Rustenburg Platinum Mines 0-4-2 Locomotives in South_Africa

Class unknown (Locobase 5102)

Information from [] (August 2002). Works numbers wer 2870, 2895, 3023, 3050.

Bought to pull 48-ton trains (4 reef hoppers) laden with platinum ore from the mines to the extraction plants 6-10 km (3 3/4 to 6 1/4 miles) away.

The first two locomotives were ordered 16 months apart, but arrived together on 22 July 1948. Likewise, the second two were ordered 8 months apart, but delivered on 27 March 1953. (In both cases, the first of the two was ordered directly, the second through Baldwin Locomotive, which was Bagnall's agent in South Africa.) Prices were 5,540 pounds and 4,596 pounds, respectively.

Of the four, 2895 had a steel firebox and steel firetubes; the other three had copper fireboxes and brass firetubes. Once in service, the engines had their leaf springs replaced with coil springs, kerosene lights supplanted by electric lights, copper steam inlet and exhaust replaced by steel ones, and the drop-feed lubrication system removed in favor of those operated by steam pressure.

The site points out that as volume in the mines grew, the 2' gauge was gradually replaced by wider Cape Gauge (3' 6" ) trackage. The last 2' sections were closed in 1981, when these locomotives were retired.

2870 wound up in Johannesburg's Gold Reef City. The three others went to Britain -- 2895 to Loxhill, Surrey, England and 3023 and 3050 to the Welsh Highland Railway. 3050 (now named Gelert) began a major overhaul in 2001.