The South African Railways Class NG9 4-6-0 of 1915 was a narrow-gauge steam locomotive. During 1915 and 1916, the South African Railways placed six steam locomotives in service on the

Langkloof The Langkloof is a 160 km long valley in South Africa, lying between Herold, a small village northeast of George, and The Heights - just beyond Twee Riviere. History The kloof was given its name by Isaq Schrijver in 1689, and more thorough ...

narrow-gauge railway. When a system of grouping narrow-gauge locomotives into classes was eventually introduced somewhere between 1928 and 1930, they were classified as Class NG9.Espitalier, T.J.; Day, W.A.J. (1945). ''The Locomotive in South Africa - A Brief History of Railway Development. Chapter VII - South African Railways (Continued).'' South African Railways and Harbours Magazine, October 1945. p. 782.

Manufacturer

Due to the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in 1914, the usual British locomotive suppliers were hard pressed to satisfy British requirements at the time, let alone those of other parts of the world. As a result, the South African Railways (SAR) placed an order with the Baldwin Locomotive Works in the United States of America in 1915 for six narrow-gauge locomotives. They were all built by August 1915 and were delivered to the SAR in 1915 and 1916, numbered in the range from NG42 to NG47.

Characteristics

The locomotives were very similar to the Bagnall-built Type B locomotives which had been delivered to the

Cape Government Railways The Cape Government Railways (CGR) was the government-owned railway operator in the Cape Colony from 1874 until the creation of the South African Railways (SAR) in 1910. History Private railways The first railways at the Cape were privately own ...

(CGR) in 1903, except that they were equipped with

Walschaerts valve gear The Walschaerts valve gear is a type of valve gear used to regulate the flow of steam to the pistons in steam locomotives, invented by Belgian railway engineer Egide Walschaerts in 1844. The gear is sometimes named without the final "s", since it ...

Service

South African Railways

They were erected at the

Uitenhage Uitenhage ( ; ), officially renamed Kariega, is a South African town in the Eastern Cape Province. It is well known for the Volkswagen factory located there, which is the biggest car factory on the African continent. Along with the city of Port E ...

workshops and placed in service on the Walmer branchline of the Langkloof railway between Port Elizabeth and

Avontuur Avontuur is a town situated in the Garden Route District Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The town is located 13km south-east of Uniondale on an intersection of the R339 and R62 regional routes. History The name is A ...

. They all remained in service there until 1929, although some were at one time also employed to help out on the line from Kalbaskraal to Saldanha in the Western Cape.Soul of A Railway, System 3, Part 1: Cape Midland, based in Port Elizabeth, Part 1, The Port Elizabeth Narrow Gauge. Captions 11, 12 & 22
(Accessed on 10 December 2016) The system of grouping narrow-gauge locomotives into classes was only adopted by the SAR somewhere between 1928 and 1930 and, at that point, these locomotives were designated Class NG9.South African Railways and Harbours Narrow Gauge Locomotive Diagram Book, 2'0" Gauge, S.A.R. Mechanical Dept. Drawing Office, Pretoria, 28 November 1932 The Walmer branch succumbed to bus competition and was closed on 26 November 1928, after being in operation for over twenty years. Numbers NG42 and NG43 were withdrawn from service in 1929. In that same year, numbers NG44 and NG46 were transferred to

Upington Upington ( Nama: //Khara hais) is a town founded in 1873 and located in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, on the banks of the Orange River. The town was originally called Olijvenhoutsdrift ('Olive wood drift'), due to the abundance of ...

to work on the branchline to Kakamas. The last remaining one of these locomotives on the

railway, no. NG45, was relieved from line work and retained at Humewood Road in Port Elizabeth for yard duties until 1939, when it was also transferred to Upington and replaced by Class NG3 tank engine no. NG5 from Natal.

Moçâmedes Railway

The three locomotives at Upington, numbers NG44, NG45 and NG46, survived in SAR service until April 1951 when they were sold to the '' Caminhos de Ferro de Moçâmedes'' (CFM) of

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

. They were numbered 111 to 113 on the CFM, apparently not in the same order as their old SAR engine numbers, and were placed in service on the ''Ramal da Chibía'', a narrow-gauge branchline across from Sá da Bandeira (now Lubango) to

Chiange Chiange is a town and commune in the municipality of Gambos, province of Huíla, Angola. It is also the seat of the municipality of Gambos. Chiange covers and as of 2011 had a population of 151,375. It is terminus of a branch of the Moçâmed ...

This branch was opened in two stages in 1949 and 1953. It is believed the three locomotives also worked on the mainline from

Moçâmedes Moçâmedes is a city in southwestern Angola, capital of Namibe Province. The city's current population is 255,000 (2014 census). Founded in 1840 by the Portuguese colonial administration, the city was named Namibe between 1985 and 2016. Moç� ...

to Sá da Bandeira (now Lubango), until that line was regauged to Cape gauge in the mid-1950s. Information supplied by Peter Bagshawe They were possibly retired at about this time, being replaced on the branchline by 60-Series locomotives which were released by the regauging of the mainline. In later years, these 0-8-2T locomotives were equipped with the NG9 tenders to increase their wood and water carrying capacity. The Class NG9 locomotives were observed dumped at the Sá da Bandeira shops by 1969, without their tenders. At the time it appeared as if they had been in that condition for some time. The branchline itself was closed in 1970.

References

{{Locomotives of South Africa 2620 4-6-0 locomotives 2′C n2 locomotives Baldwin locomotives 2 ft gauge locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1915 1915 in South Africa Scrapped locomotives Mixed traffic locomotives