Cape Government 4-8-0 Locomotives in South_Africa

Class 7 (Locobase 16128)

Data from South African Railways & Harbours 9 -1941 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in August 2013 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. Dubs built the first first few, Neilson supplied the rest in 1892-1893.

This set of Twelve-wheelers set the standard for the more than 80 later engines of the 7A and beyond class (Locobase 16123). Their power dimensions were the same throughout and the boiler and firebox design remained consistent as well. These first locomotives had smaller-diameter tubes (by 1/8"/3.18 mm) which accounts for the lower heating surface area, and a shallower firebox.

Class 7A, B, C (Locobase 16123)

Data from South African Railways & Harbours 9 -1941 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in August 2013 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also A E Durrant, The Smoke that Thunders (Harare, Zimbabwe: African Publishing Group, 1997), pp. 10-11.

7A builders included Sharp, Stewart (9); Dubs & Company (21); and Neilson & Company (44). The latter company, since reorganized as Neilson, Reid, supplied all of 29 of the 7B and the 10 7C.

This large set of Twelve-wheelers had boilers about the same size as the Class 6 Ten-wheelers. Differences included a slightly larger grate and the extra axle spread the weight over more wheels. Thus, the Class 7s had significantly lower axle loadings. The first 38 engines, which had smaller fireboxes and narrower tubes, appear in Locobase 16128.

Produced at the same time as the three Class 6B Ten-wheelers shown in Locobase 16122, four of the 29 Neilson, Reid Twelve-wheelers (works numbers 5160-5163 in 1897) originally were intended as well for the Bechuanaland Railway in what became Rhodesia and arrived in Cape Town as the BR's 4-7. Durrant explains that all four were taken into the CGR as part of their Class 7 and numbered 347-350. 4 and 6-7 received CGR numbers and were reboilered (Locobase 10540), but the 348 was sold to the Paulings construction company, which built the Rhodesia Katanga Junction Railway. Paulings already owned another Class 7 from the CGR (ex-398).

After its completion in 1909, the RKJ bought the 348 and 398. Both operated in northern Rhodesia until the late 1920s, when 398 was sold back to Paulings to support branch-line construction. 348 was withdrawn in January 1932, 398 in October 1933. Both were scrapped in March 1938.