Cape Government 0-4-0 Locomotives in South_Africa

Class Midget Type C/NG20 (Locobase 982)

Data from diagram drawn by Sidney Moir in 1960 of Cape Government Railway Department, Avontuur Railway Type C, reproduced by Piet Conradie as part of his 17 May 2009 post to his old Steam Locomotives in South Africa blog at [], last accessed 1 June 2015. Wikipedia at , last accessed 1 June 2015. Works number was 1583 in November 1902.

This single engine operated both as a switcher and as the motive power for short (2-carriage) passenger trains from Port Elizabeth on west to Avontuur in the Langkloof. Piet Conradie amplifies on these operations, saying that the Midget and its stablemate Krauss 0-4-0T "were frequently sent out on the mainline during the weekends, each handling a single coach with excursionists bound for Greenbushes or Van Staden's Gorge. The fact that water tanks, drawing their supplies from wells, either by means of windmills or hand-operated pumps, had been erected every five miles or so, made these ventures possible."

Two points from the diagram deserve mention: 1) the relatively large external diameters of the 49 boiler tubes, and 2) the high factor of adhesion.

After retirement, the Midget was restored in the 1980s and put into service at the Crown Mine Museum. Later she w