South African Class 15B 4-8-2

The South African Class 15B 4-8-2 of 1918 is a South African steam locomotive from the South African Railways era.

Between 1918 and 1922 the South African Railways placed thirty Class 15B steam locomotives with a 4-8-2 Mountain type wheel arrangement in service.^[3]

Manufacturer

As a result of wartime disruption in Europe, the first batch of ten Class 15B 4-8-2 steam locomotives for the South African Railways (SAR) was ordered from the Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW) in Canada. They were built and delivered in 1918, numbered in the range from 1829 to 1838. A second batch of twenty locomotives was ordered from the same builders and delivered in 1922, numbered in the range from 1971 to 1990. They were built to the general specifications of the Class 15, but with bar frames and some typical North American features, and they were equipped with Belpaire fireboxes with combustion chambers.^[1][3]

Modifications

Cylinder bushing

As they went in for major overhauls, these locomotives had their cylinders bushed to reduce the bore from the as-built 22 to 21.75 inches (559 to 552 millimetres). At the same time their operating boiler pressure was adjusted upwards from 185 to 190 pounds per square inch (1,280 to 1,310 kilopascals).^[2]

Watson Standard boilers

Class 15B

Class 15R

Class 15BR

During the 1930s many serving locomotives were reboilered with a standard boiler type designed by A.G. Watson, CME of the SAR from 1929 to 1936, as part of his standardisation policy. Such Watson Standard reboilered locomotives were reclassified by adding an "R" suffix to their classification.^[2][3]

Eventually all thirty Class 15B locomotives were reboilered with Watson Standard no. 2A boilers and reclassified to Class 15BR. The number plate of no. 1972 shown here possibly had the "B" omitted in error.^[2]

Early conversions were equipped with copper and later conversions with steel fireboxes. In the process they were also equipped with Watson cabs, with their distinctive slanted fronts compared to the conventional vertical fronts of their original cabs.^[2]

An obvious visual difference between an original and a Watson Standard reboilered locomotive is usually a rectangular regulator cover just to the rear of the chimney on the reboilered locomotive. In the case of the Class 15B and Class 15BR two even more obvious visual differences are the Watson cab and the absence of the Belpaire firebox hump between the cab and boiler on the reboilered locomotives.^[2][3]

Service

South African Railways

The Class 15B was placed in service in the eastern Orange Free State, but eventually spent most of their working lives in the Cape Midland, working south from Noupoort to Cradock and across to De Aar. When the Class 15F started taking over in that area, they were gradually relocated to Cape Town from where they worked goods and passenger trains to the north. They also worked across Sir Lowry's Pass to Caledon and Bredasdorp in the Overberg and on the Bitterfontein line via Malmesbury and Klawer.^[1][3]

Some were shedded at Worcester and at Ashton for shunting. The usual way of exchanging the Ashton shunter every fortnight was for it to be used on the local passenger train, which was normally hauled by a Garratt. They were withdrawn by 1976.^[4]

Mozambique

In March and July 1973 twelve Class 15BR locomotives were sold in two batches to Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM), the Mozambique Railways, which mainly used them for shunting at Lourenco Marques and occasionally on freight service to Swaziland. The SAR engine numbers of these locomotives were 1836, 1974, 1981, 1983, 1984 and 1986, sold in March 1973, and 1829, 1831, 1838, 1976, 1977 and 1985, sold in July 1973. The CFM renumbered the March batch 421, 426 and 422 to 425, and the July batch 427 to 432, but this renumbering sequence could not be ascertained with certainty.^[4]

Industrial

Six Class 15BR locomotives were sold into industrial use:

• Numbers 1972 and 1980 went to Tweefontein United Collieries.
• Numbers 1973, 1975, 1982 and 1990 went to the Randfontein Estates Gold Mine (REGM).^[4]

Modifications illustrated

The main picture shows Class 15BR no. 1982 at Bonnievale with the Saturdays-only Worcester-Riversdale passenger train in February 1974. The following pictures show SAR no. 1838 as built, with a Belpaire firebox, and REGM no. R7, ex SAR Class 15BR no. 1990, with a Watson Standard boiler and round-top firebox, photographed on the Doornkop branch while heading a mine manager's tour of the REGM system on 14 September 1997.

• 

  SAR no. 1838 as built with Belpaire firebox

• 

  REGM no. R7 on the REGM Doornkop branch

See also

• List of South African locomotive classes
• South African Class 15 4-8-2
• South African Class 15A 4-8-2
• South African Class 15C 4-8-2
• South African Class 15CA 4-8-2
• South African Class 15E 4-8-2
• South African Class 15F 4-8-2
• South African locomotive history
• Tender locomotive numbering and classification
• The 4-8-2 "Mountain"
• Watson Standard boilers

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: South African Class 15B (4-8-2)

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