1.
South African Class MA 2-6-6-0
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The South African Railways Class MA 2-6-6-0 of 1909 was a steam locomotive from the pre-Union era in the Natal Colony. In 1909, the Natal Government Railways placed a single 2-6-6-0 Mallet articulated compound steam locomotive in service, in 1912, when it was assimilated into the South African Railways, it was renumbered and designated Class MA. As a result of a visit to the United States of America by Natal Government Railways Locomotive Superintendent D. A. One was the NGR Class B America D, later to be designated the Class 3A on the South African Railways, the main advantages of the Mallet locomotive type were articulation and compound expansion. Articulation The object with a locomotive is to distribute traction power over a larger number of driving wheels with a flexible wheelbase. On the Mallet type, the boiler was fixed to the frame of the engine unit. The front engine unit carried the barrel by means of a large supporting bracket, attached to the underside of the barrel and carried on a slide. On curves, the front engine unit could move several inches laterally under the boiler barrel, side control springs acted as a centering device for the engine unit. Compound expansion In a compound locomotive, steam is expanded in phases. By comparison, in the usual arrangement of simple expansion. The NGR 2-6-6-0 Mallet locomotive had Walschaerts valve gear, a bar frame and it was the first articulated compound steam locomotive to enter service in South Africa and its design and large proportions represented a big advance in motive power on Cape gauge. At the time, it was the most powerful locomotive in the country, the front end of the pipe was fitted with an expansion joint near the connection which led to the steam chests of the low-pressure cylinders. The exhaust from the cylinders was carried by a pipe, also 7 1⁄2 inches in internal diameter. Both sets of cylinders had a stroke of 26 inches, an intercepting valve was arranged in the high-pressure cylinder casting, through which the engine could be worked in simplex mode when required. By means of a cock in the cab, the driver could also admit boiler steam to the low-pressure cylinders for additional power while ascending steep inclines. The tender rode on diamond-frame four-wheeled bogies and was equipped with a water gauge on the side of the tender tank. While the results obtained with the Mallet in service were encouraging, even so, the locomotive’s performance was good enough to warrant subsequent orders by the NGR for a further five slightly larger and more powerful compound Mallets. A. Hendrie of the NGR and H. M. Beatty of the Cape Government Railways at the time, the Mallets seemed to choke after a certain speed had been reached, a problem attributed to their long steam pipes and tortuous steam passages
2.
Swiss locomotive and railcar classification
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It started out as a uniform system for the classification and naming of all rolling stock, powered and unpowered, but had been replaced and amended by the UIC classification of goods wagons. The Swiss classification system was created by the Swiss federal railways department, in 1902, when the Swiss Federal Railways was founded as a government railway, that new railway also became bound by the system. The Swiss system is less precise than those other systems in the way it deals with axles, because it refers only to numbers, rather than to arrangements, of powered axles. The Swiss system is more a method of classifying locomotive. The classifications for which the Swiss system provides have always been adapted to new requirements. The last modification to the system occurred in 1968, with the publication of the Directory of the Rolling Stock of the Swiss Private Railways by the Swiss Federal Agency for Transport. For carriages and wagons, the system was progressively replaced from 1968 by the UIC international wagon classification system. However, all of Switzerlands powered rolling stock initially retained its Swiss type classification or class designation, the standard gauge private railways of Switzerland soon followed the example of the Swiss Federal Railways, and agreement was reached as to the allocation of number ranges. The narrow gauge railways have largely retained the old system for locomotives, railcars and passenger carriages, here is a description of the classification system as it operated up to 1989, and as it still operates in respect of narrow gauge private railway motive power. There is no provision for combining the codes A, B, C, D, E, G, R and T, the combination of H and G is possible. HG would therefore be a narrow gauge locomotive, with a mix of adhesion, since 1966, in respect of railcars and tractors, he or hm has meant pure rack rail drive, and eh or mh has meant a mix of adhesion and rack rail drive. Steam powered tank locomotives were given an E, and the maximum speed of the locomotive was designated with a lower case letter. Thus, an Ea 3/6 was a locomotive with vmax >80 kilometres per hour. With steam locomotives, separate driving mechanisms were displayed, so, for example, a Mallet locomotive was named G 2x2/2 or G 2/3+2/2, and not G 4/4 or G 4/5. Up until 1920, standard gauge locomotives were given the letter F. The class later designated as Be 5/7 was therefore originally named Fb 5/7, the designation R was originally intended for locomotives with an axle load of under 16 tonnes. These lightweight locomotives exert less stress on the rails when they negotiate curves, with the introduction of the Re 4/4II, the axle load limit was dropped following extensive testing. Several locomotives were given approval for higher cornering speeds, to which their type designation had not yet been adapted
3.
NZR E class (1906)
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The New Zealand E class locomotive comprised a single steam locomotive operated by New Zealand Railways from 1906 until 1917. Classified as E66 and nicknamed Pearsons Dream after its designer, the E classification was previously used by the Double Fairlie E class of 1872-75, but the classification was free as they had all been withdrawn by the time E66 entered service. After the withdrawal of E66, E was again re-used on the battery-electric E class of 1922, six special Fell locomotives, the H class, worked the Incline, but after 1897, traffic increases necessitated additional motive power. Initially, two members of the B class were converted from tender locomotives into tank locomotives and reclassified as the WE class and these locomotives proved to be more expensive to operate and used more fuel than the H class. To meet Beatties requirements, Pearson designed E66 as a Mallet articulated locomotive with an arrangement of 2-6-6-0T under the Whyte notation system. Its cylinders were placed at each end instead of one wheelset behind the other allowing one set to be driving forward at all times and it was a Vauclain compound, re-using materials left over from an unsuccessful experiment in the 1890s on N27. The locomotive also used other materials, such as modified F class wheels. The locomotive was built at the Petone Railway Workshops in the Hutt Valley under Pearsons direct supervision and this was the equivalent of a load that would have required two WF class locomotives. The locomotive soon began work on the Incline as intended and was based at Cross Creek Railway Station at the foot of the Incline. It was rated to haul up to 80 tons on the Incline,15 tons higher than the maximum permitted of the H class, however, it was much more costly to operate than the H class and thus ran only two-thirds the annual mileage of the H locomotives. In December 1908, the WMR was purchased by NZR and its Wellington - Manawatu Line was incorporated into the network as part of the North Island Main Trunk Railway. Most traffic from beyond the Wairarapa was re-routed via the old WMR route as it was quicker, accordingly, by 1909, traffic over the Incline was in decline and primarily served the Wairarapa. The traffic volumes thus became manageable for the H locomotives alone, the NIMT contained a steeply graded section between Wellington and Johnsonville and E66 was used to bank trains over this route. However, it had not been designed for work and became unpopular with crews. Due to these problems, it did not meet its designers ambitions, due to its unpopularity in Wellington and increasing tonnages over the Incline due to World War I, E66 was transferred back to Cross Creek in 1916. However, it was only in steam 23 days that year, sometimes for works trains rather than revenue service, in May 1917, it was withdrawn from service, stored, and then dismantled. Its boiler was transferred to Auckland for use as a depot wash-out boiler and used in this capacity until 1931, the locomotive thus did not survive to be preserved. Drawing of E66 by Derek Brown NZR Steam page on E66
4.
New Zealand Railways Department
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The Department was created in 1880 and was corporatised on 1 April 1982 into the New Zealand Railways Corporation. The role of operating the network was subsequently separated from that of the networks construction. From 1895 to 1993 there was a responsible Minister, the Minister of Railways and he was often also the Minister of Public Works. Originally, New Zealands railways were constructed by provincial governments and private firms, the largest provincial operation was the Canterbury Provincial Railways, which opened the first public railway at Ferrymead on 1 December 1863. Following the abolition of the provinces in 1877, the Public Works Department took over the provincial railways. The Railways Department was formed in 1880 during the premiership of Sir John Hall and that year, the private Port Chalmers Railway Company Limited was acquired by the department and new workshops at Addington opened. Ironically, the first few years of NZR were marked by the Long Depression, as a result, the central government passed legislation to allow for the construction of more private railways. A Royal Commission, ordered by Hall, had removed plans for a line on the west coast of the North Island from Foxton to Wellington. The Act had the effect of authorising the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company to build the Wellington-Manawatu Line, the most important construction project for NZR at this time was the central section of the North Island Main Trunk. Starting from Te Awamutu on 15 April 1885, the section - including the famous Raurimu Spiral - was not completed for another 23 years, the economy gradually improved and in 1895 the Liberal Government of Premier Richard Seddon appointed Alfred Cadman as the first Minister of Railways. The Minister appointed a General Manager for the railways, keeping the operation under tight political control, apart from four periods of government-appointed commissions, this system remained in place until the department was corporatised in 1982. In 1895, patronage had reached 3. 9M passengers per annum and 2. 048M tonnes, NZR produced its first New Zealand-built steam locomotive, W class, in 1889. Along with opening new lines, NZR began acquiring a number of the railways which had built railway lines around the country. In 1886 the Waimea Plains Railway Company acquired, at the same time, a protracted legal battle with New Zealand Midland Railway Company began, and was only resolved in 1898. The partially completed Midland line was not handed over to NZR until 1900, by that time,3,200 km of railway lines were open for traffic. The acquisition in 1908 of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company, a new locomotive class, the X class, was introduced in 1909 for traffic on the line. The X class was the most powerful locomotive at the time, gold rushes led to the construction of the Thames Branch, opening in 1898. In 1906 the Dunedin Railway Station was completed, architect George Troup, a. L. Beattie became Chief Mechanical Officer in April 1900
5.
Colony of Natal
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The Colony of Natal was a British colony in south-eastern Africa. It is now the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, fierce conflict with the Zulu population led to the evacuation of Durban, and eventually the Boers accepted British annexation in 1844 under military pressure. A British governor was appointed to the region and many emigrated from Europe. The British established a sugar industry in the 1860s. Farm owners had a difficult time attracting Zulu labourers to work on their plantations, as a result of the importation of Indian labourers, Durban became the home to the largest concentration of Indians outside of India. In 1823 Francis Farewell, formerly a lieutenant in the British navy, with merchants of Cape Town. In the brig Salisbury, commanded by James S. King, the voyage was not successful as a trading venture, but Farewell was so impressed with the possibilities of Natal both for trade and colonization that he resolved to establish himself at the port. He went on with ten companions, among them Henry Francis Fynn, all the rest save Farewell and Fynn speedily returned to the Cape, but the two who remained were joined by three sailors, John Cane, Henry Ogle and Thomas Holstead. On the 27th of the same month Farewell declared the territory he had acquired a British possession, Farewell, King and Fynn made independent settlements at various parts of the bay. Both Dr Smith and Uys travelled overland through Kaffraria, and were received by the English living at the bay. The next step was taken by the settlers at the port, who in 1835 resolved to lay out a town, to all these requests no official answer was returned. The settlers had joined in the year named by Allen Francis Gardiner. With the support of the traders he founded a station on the hill overlooking the bay. In 1837 Gardiner was given authority by the British government to exercise jurisdiction over the traders and they, however, refused to acknowledge Gardiners authority, and from the Cape government he received no support. The next wave of immigration consisted of Voortrekkers fleeing British rule in Cape Colony, in May 1838 the Boers took control of the port and soon afterwards established the Natalia Republic. The Republic suffered from disorganized government and poor relations with the Zulus, on 2 December 1841, Sir George Thomas Napier, governor of Cape Colony, issued a proclamation declaring his intent to resume British military occupation of Port Natal. Most of the Voortrekkers left by 1843, Natal was proclaimed a British Colony in 1843, and administered from the Cape Colony in 1844. However, it was not until the end of 1845 that an administration was installed with Martin West as lieutenant-governor that the power of the Boer Volksraad finally came to an end
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