Cape Government 2-8-2 Locomotives in South_Africa

Class EXP4 (Locobase 9930)

Ben H Morgan, Report on the Engineering Trades of South Africa (London: P S King & Son, 1902), , p. 67, accessed through [] and R H Clatworthy, "Beatty's Locomotives",accessed at []

Morgan notes that this design was under construction by an English builder, but gave no more context. Clatworthy fills in the facts that this pair was ordered by Hazlett M Beatty (Kitson works #4195-4196). Morgan's diagram shows 18.5" x 24" cylinders, but Locobase suspects they gained the half-inch before delivery.

Holland gives the boiler areas shown in the specs; earlier sources gave a total evaporative heating surface of 1,615 sq ft and 109 sq ft in the firebox.

They were small and low-drivered by CGR (and SAR) standards. Holland comments that the attempt to combine the good qualities of the Class 8s with a wide firebox did not ultimately succeed because of high maaintenance costs. It's also clear that these were among the few Mikados ever bought by the CGR or its successor, the South African Railways. They were never superheated.

A later locomotive - the 9th Class -- was an enlargement delivered by Kitson in 1906.