SIA 3 Locomotive

They had three coupled axles, external cylinders and a water tank on the boiler. As was usual on American engines, it had a bell located on the left side of the smokebox. Other interesting details were the large lantern to illuminate the track during poor light hours and a sheet metal front cowcatcher. Over the years, all these accessories would be lost.

Initially, they were in charge of the raw coal trains that came down from the Santa Ana or Los Pontones loading docks to the Oyanco washing plant, as well as the washed mineral trains that went to Santullano. From the 1930s onwards, the SIA tramway network was progressively reduced with the arrival of the Basque Asturian Railway at Collanzo and its services were restricted to the mining railway branches.

The machines of the series gradually disappeared as the mining lines were closed during the 1960s and their last service took place in 1971, already in the hands of HUNOSA. Number 3 was the last survivor of the group and was abandoned at the Tartiere facilities in Oyanco until they were dismantled, when HUNOSA moved it as a monument to the Sovilla washing plant.

With the closure of the latter, it returned to Aller and was sent to the San Jorge Mine as a monument. After an initial aesthetic restoration, it was the subject of an interesting initiative carried out by the mining company's staff in 2014. It was restored to its original appearance, which was recognised thanks to a factory photograph. It was painted black with white fileteado and had the owner's name written on the tank. It is thus a unique example of American technology, which was very common in Asturian mines after World War I.

Guillermo Bas Ordóñez