Between 1893 and 1898 one hundred and seventy-five 46 Tonner 0-6-4T tank steam locomotives were placed in service by the Nederlandsche-Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorwegmaatschappij (NZASM) in the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR). In 1899 twenty more were ordered, of which only two were delivered by the time the Boer War broke out and the Imperial Military Railways (IMR) took over all railway operations in the ZAR. The other eighteen locomotives in this order were delivered directly to the IMR, who diverted two of them to Lourenço Marques. They were built in twelve batches by the Maschinenfabrik Esslingen in Germany (who designed the locomotive) and the Nederlandse Fabriek van Werktuigen en Spoorwegmaterieel (Werkspoor) in Holland. They were numbered in the range from 61 to 237 by the NZASM and also named, while the eighteen commandeered locomotives were numbered 238 to 255 by the IMR. At the end of the war the surviving locomotives were taken onto the roster of the Central South African Railways, renumbered and reclassified to Class B, while the two in Mozambique were taken onto the roster of the Caminhos de Ferro de Mocambique. In 1912, when the remaining locomotives were assimilated into the South African Railways, they were renumbered again but retained their Class B classification.
See also the Wikipedia article on the South African Class B 0-6-4T. |