Jungle Discovery
 

Hello all you forum members. Thought someone out there might be interested or could shed some light on the origins of a steam locomotive I came across on a hike the other day. I should perhaps add that I wasn't in the UK but in the Republic of Panama where I live. Hopefully I will be able to attache a photo or two of the machine which had spent many years submerged in a river before being hauled out onto the bank when an obliging JCB was in the area fixing the dirt road that services the inhabitants of the valley. I imagine it was originally used to haul bananas from the plantations that used to exist in this region and whether it was abandoned or, more exciting, left the rails and sank I don't know. The village where the valley meets the main road is called La Linea in Colon province and my guess is it is named after the "line" that brought the fruit from the farms. The loco is in a bad way as you can see and the cylinders have been cut from the main chassis. At the same time smaller pieces of steel appear to have been liberated. The price of scrap steel here means anything portable is collected these days. Does anyone recognise the engine? My guess is that it was probably imported into the country by one of the large fruit growing companies. United fruit maybe? I was hoping to find out a rough date of manufacture and maybe a country of origin. Here's hoping there is an expert out there. Thanks