20 NREC B23-7 rebuilds for RVR

[John Ashworth]

From the East_African_Steam Yahoo group

20 NREC B23-7 rebuilds for RVR

The following was posted on the WDL group by renrut44 yesterday:

"Post on LocoNotes overnight that RVR have ordered 20 rebuilt B23-7 on C-C bogies from NREC

Cassagrande, a Chilean re-builder, in the southern Santiago suburb of Chena converted 2 similar units to meter gauge C-C for Ferroviaria Oriental (Bolivia) in 2011/12 (coincidentally numbered EFO 2011/2012)

Four similar conversions were done by a Mexican shop in 2008 (to 3’ gauge) for coal haul in Colombia. A cut corner “el cheapo” exercise, locos were not successful, and all four were cut up in May 2013. However the Mexican spec sheet will be a guide to the shape and the weights for the Kenyans http://ferroviasg12.tripod.com/ http://ferroviasg12.tripod.com/

The Mexicans got the weight down to 200,000 lbs (say around 91 tonnes), so NREC probably have a bit of leeway with the weight, as Kenya’s Krupp built U26C are in the 96/97.5 tonne range "