Madeira-Mamoré Railroad No.12 'Coronel Church'

Madeira-Mamoré Railroad No. 12, named Coronel Church, is a Baldwin metre-gauge "American" 4-4-0 belonging to the Estrada de Ferro Madeira Mamore (EFMM), a Brazilian railway. 
No. 12 was built in 1877 by Baldwin and delivered to Brazil in 1878 by the USA contractor P&T Collins. It was named to honour Colonel George Earl Church (Coronel is the Spanish word for Colonel), the founder of the Madeira-Mamoré Railroad. According to the Ferreoclube (Brazil) website page dedicated to the history of the railway, No. 12 worked alongside a "Mogul" 2-6-0 locomotive No. 1, also named after Colonel Church; the latter apparently derailed on a poorly-engineered curve on its first day in service but was re-railed.
Construction of the railway was aborted in May 1879, after many of the workers caught yellow fever and died in the jungle. No. 12 was then claimed by local villagers and used as a bakery oven while its tender served as a water storage container. No. 1 was left abandoned in the jungle for thirty years until it and No. 12 were discovered by accident by railway officials in 1909. 
No. 1 was in a poor state of decay by that time with a tree having grown through its smokestack, but No. 12 was taken away and rebuilt with an extended smoke box and a steel cab, and was put into service again in 1912, giving thirty years' more use until 1942 when it was retired. It was then refurbished in a blue livery, before going on open display at the Brazilian Army's 5th Battalion base. Here it stood on a pedestal until May 1981 when it was reclaimed for display on the grounds of the railway where it originally worked.
It is now seen on static display at the Madeira Mamore Railway in Porto Velho, Brazil.
==Trivia==
*The locomotive prior to rebuilding wore a wood-burning balloon smokestack, as indicated by the state it was in when it was found in 1909. It presumably also had a wooden-profile cab when it landed in 1878, although this had clearly been taken off when made use of by the locals after abandonment.
*The discovery of the abandoned locomotives in 1909 formed part of the basis for the "Railway Series" creator, the Rev. W. Awdry, to write his story about the character of Duke being left abandoned, albeit in a shed, for over twenty years after his railway shut down.
==Gallery==
CoronelChurch.jpg
File:Lossless-page1-800px-Homens posam junto a uma locomotiva.tif.png
File:Colchbefore.webp
==External links==
*Coronel Church from Thomas & Friends Wikia.
Category:Steam locomotives
Category:Tender locomotives
Category:4-4-0 locomotives
Category:4-4-0 steam locomotives
Category:Four-coupled locomotives
Category:Baldwin locomotives
Category:Built in 1878
Category:Locomotives
Category:Brazil
Category:Preserved locomotives
Category:Restored locomotives
Category:South America
Category:Brazilian locomotives