for use on the level nitrate pampa around Maria Elena and Pedro de Valdivia rather than in the mainline fleet working down to the coast at Tocopilla. They operated there – on 3’ 6” gauge as built – under their original Russian numbers.
The tenth, no. An106, went to the Pampauga sugar mill in the Philippines, but as a stationary boiler rather than as a locomotive.
As Robert stated, nos. An111 to An150 went to the ROD in Mesopotamia, though the spec. sheets state that they were for France. Like him I have been unable to find no. An 149 in Baldwin lists. However, Baldwin produced over 5000 engines during the years 1917 and 1918, which makes a search rather daunting, though Gene Connelly’s Excel format lists do ease the task considerably.
That leaves only three engines to be pinned down: no. An151, Baldwin 49411,
