South African Class 7A 4-8-0 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Between 1896 and 1901 the Cape Government Railways

Cape Government Railways

The Cape Government Railways was the government-owned railway operator in the Cape Colony from 1874 until the creation of the South African Railways in 1910.-Private railways:...

placed a second batch of altogether forty-six Class 7 steam locomotive

Steam locomotive

A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...

s with a 4-8-0

4-8-0

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-8-0 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles , eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles, and no trailing wheels. The type was nicknamed the Mastodon or Twelve-wheeler in North America....

Mastodon wheel arrangement in service on its Midland and Eastern Systems. In 1912, when all but two of them were assimilated into the South African Railways, they were renumbered and reclassified to Class 7A.

In 1897 and 1898 eight Cape Class 7 locomotives were also built for the Soudan Military Railway during Kitchener’s military campaign in Sudan

Sudan

Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...

Manufacturers

Following on the thirty-eight Class 7 locomotives that were placed in service by the Cape Government Railways (CGR) between 1892 and 1893, a second batch of slightly improved Cape Class 7 locomotives were acquired between 1896 and 1901. Outwardly all these locomotives appeared almost identical to the first batch of Class 7 locomotives, but they had increased heating capacity as well as some other modifications. The most noticeable difference lay in their Type ZE tenders that ran on bogies, compared to the three axle Type ZB tenders of the earlier locomotives.

1896

In 1896 orders were placed for twenty-eight locomotives, distributed between three manufacturers.

Sharp, Stewart and Company built eight for the Cape Midland System, numbered 385 to 392.
Dübs and Company
Dûbs and Company
Dübs & Co. was a locomotive works in Glasgow, Scotland, founded by Henry Dübs in 1863 and based at the Queens Park Works in Polmadie. In 1903 it became part of the North British Locomotive Company.-Preserved locomotives:...

built eight for the Cape Eastern System, numbered 718 to 723, 740 and 741.
Neilson and Company
Neilson and Company
Neilson and Company was a locomotive manufacturer in Glasgow, Scotland.The company was started in 1836 at McAlpine Street by Walter Neilson and James Mitchell to manufacture marine and stationary engines...

built six for the Cape Midland System, numbered 393 to 398, and another six for the Cape Eastern System, numbered 724 to 729.

1897

In 1897 a further four Class 7 locomotives were ordered by the CGR from Neilson, along with three Class 6

South African Class 6B 4-6-0

In 1897 and 1898 the Cape Government Railways placed a third batch of fifty-five Class 6 4-6-0 steam locomotives in service, thirty-two on its Western System, twenty-one on its Midland System and two on its Eastern System. During the Second Freedom War seven were transferred to the Imperial...

locomotives, for use on the new Vryburg to Bulawayo line of the fledgling Bechuanaland Railway Company (BR). The line was still under construction and was operated by the CGR on behalf of the BR at the time. The Class 7 locomotives, numbered BR 4 to 7, were eventually returned to the CGR and renumbered 347 to 350 for the Cape Midland System.

In 1897 and 1898 Neilson also built eight Cape Class 7 locomotives for the Soudan Military Railway in Sudan, where they were known as the Dongola Class.

1898

In 1898 another ten Class 7 locomotives were taken into service by the CGR, as well as three by the Imvani-Indwe Railway that operated a branch line from Sterkstroom to the Indwe Collieries in the Eastern Cape.

Sharp Stewart built one Class 7 for the Imvani-Indwe that was named E.J. Byrne by the colliery. It was eventually taken onto the CGR roster and became the Cape Eastern System’s number 742.
Dübs built two for the Imvani-Indwe that were named Bradfield and Gardner Williams. They were also eventually taken onto the CGR roster and became the Cape Eastern System’s numbers 743 and 744 respectively.
At the same time Dübs built ten for the CGR that became the Cape Eastern System’s numbers 730 to 739.

1901

One more Class 7 locomotive was delivered by Dübs in 1901 and became the Cape Eastern System’s number 758.

Class 7 sub-classes

When all but two of these forty-six locomotives were assimilated into the newly established South African Railways (SAR) in 1912, they were renumbered 988 to 1031 and reclassified to Class 7A. The two exceptions had been sold to Pauling and Company in 1909.

The rest of the CGR’s Class 7 locomotives, together with Class 7 locomotives from the Central South African Railways

Central South African Railways

From 1902 to 1904, the area of power of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Percy Girouard later also included the lines of The Netherlands-South African Railway Company; together this dominion covered all lines in the Transvaal that belonged to NZASM ....

(CSAR), the Pretoria-Pietersburg Railway (PPR), the Rhodesian Railways (RR), the Natal Government Railways

Natal government railways

The Natal Government Railways was formed in January 1877 in the Colony of Natal.In 1877 the Natal Government Railways acquired the Natal Railway Company for the sum of £40,000, gaining the line from the Point to Durban and from Durban to Umgeni...

(NGR) and, in 1925, the New Cape Central Railways (NCCR), were grouped into six different sub-classes by the SAR, becoming SAR Classes 7 and 7B to 7F.

Renumberings

During their long service lives some of the Class 7A locomotives underwent more than one renumbering. Five saw service with the Imperial Military Railways (IMR) and were temporarily renumbered accordingly, three were unnumbered but named while in Imvani-Indwe service and all but two were eventually renumbered into the SAR’s roster in 1912. The table lists these renumberings as well as their builders and works numbers.

When the four BR locomotives, BR 4 to 7, were eventually returned to CGR service and renumbered 347 to 350 for the Cape Midland System, it resulted in number duplication that confused historians in later years. These four running numbers had been used previously on four of the 1892 and 1893 batch of Class 7

South African Class 7 4-8-0

In 1892 the Cape Government Railways placed six Class 7 steam locomotives with a 4-8-0 Mastodon wheel arrangement in service and between 1892 and 1893 another thirty-two were acquired. They were initially placed in service on the Cape Midland System, but were later distributed between the Cape...

locomotives, also built by Neilson, that had since been renumbered 712 to 715 when they were transferred from the Midland to the Eastern System.

**Class 7A builders, works numbers and renumbering**
Builder	Works No.	Year	CGR No.	IMR or BR No.	Imvani-Indwe or Sold	SAR No.
Neilson	5160	1897	347	BR 4		1015
Neilson	5161	1897	348	BR 5	Sold to Paulings
Neilson	5162	1897	349	BR 6		1016
Neilson	5163	1897	350	BR 7		1017
Sharp Stewart	4145	1896	385			988
Sharp Stewart	4146	1896	386	C525		989
Sharp Stewart	4147	1896	387			990
Sharp Stewart	4148	1896	388			991
Sharp Stewart	4149	1896	389			992
Sharp Stewart	4150	1896	390			993
Sharp Stewart	4151	1896	391			994
Sharp Stewart	4152	1896	392			995
Neilson	4920	1896	393			996
Neilson	4921	1896	394			997
Neilson	4922	1896	395			998
Neilson	4923	1896	396	C522		999
Neilson	4924	1896	397			1000
Neilson	4925	1896	398		Sold to Paulings
Dübs	3355	1896	718			1001
Dübs	3356	1896	719			1002
Dübs	3357	1896	720			1003
Dübs	3358	1896	721			1004
Dübs	3359	1896	722			1005
Dübs	3360	1896	723	C527		1006
Neilson	4926	1896	724			1007
Neilson	4927	1896	725			1008
Neilson	4928	1896	726			1009
Neilson	4929	1896	727	C526		1010
Neilson	4930	1896	728			1011
Neilson	4931	1896	729			1012
Dübs	3643	1898	730	C523		1018
Dübs	3644	1898	731			1019
Dübs	3645	1898	732			1020
Dübs	3646	1898	733			1021
Dübs	3647	1898	734			1022
Dübs	3648	1898	735			1023
Dübs	3649	1898	736			1024
Dübs	3650	1898	737			1025
Dübs	3651	1898	738			1026
Dübs	3652	1898	739			1027
Dübs	3361	1896	740			1013
Dübs	3362	1896	741			1014
Sharp Stewart	4363	1898	742		EJ Byrne (No 3)	1028
Dübs	3641	1898	743		Bradfield	1029
Dübs	3642	1898	744		Gardner Williams	1030
Dübs	3976	1901	758			1031

Modifications

During the 1930s and later many of the Class 7 series locomotives were equipped with superheated boilers and piston valves. On the Class 7C

South African Class 7C 4-8-0

In 1902 the Cape Government Railways placed its last ten Class 7 4-8-0 Mastodon steam locomotives in service on the Cape Eastern System. In 1912, when all these locomotives were assimilated into the South African Railways, they were renumbered and reclassified to Class 7C.-Manufacturer:The last of...

this conversion was sometimes indicated with an "S" suffix to the class number on the locomotive’s number plates, but on the rest of the Class 7 family this distinction was rarely applied. The superheated versions could be visually identified by the position of the chimney on the smokebox, with the chimney displaced forward to provide space behind it in the smokebox for the superheater header.

In the early 1960s Class 7A 1021 was equipped with a superheater and reclassified to the sole Class 7AS. The number plate was altered by weld-writing a crude "S" after the "7A". This locomotive spent its last working days on the SAR doing steam heating tests on mainline passenger coaches at the Braamfontein North passenger yard in Johannesburg, before being sold to the Zambesi Saw Mills (ZSM) in 1971. The ZSM engineer's records, however, show it as not superheated and having saturated boiler number 7865.

Cape Government Railways

The Class 7 series became the main goods locomotive class for the last twenty years of the existence of the CGR. Of this second batch of the Class, not all began their service lives on the CGR and not all remained with the CGR until the SAR came into existence. In summary:

Four originally began their service lives on the BR between Vryburg in the Cape Colony and Bulawayo
Bulawayo
Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe after the capital Harare, with an estimated population in 2010 of 2,000,000. It is located in Matabeleland, 439 km southwest of Harare, and is now treated as a separate provincial area from Matabeleland...

in Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia was the name of the British colony situated north of the Limpopo River and the Union of South Africa. From its independence in 1965 until its extinction in 1980, it was known as Rhodesia...

and were eventually returned to the CGR and renumbered 347 to 350 for the Cape Midland.
Four from the 1896 and one from the 1898 batches saw service with the IMR during the Second Freedom War from 1899 to 1902, having been allocated to the IMR for the duration of the war.
Two locomotives, 348 and 398, were sold to Pauling and Company in 1909 for use during the construction of the Rhodesia Katanga Junction Railway (RKJR) in Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa, formed in 1911. It became independent in 1964 as Zambia.It was initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by amalgamating North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia...

(Zambia). The RKJR purchased them from Paulings in 1910, after which they went to the Mashonaland Railway Company in 1928 and eventually to the RR in 1936. They retained their CGR running numbers for their entire working lives, until they were scrapped by the RR in 1938.
The Imvani-Indwe Railway’s three Class 7s were taken onto the CGR roster and numbered 742 to 744 for service on the Eastern System, before the 1912 amalgamation into the SAR.

South African Railways

In SAR service, the Class 7 series worked on every system in the country. In 1915, during the South West African Campaign in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, twenty-nine Class 7 series locomotives were sent to South West Africa

South West Africa

South-West Africa was the name that was used for the modern day Republic of Namibia during the earlier eras when the territory was controlled by the German Empire and later by South Africa....

(SWA) to assist the expeditionary forces. Eleven of these were Class 7A locomotives, numbers 1000 to 1002, 1005, 1006, 1017, 1019 and 1021 to 1024.

They proved so successful in that territory that more were gradually transferred there in later years. By the time the Class 24

South African Class 24 2-8-4

In 1949 and 1950 the South African Railways placed one hundred Class 24 branch line steam locomotives with a 2-8-4 Berkshire wheel arrangement in service.-Design:...

arrived in SWA in 1949, there were still fifty-three Class 7 series locomotives in use there. Most remained there and were only transferred back to South Africa when the Class 32-000

South African Class 32-000

Between November 1959 and November 1961 the South African Railways placed one hundred and fifteen Class 32-000 GE U18C1 diesel-electric locomotives in service in South West Africa.- Manufacturer :...

diesel-electric locomotives replaced them in 1961. In South Africa they remained in branch line service, particularly at Tarkastad and Ladysmith and also on the line from Touws River to Ladismith, until they were finally withdrawn in 1972.

Industrial

Four Class 7A locomotives, numbers 992 and 1006 in 1966 and 993 and 1021 in 1971, as well as two Class 7

South African Class 7 4-8-0

and two Class 7B

South African Class 7B 4-8-0

In 1900 the Imperial Military Railways placed twenty-five Cape Class 7 4-8-0 Mastodon steam locomotives in service. In that same year, three Cape Class 7 locomotives that had been ordered by the Pretoria-Pietersburg Railway were also placed in service. All these locomotives were taken on to the...

, were sold to the Zambesi Saw Mills (ZSM) in Northern Rhodesia

Northern Rhodesia

Northern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa, formed in 1911. It became independent in 1964 as Zambia.It was initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by amalgamating North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia...

(Zambia). The company worked the teak forests that stretched 100 miles (160.9 km) to the north-west of Livingstone

Livingstone, Zambia

Livingstone or Maramba is a historic colonial city and present capital of the Southern Province of Zambia, a tourism centre for the Victoria Falls lying north of the Zambezi River, and a border town with road and rail connections to Zimbabwe on the other side of the Falls...

in Northern Rhodesia and it built one of the longest logging railways in the world to serve its sawmill at Mulobezi

Mulobezi

Mulobezi is a small town in the Southern Province of Zambia, and the centre of its timber industry. Timber extends into Southern Province with which the town is economically linked....

. These eight locomotives joined eight ex RR Class 7 locomotives that had been acquired by the ZSM between 1925 and 1956.

Railway operations ceased at Mulobezi around 1972, whilst operation of the line to Livingstone was taken over by the Zambia Railways in 1973. While most of the Class 7 series locomotives remained at Mulobezi out of use, Class 7A 1021 was installed at the Livingstone factory to supply steam for curing wood.

Sudan’s Dongola Class

Known as the Dongola Class, Cape Class 7 locomotives were also built for the Soudan Military Railway during Kitchener’s

Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener

Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, ADC, PC , was an Irish-born British Field Marshal and proconsul who won fame for his imperial campaigns and later played a central role in the early part of the First World War, although he died halfway...

campaign in Sudan. When he arrived in the territory in 1895, he built a railway line, strictly for military purposes, running parallel to the Nile River

Nile

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...

for nearly 200 miles (322 km) from Wadi Halfa

Wadi Halfa

Wadi Halfa is a city in the state of Northern, in northern Sudan, on the shores of Lake Nubia . It is the terminus of a rail line from Khartoum and the point where goods are transferred from rail to ferries going down the Lake Nasser...

to the Third Cataract at Kerma

Kerma

Kerma was the capital city of the Kingdom of Kerma, which was located in present day Egypt and Sudan. The Kerma site has been confirmed by archaeology to be at least 9,500 years old. Around 3000 BC, a cultural tradition began around Kerma...

, and then another line from Wadi Halfa across 571 miles (919 km) through the Nubian Desert

Nubian Desert

The Nubian Desert is in the eastern region of the Sahara Desert, spanning approximately 400,000 km² of northeastern Sudan between the Nile and the Red Sea. The arid region, a largely sandstone plateau, has lots of wadis flowing towards the Nile. There is virtually no rainfall in the Nubian,...

to Atbarah

Atbarah

Atbarah is a town of 111,399 located in River Nile State in northeastern Sudan.It is located at the junction of the Nile and Atbarah rivers. It is an important railway junction and railroad manufacturing centre, and most employment in Atbarah is related to the rail lines...

and on to Khartoum

Khartoum

Khartoum is the capital and largest city of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...

to the south. For motive power, three Cape Class 7 locomotives, built to the Class 7A design, were ordered from Neilson and delivered in 1897. These were followed by five more in two batches in 1898. They were initially not numbered, but named after places in Sudan.

Their works numbers, order numbers, names and eventual Sudan Railway (SR) numbers are set out in the table. Number 29, which was originally named "Berber" according to Neilson’s records, was later renamed "Fashoda/Suakin".

Sudan Dongola Class
Works numbers, names and numbers
Works No.	Order No.	Year	Name	Sudan Ry No.
5232	E791	1897	Dongola	26
5233	E791	1897	Debbeh	27
5234	E791	1897	Korti	28
5280	E795	1898	Berber	29
5281	E795	1898	Khartoum	30
5345	E801	1898	Kassala	31
5346	E801	1898	Atbara	32
5347	E801	1898	Sennar	33

These locomotives were equipped with gates across the open ends of their cabs and pipes under the running board on the right side that terminated in hose connections below the front buffer beam, so that water tenders could be coupled to the front and they could be run cab forward. The reason was that they were used on a single line being constructed into the desert from Wadi Halfa, initially with no water supply at the far end.

For some reason these locomotives were not popular in the Sudan and they were all withdrawn from service by 1914.

Gallery

The main picture shows ex Cape Eastern System Class 7 726, SAR Class 7A 1009, plinthed in Oudtshoorn in the Cape Province.

Manufacturers

1896

1897

1898

1901

Class 7 sub-classes

Renumberings

Modifications

Cape Government Railways

South African Railways

Industrial

Sudan’s Dongola Class

Gallery

See also