0-4-0+4

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-4-0+4 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles and four trailing wheels on two axles mounted in a bogie.

Overview

The 0-4-0+4 wheel arrangement was usually found on Railmotors, vehicles for passenger carrying that operated on routes where passenger numbers were light. It usually consisted of a single coach with its own prime mover. William Bridges Adams in the United Kingdom began building railmotors in small numbers as early as 1848.

Usage

Cape of Good Hope

A single Railmotor was delivered to the Cape Government Railways (CGR) in 1906. The railmotor was a self-contained motor-coach in which the locomotive and coach were embodied in a single vehicle, with a driver's station at the rear end of the coach for reverse running. The locomotive part was a 0-4-0 side-tank engine which was built by North British Locomotive Company, while the coach part on a single bogie was built by Metropolitan Amalgamated Railway Carriage & Wagon.^[1]

Transvaal Colony

In 1907, the Central South African Railways (CSAR) acquired a single self-contained railmotor for the low-volume railmotor passenger service which had been introduced the previous year. It was a self-contained motor-coach with a 56-seat capacity in which the engine, boiler and coach were embodied in a single vehicle. While the engine part of the vehicle was built by Kitson and Company, the 46 feet 11 inches (14,300 millimetres) long coach part was constructed by Metropolitan Amalgamated Railway Carriage & Wagon. To negotiate curves and points, the power unit could pivot like a bogie. The railmotor was erected at the Salt River shops of the Cape Government Railways (CGR) in Cape Town and entered service on the CSAR on 10 August 1907.^[2][3][4]

References