Beira Railway 4-4-0 Locomotives in Mozambique

Class F (Locobase 997)

Data from [], last accessed 8 June 2006.

A H Croxton had a particular affection for the 2-ft gauge Beira Railway built in Mozambique in 1895-1897. His indefatigable delvings gradually turned up information about the locomotives and rolling stock and he published his findings in several editions of the Industrial Railway Society's Record. In April 1971, Croxton was able to give some specifications and added a photograph of the first set of Falcons to run on the Beira line. He noted the straight running board and an inverted cone stack that held spark-arresting equipment. The little locomotive trailed an equally diminuitive 4-wheel tender. His boiler-pressure figure of 100 psi doesn't support his 3,000-lb tractive effort number, so Locobase raised the estimate to 120 psi.

They operated on the BR for only a short time because its gauge was widened to 3' 6" in 1900. Moved to a Salisbury-Ayrshire Gold Mine branch in 1902, they were again rendered redundant in 1912 by a similar regauging. It's not clear how many of these went to South Africa for use in German Southwest Africa (Namibia) in 1915.

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Class NG6 Lawleys (Locobase 996)

See Neill Mardell's SAR NG Class "The Lawleys" originally published in the May/June 1985 South African Railway Modelling Scene.

Also see [], last accessed 8 June 2006. A H Croxton had a particular affection for the 2-ft gauge Beira Railway built in Mozambique in 1895-1897. Unlike the 4 Falcons described in Locobase 997, Croxton can give only a few sketchy details about these larger Falcons. They had a broken running board that stepped down under the cab, a straight stack, lengthened smokebox, and a 6-wheel tender (vs the 4-wheel cart pulled by the Fs).

Like the other Falcons, this class operated on the BR for only a short time because its gauge was widened to 3' 6" in 1900. Moved to a Salisbury-Ayrshire Gold Mine branch in 1902, they were again rendered redundant in 1912 by a similar regauging.

Mardell says that several (7-9) went to SouthWest Africa (Namibia) in 1915 under South Africa's Defence Department to operate on former German 2-ft gauge lines. Although they were widely used on branch lines, "Of just how much use these engines were is debateable," says Mardell. "Their low power and small grate area soon ensured their relegation to shunting duties."

But they enjoyed a second life when the Seymour and Kakamas branches opened and were the exclusive power of these lines until the SAR put the NG12 Garratts in service in 1928. Most were sold off to industrial users within a few years.