In 1904 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 ....

 placed five Class 9 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 4-6-2

4-6-2

4-6-2, in the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles , six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and two trailing wheels on one axle .These locomotives are also known as Pacifics...

 Pacific wheel arrangement in service. In 1912, when they were assimilated into the South African Railways, they were renumbered but retained their Class 9 classification.

Manufacturer

Five 4-6-2 Pacific type passenger locomotives, the first locomotives to be designed by P.A. Hyde, the first Chief Locomotive Superintendent of the Central South African Railways (CSAR), were ordered from the Vulcan Foundry

Vulcan Foundry

Vulcan Foundry was a British locomotive builder sited at Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire .-History:It was originally opened in 1832 as Charles Tayleur and Company to produce girders for bridges, switches and crossings, and other ironwork following the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway...

 of Newton-le-Willows

Newton-le-Willows

Newton-le-Willows is a small market town within the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, in Merseyside, England. Historically a part of Lancashire, it is situated about midway between the cities of Manchester and Liverpool, to the east of St Helens, to the north of Warrington and to the south of...

 in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and delivered in 1904, numbered 600 to 604. They had bar frames, used saturated steam

Saturated steam

In thermodynamics, the state of saturation of a fluid indicates that the fluid is at its boiling point temperature. This term can be applied in several ways:*Saturated liquid: fully in the liquid state but is about to vaporize....

 and Stephenson valve gear and were designated as Class 9 by the CSAR.

Background

Upon its establishment in 1902 at the end of the Second Freedom War, the CSAR inherited a variety of locomotive types from the Imperial Military Railways (IMR), which had been established by the British military during the war through the absorption of the separate state and other railways of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR) and the Oranje-Vrijstaat as possession was obtained of the territories of these two republics.

The largest of these constituent railways were the Nederlandsche-Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorwegmaatschappij (NZASM) that operated between Pretoria

Pretoria

Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...

, capital of the ZAR, and Lourenço Marques

Lourenço Marques

Lourenço Marques was a 16th century Portuguese trader and explorer.-Biography:He explored the area that is now Maputo Bay in 1544. He settled permanently in present-day Mozambique, where he spent most of his life with his black wife and mixed-race children.By order of King John III the bay was...

, capital of the Portuguese colony of Moçambique. Smaller constituents were the Pretoria-Pietersburg Railway (PPR), the Selati Railway and the Oranje-Vrijstaat Gouwermentspoorwegen (OVGS).

Design

Of the mixed amalgam of locomotives inherited from these railways, the best was probably the Cape Government Railways (CGR) designed Class 8 4-8-0

South African Class 8C 4-8-0

In 1903, soon after the establishment of the Central South African Railways, a second batch of thirty Cape Class 8 4-8-0 Mastodon steam locomotives were ordered and placed in service as the Class 8-L3, immediately following a previous order in that same year for a variation on the same locomotive...

, featuring a bar frame, narrow firebox and cylinders with overhead slide valves actuated by inside Stephenson valve gear

Stephenson valve gear

The Stephenson valve gear or Stephenson link or shifting link is a simple design of valve gear that was widely used throughout the world for all kinds of steam engine. It is named after Robert Stephenson but was actually invented by his employees....

.

Based on this Mastodon locomotive, designated Class 8-L3 on the CSAR, Hyde designed a 4-6-2 Pacific version that became the CSAR’s Class 9. At the same time he extrapolated this design to a 4-6-4T tank locomotive for heavy suburban trains that was also ordered in 1904 and which later became the South African Railways (SAR) Class F

South African Class F 4-6-4T

In 1904 the Central South African Railways placed eight Class F tank steam locomotives with a 4-6-4T wheel arrangement in service. In 1912, when these locomotives were assimilated into the South African Railways, they were renumbered but retained their Class F classification.-Manufacturer:The first...

.

Renumbering

In 1912, when these locomotives were assimilated into the SAR, they were renumbered 727 to 731 but retained their Class 9 classification.

Service

The Class 9 was very useful for passenger work with moderate loads and worked the mail trains from Johannesburg

Johannesburg

Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

 to Durban

Durban

Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...

 as far as Charlestown

Charlestown, KwaZulu-Natal

Charlestown is a small town situated at the top of Laing's Nek pass in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa between Newcastle and Volksrust. It started out as an important railway station and customs post between Natal and Transvaal in 1891 until the Union of South Africa came into being in 1910, and...

 on the Transvaal-Natal border for many years. Later they served mainly on main line passenger working elsewhere in the Transvaal, ending their days working out of Pretoria on the Pietersburg line in the 1920s. They were withdrawn by 1926.

See also

• Tender locomotive numbering and classification
• The 4-6-2 "Pacific"
• List of South African locomotive classes