South African Class 17 4-8-0T+T

South African Class 17 4-8-0T+T
SAR Class 17 1432, circa 1930
Power type Steam
Designer Natal Government Railways
Builder Dübs and Company
Serial number See table
Model NGR Class A "Improved Dübs A"
Build date 1888-1915
Total produced 102
Rebuilder South African Railways
Rebuild date 1926
Number rebuilt 21
Configuration 4-8-0T+T "Mastodon"
Gauge 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) Cape gauge
Leading wheel
diameter		 25.75 in (654 mm)
Driver diameter 39 in (991 mm)
Wheelbase Total: 44 ft 11.5 in (13.703 m)
Engine:
5 ft (1.524 m) pilot
11 ft (3.353 m) coupled
19 ft 9 in (6.020 m) total
Type ZC Tender:
4 ft 7 in (1.397 m) bogie
16 ft 1 in (4.902 m) total
Type YC Tender:
10 ft (3.048 m)
Length 52 ft 2.375 in (15.910 m) total
Height 12 ft 2.5 in (3.721 m)
Axle load 8.5 long tons (8.6 t) on 2nd driver
Weight on drivers 32.9 long tons (33.4 t)
Locomotive weight 42.2 long tons (42.9 t)
Tender weight 38,960 lb (17.7 t) empty
34.1 long tons (34.6 t) w/o
Locomotive & tender
combined weight		 76.3 long tons (77.5 t) w/o
Tender type ZC or YC - Probable types YB, YC, YE, YE1, XC1, ZC
Type ZC:
* 2 axle bogies
* Wheels 34 in (864 mm) dia
* Length 23 ft 8.875 in (7.236 m)
Type YC:
* 3 axle tender
* Wheels 37 in (940 mm) dia
* Length 21 ft 2.875 in (6.474 m)
Fuel type Coal
Fuel capacity Type ZC: 5.5 long tons (5.6 t)
Type YC: 7.5 long tons (7.6 t)
Water capacity 2,600 imp gal (12,000 l) tender
1,358 imp gal (6,170 l) engine tanks
Boiler 3 ft 1.75 in (0.959 m) int dia
10 ft 10.125 in (3.305 m) int length
7 ft (2.134 m) pitch
Boiler pressure 160 psi (1,100 kPa)
Firegrate area 24 sq ft (2.230 m2)
Heating surface:
Tubes		 187 tubes 1.75 in (44.5 mm) ext dia
930 sq ft (86.400 m2)
Heating surface:
Firebox		 62 sq ft (5.760 m2)
Heating surface:
Total		 992 sq ft (92.160 m2)
Cylinders Two
Cylinder size 17 in (432 mm) bore
21 in (533 mm) stroke
Valve gear Stephenson
Tractive effort 18,670 lbf (83.0 kN) at 75% boiler pressure[1]
Career South African Railways
Class Class 17
Number in class 21
Number 1415–1435
Delivered 1926
First run 1926
Retired 1961[2]
Disposition Retired

Between 1926 and 1929, to address a shortage of suitable shunting locomotives, the South African Railways rebuilt twenty-one ex Natal Government Railways "Improved Dübs A" 4-8-2T tank steam locomotives to Class 17 4-8-0T+T tank-and-tender locomotives.[1][2]

Contents

Manufacturers

The Natal Government Railways (NGR) Class A 4-8-2T tank locomotive was designed by W. Milne, the locomotive superintendent of the NGR from 1877 to 1896, and built by Dübs and Company. One hundred of these locomotives were delivered in ten batches by Dübs between 1888 and 1899, and in 1915 another two were built from spare parts by the South African Railways (SAR) in their Durban shops.[3]

Modifications

Belpaire firebox

Beginning in 1905 these locomotives, known on the NGR as the "Dübs A", were gradually fitted with Belpaire fireboxes with wider grates. The modified locomotives were known as the "Improved Dübs A" while still in service with the NGR, and in later SAR service as the "Class A Belpaire".[3]

Rebuilding

When a shortage of suitable shunting locomotives developed as a result of increasing traffic throughout the country and particularly along the Witwatersrand, the SAR modified twenty-one of the Class A Belpaire 4-8-2T locomotives between 1926 and 1929 by removing the trailing bissel bogie and the coal bunker, shortening the main frame and adding a tender to increase the coal and water capacity, thereby converting them to 4-8-0T+T tank-and-tender locomotives.[4][5]

Tenders from various scrapped locomotive types were used. The tender depicted in the main picture appears to be a Type YC three axle tender. Other similar tender types that were possibly used were Types YB, YE and YE1, also three axle tenders, while the official SAR locomotive diagram depicts either a Type XC1 or Type ZC tender with four axles on two bogies.[1][2]

Service

These twenty-one rebuilt 4-8-2T locomotives were reclassified to Class 17 and renumbered 1415 to 1435. They were employed as shunters around Durban and Port Elizabeth and were withrawn from service by 1961, more than seventy years after the first one was built.[2][5]

In November 1953 two of these locomotives, numbers 1423 and 1431, were purchased by the Zambezi Saw Mills Company for use on their Livingstone-Mulobezi logging railway in Northern Rhodesia, where they were scrapped between 1961 and 1963.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c South African Railways and Harbours Locomotive Diagram Book, 2’0” & 3’6” Gauge Steam Locomotives, 15 August 1941, pp21 & 21A, as amended
  2. ^ a b c d Paxton, Leith; Bourne, David (1985). Locomotives of the South African Railways (1st ed.). Cape Town: Struik. pp. 10-11, 26-27, 68. ISBN 0869772112. 
  3. ^ a b Holland, D.F. (1971). Steam Locomotives of the South African Railways, Volume 1: 1859-1910 (1st ed.). Newton Abbott, Devon: David & Charles. pp. 90-91. ISBN 0715353829. 
  4. ^ Whyte notation suffixes
  5. ^ a b Holland, D.F. (1972). Steam Locomotives of the South African Railways, Volume 2: 1910-1955 (1st ed.). Newton Abbott, Devon: David & Charles. p. 63. ISBN 0715354272.