South African Class 16 4-6-2

The South African Class 16 4-6-2 of 1914 is a South African steam locomotive from the South African Railways era.

In 1914 the South African Railways placed twelve Class 16 steam locomotives with a 4-6-2 Pacific type wheel arrangement in passenger train service.^[4]

Manufacturer

The Class 16 4-6-2 Pacific type passenger locomotive was designed by D.A. Hendrie, Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the South African Railways (SAR) from 1910 to 1922, and was built by the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow, Scotland, who delivered twelve locomotives in 1914, numbered in the range from 790 to 801.^[1][4]

The design of the Class 16 closely followed that of the Class 15 4-8-2 Mountain type that was introduced at the same time from the same builders, and many parts were made interchangeable. They had Walschaerts valve gear, were superheated and had Belpaire fireboxes.^[1][4]

Power comparison

When built in 1914, the Class 16 was considered a very large and powerful express locomotive, even when compared to British locomotives built to run on 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) standard gauge. As built with 60 inches (1,520 millimetres) driving wheels, the ratio of wheel diameter to rail gauge was the same as that of a broad gauge locomotive having 81 inches (2,060 millimetres) driving wheels. Their tractive effort of 29,890 pounds-force (133.0 kilonewtons) at 75% boiler pressure exceeded the 27,800 pounds-force (123.7 kilonewtons) at 85% boiler pressure of Churchward’s 4-6-2 The Great Bear on the Great Western Railway and equalled, also at 85% boiler pressure, that of Gresley’s later Great Northern Pacifics. This made the Class 16 the most powerful express passenger locomotive design yet to have been built in Great Britain at the time.^[5]

Watson Standard boilers

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.^[3][4]

Eventually all twelve Class 16 locomotives were reboilered with Watson Standard no. 2B boilers and reclassified to Class 16R. 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.^[3][4]

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 16 and Class 16R locomotives 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.^[3][4]

Service

Intended for fast passenger trains in the Transvaal, Orange Free State and the upper sections of Natal where the gradients were not as severe, the Class 16 Pacifics were placed in suburban passenger service working between Pretoria and Johannesburg and in mainline service on the section from Johannesburg to Volksrust on the line to Natal. In later years, after being withdrawn from mainline passenger service, many of these locomotives were employed in suburban and shunting service.^[1][4][5]

Sides illustrated

The main picture shows Class 16 number 800, as built with a Belpaire firebox and Type MP1 tender, on interurban service with a destination board for Pretoria below its headlight, at Braamfontein, circa 1930. The following pictures serve to illustrate both sides of the locomotive.

• 

  A Class 16 as built with Belpaire firebox and Type MP1 tender

• 

  Class 16 no. 790 as depicted on a SAR Museum playing card

See also

• List of South African locomotive classes
• South African Class 16A 4-6-2
• South African Class 16B 4-6-2
• South African Class 16C 4-6-2
• South African Class 16D 4-6-2
• South African Class 16DA 4-6-2
• South African Class 16E 4-6-2
• South African locomotive history
• Tender locomotive numbering and classification
• The 4-6-2 "Pacific"
• Watson Standard boilers

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: South African Class 16 (4-6-2)

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