Benguela Railway 4-8-2 Locomotives in Angola

Class 11th class (Locobase 2604)

Data from Brian Hollingsworth and Arthur Cook, The Great Book of Trains (New York: Portland House, 1987), pp. 188-189; and "South African Class 19D 4-8-2" in Wikipedia at [], last accessed 9 March 2023.. Works numbers were 26959-26964 in 1951.

Intended to haul 500-ton trains up 1.25% grades and around curves of a 300-ft (91.4 m) radius, these engines accomplished that goal on a low axle loading while burning eucalyptus logs as fuel. Tender capacity came to 650 cu ft (18.5 cu m); see Locobase 2860 for Peter Ball's discussion of eucalyptys as a fuel..Wikipedia states that the tenders were Type MX tank wagon types with cylindrical water tanks designed by Dr M M Loubser. Their shape led to their "Torpedo tender" nikname.

The design was based on the South African Railways 19C/19D Mountain (Locobases 2958 and 12790); Locobase data comes from the o designation shown in the Wikipedia table.

The high-pitched boiler was headed by a front end that included a Kyala-Chapelon (Kylchap) blast-pipe as well as spark-arresting gear. Other "luxuries" included power reverse, steam-operated fire doors, compensated springing to balance the load on the drivers and trailing axle. The class worked express mail trains on Atlantic coast runs and on the Silva Porto - Luau section.

Only a civil war could stop these engines from serving out long lives.