4-8-2 - Usage - South Africa

South Africa

Tank locomotives

Of the thirty classes of 4-8-2 locomotives to see service on the South African Railways (SAR), four were tank locomotives.

• The first locomotive in the world to be designed with this wheel arrangement was the Class Dübs A 4-8-2T tank of the Natal Government Railways (NGR), the brain-child of Locomotive Superintendent W. Milne and built by Dübs and Company. Altogether one hundred of these locomotives were delivered in ten batches between 1888 and 1899. In 1912 they came into SAR stock and were designated Class A.
• When the 4-10-2T Reid Tenwheelers of the NGR, designed by Locomotive Superintendent G.W. Reid, began to be withdrawn from mainline service for branch line and shunting duties, they were gradually converted to a 4-8-2T wheel arrangement by removing the fifth set of drivers. In 1912 five such converted locomotives, originally built by Dübs between 1901 and 1903, were designated Class H2 on the SAR. The SAR converted many more Reid Tenwheelers to 4-8-2T, but reclassified only the first three of these to Class H2, while the rest retained their Class H classification even after modification.
• In 1902 the Imperial Military Railways placed thirty-five 4-10-2T tank locomotives in service, built by Dübs and Neilson, Reid and Company to the specifications of the Reid Tenwheeler of the NGR. They became the Class E on the Central South African Railways, who converted six of them to 4-8-2T tank locomotives. In 1912 the five survivors were designated Class H1 on the SAR.
• In 1904 the NGR placed twenty-five Class Dübs B 4-8-2T tank locomotives in service. It was the first locomotive to be designed for the NGR by Locomotive Superintendent D.A. Hendrie and was built by North British Locomotive Company (NBL). In 1912 these locomotives were designated Class G by the SAR.

Tender locomotives

Between 1909, when the world’s first true Mountain type tender locomotive was placed in service by the NGR, and 1953 when the Class 25 and Class 25NC 4-8-4 Northern locomotives arrived on the scene, 4-8-2 Mountain tender locomotives became the most popular goods locomotives on South African rails. Between 1906 and 1938 altogether twenty-six different classes of 4-8-2 locomotives were acquired for mainline and branch line service.

In 1906 the NGR modified six of its Class Hendrie B 4-8-0 Mastodon locomotives, built by NBL in 1904, to Class Altered Hendrie B locomotives in order to improve their stability on passenger trains. This made them the first tender locomotives in the world with a 4-8-2 wheel arrangement. In 1912 they were classified as Class 1B by the SAR.

The Class 3 originated on the NGR. Three variants were introduced between 1909 and 1912.

• In 1909 the NGR placed the world’s first true Mountain type locomotive in service when the first of thirty Class Hendrie D 4-8-2 tender locomotives were commissioned. Designed by D.A. Hendrie to handle coal traffic on the upper Natal mainline and based on his Class Hendrie B 4-8-0 Mastodon, the firebox was positioned to the rear of the driving wheels to make an improved grate and ashpan possible. They were built by NBL in 1909 and 1910. In 1912 they were designated Class 3 on the SAR.
• In 1910 the NGR placed a single experimental Class American D 4-8-2 locomotive in service, built by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO). The locomotive was similar to the Class Hendrie D and was nicknamed "Maude Allen" by the enginemen. In 1912 it became the sole Class 3A on the SAR.
• In 1912 the SAR took delivery of ten Class 3B Mountain locomotives that had been ordered by the NGR the year before. Designed by Hendrie and built by NBL, these locomotives had plate frames, Walschaerts valve gear and Belpaire fireboxes and were the first of Hendrie’s designs to have superheaters and piston valves instead of slide valves.

The Class 4 originated on the Cape Government Railways (CGR). Two variants were introduced in 1911 and 1913.

• In 1911 the CGR placed two 4-8-2 Mountain locomotives in service. Designed by Chief Locomotive Superintendent H.M. Beatty as a heavy mixed traffic locomotive with Stephenson valve gear and that used saturated steam, they were built by NBL. They were not classified on the CGR but a year later, when they were taken onto the SAR roster, they were designated Class 4.
• In 1913 and 1914 ten Class 4A locomotives were placed in service by the SAR. Built by NBL, it was an improved version of the predecessor Class 4, with a superheater and Walschaerts valve gear. Like the two forerunners, they were excellent steamers and, with the improvements, gave a much better performance.

Three Class 12 variants were introduced by the SAR between 1912 and 1920.

• Between 1912 and 1922 the SAR placed forty-six Class 12 locomotives in service. Designed by SAR Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) D.A. Hendrie for use in coal traffic on the line from Witbank to Germiston, they were the largest non-articulated locomotives in South Africa at the time. The first twenty-six were built by NBL between 1912 and 1915 and the remainder by Beyer, Peacock and Company (BP) in 1922.
• Between 1919 and 1929 sixty-seven Class 12A locomotives entered service. It was the final locomotive design by Hendrie and one of his finest. An improved and larger version of his Class 12, with larger diameter cylinders and a redesigned boiler that included a combustion chamber, it was superheated and had Walschaerts valve gear and a Belpaire firebox. Forty-eight were built by NBL between 1919 and 1929 and nineteen by Henschel & Son in Germany in 1928 and 1929.
• In 1920 the SAR placed thirty Class 12B locomotives in service, built to the Class 12 design by Baldwin Locomotive Works in the United States of America. They were very similar to the second and subsequent orders of the Class 12, but were classified separately as Class 12B, possibly merely because they were American built while the Class 12 was British built.

Four Class 14 variants were introduced by the SAR between 1913 and 1918.

• Between 1913 and 1915 the SAR placed forty-five Class 14 locomotives in service. Designed by Hendrie as a development of the Class 12, it was built by Robert Stephenson and Company. With 48 inches (1,220 millimetres) driving wheels, it was evolved as intermediate locomotive between the Class 3B with its 45 inches (1,140 millimetres) drivers and the Class 12 with its 51 inches (1,300 millimetres) drivers.
• In 1914 and 1915 forty-one Class 14A locomotives entered service. Also designed by Hendrie, it was a lighter locomotive for use on coastal lines and was built by NBL. Like the Class 14, it also had Walschaerts valve gear, a Belpaire firebox and was superheated, but it had a smaller boiler and smaller cylinders to reduce the axle loading.
• In 1915 fifteen Class 14B locomotives entered service. Built by BP, its intended use was on the lower section of the Natal mainline where speeds were low with frequent stops, and Hendrie therefore designed them without superheaters. In service the omission of superheating soon became a bone of contention and by 1927 all of them were converted to superheating and reclassified to Class 14. Of all the locomotives introduced by Hendrie, the Class 14B was the only one to fall short of expectations.

• Between 1918 and 1922 seventy-three Class 14C locomotives were ordered from the Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW) in Canada as a result of wartime disruption in Europe. While built to Hendrie’s specifications, they were designed by MLW, resulting in a locomotive with some typical American characteristics and with American style high running boards. Through reboilerings and rebalancings during its service life, this single class eventually ended up as six different locomotive classes.

Seven Class 15 variants were introduced by the SAR between 1914 and 1938.

• In 1914 ten Class 15 locomotives entered service, built by NBL and designed by Hendrie as a large mixed traffic locomotive with larger 57 inches (1,450 millimetres) coupled wheels for use in the Orange Free State, where grades and curvature were less severe than on the coastal sections. In order to reduce the weight on the trailing wheels, steel fireboxes were used, a feature that became standard on large locomotives but necessitated the introduction of water treatment plants in some parts of the country to prevent corrosion.

• Between 1914 and 1925 the SAR placed one hundred and nineteen Class 15A locomotives in service, delivered in ten batches from three manufacturers. Of the whole Hendrie-designed Mountain family, this Class proved to be his most useful and most numerous group of locomotives. Being wartime, initial production and delivery occurred in dribs and drabs. NBL delivered sixty-eight between 1914 and 1921, BP delivered thirty in 1920 and 1921 and J.A. Maffei delivered the last twenty-one in 1925.
• Between 1918 and 1922 thirty Class 15B locomotives entered service. As a result of wartime disruption in Europe, they were ordered from MLW in Canada. They were built to the general specifications of the Class 15, but with bar frames and some typical North American features, and they were equipped with Belpaire fireboxes with combustion chambers.
• In 1925 and 1926 the SAR placed twelve Class 15C locomotives in service, built by Baldwin Locomotive Works and conforming to SAR requirements as far as practicable, but also incorporating the latest American railway engineering practices. They introduced several new features to the SAR, such as top feeds to the boiler, self-cleaning smokeboxes, Sellar’s drifting valves and grease lubrication. Their fireboxes were equipped with siphon tubes to support the brick arch and to improve water circulation. The locomotive’s size quickly earned it the nickname "Big Bill".
• Between 1926 and 1930 eighty-four Class 15CA locomotives entered service. It was a redesigned version of the Class 15C, with the frames widened under the firebox by means of a bridle casting. Twenty-three were built by ALCO in 1926, four by Baldwin in 1929, ten by Società Italiana Ernesto Breda of Milan in Italy in 1929 and forty-seven by NBL between 1928 and 1930.

• Between 1935 and 1937 the SAR placed forty-four Class 15E locomotives in service. It was a refinement of the Class 15C and Class 15CA and was designed by CME A.G. Watson, incorporating many of the improvements that had been developed by him, two of which were a vastly enlarged Watson Standard boiler and a Watson cab with a sloping front. Twenty were built by Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns (RSH) in 1935, sixteen by Henschel in 1936, and eight by BMAG in 1937. The locomotives had poppet valve gear and were fast, even though some trouble was initially experienced with the gear in the reverse position.
• Between 1938 and 1946 two hundred and fifty-five Class 15F locomotives were placed in service, making it the most numerous steam locomotive class in SAR service. It was similar to the Class 15E with a Watson Standard no. 3B boiler and a Watson cab, but with Walschaerts valve gear. It was designed by CME W.A.J Day and built in four batches over a period of eight years spanning World War II. In 1938 seven were built by BMAG, fourteen by Henschel and forty-four by NBL. Locomotive building was interrupted by the war, but because of a critical motive power shortage that developed during the war, manufacturing was resumed even before hostilities had ceased. In 1944 production started with thirty locomotives by BP, followed by sixty by NBL in 1945. The final batch of one hundred was built by NBL in 1946 and 1947. The pre-war Class 15Fs were hand stoked and were delivered without smoke deflectors, while the post-war locomotives were built with mechanical stokers, smoke deflectors and vacuum brakes on the driving wheels as well as the tenders.

Five Class 19 variants were introduced by the SAR between 1928 and 1937.

• In 1928 the SAR placed four Class 19 locomotives in service. It was a lighter branch line version of the Class 15C and Class 15CA mainline locomotives, built to the basic design of Test Engineer M.M. Loubser as requested by CME Colonel F.R. Collins. Built by BMAG in Germany, they were superheated, built on bar frames and used Walschaerts valve gear.

• In 1929 thirty-six Class 19A locomotives entered service. It was a later model of the Class 19, but redesigned by Collins to achieve a lighter axle loading by reducing the driving wheel diameter from 54 to 51 inches (1,370 to 1,300 millimetres), reducing the cylinder diameter from 21 to 19.5 inches (533 to 495 millimetres) and by using a smaller boiler. They were built by Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works (SLM).
• In 1930 fourteen Class 19B locomotives entered service. Built in Germany by BMAG, it was virtually identical to the Class 19 apart from the wheelbase of the front bogie, which had been increased from 6 feet 2 inches (1,880 millimetres) to 6 feet 4 inches (1,930 millimetres) in order to improve the clearance between the cylinders and the bogie wheels.
• Fifty Class 19C locomotives entered service in 1935, built by NBL to the design of the Class 19B, but with Rotary Cam Poppet valve gear and Watson Standard no. 1A boilers. It had a larger superheater than the Class 19B and was equipped with a Watson cab with a sloping front that, like the Watson Standard boiler, was to become standard on later SAR steam locomotive classes. In a break with prior custom, the ash pan and running boards were affixed to the locomotive frame instead of to the boiler to facilitate easier removal of the boiler for repairs.
• Between 1937 and 1949 two hundred and thirty-five Class 19D locomotives entered service, with the final development of the Class 19 series of locomotives having been done in 1937 by CME W.A.J. Day. The Class 19D, nicknamed "Dolly", was very similar to its predecessor Class 19C, but with piston valves and Walschaerts valve gear instead of RC Poppet gear. The locomotives were built in batches by several locomotive manufacturers. In 1937 and 1938 sixty were built by Friedrich Krupp AG and another sixty by the Borsig Lokomotiv Werke, and in 1938 Škoda Works in Czechoslovakia built fifteen before locomotive building was interrupted by World War II. In 1947 fifty were built by RSH, and the final batch of fifty was delivered by NBL in 1949. The NBL locomotives were delivered with Vanderbilt type "Torpedo" tenders with cylindrical water tanks that ran on three axle Buckeye bogies.

In 1938 and 1939 the SAR placed one hundred and thirty-six Class 23 locomotives in service, its last and largest Mountain locomotive. Designed by Day, it was intended as a general utility locomotive capable of operating on 80 pounds per yard (40 kilograms per metre) rail and was built in two batches by BMAG and Henschel in Germany. The original order in 1938 was for twenty locomotives, of which BMAG built seven and Henschel thirteen. However, the urgency brought about by the rapidly deteriorating political climate in Europe at the time led to a further one hundred and sixteen locomotives being ordered even before the first batch could be delivered and tested. Of these, Henschel built eighty-five and BMAG thirty-one. The last locomotive of this second order was delivered in August 1939, just one month before the outbreak of World War II. Since they were intended for working in the arid Karoo, they were equipped with very large tenders with a high water capacity that rode on six wheeled bogies.