The South African Railways Class MC1 2-6-6-0 of 1914 was a steam locomotive. In 1914 the South African Railways placed fifteen Class MC1 Mallet articulated compound steam locomotives with a

2-6-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, is a locomotive with one pair of unpowered leading wheels, followed by two sets of three pairs of powered driving wheels and no trailing wheels. The whe ...

wheel arrangement in service.

Manufacturer

Orders for an improved version of the Class MC were placed with the

North British Locomotive Company The North British Locomotive Company (NBL, NB Loco or North British) was created in 1903 through the merger of three Glasgow locomotive manufacturing companies; Sharp, Stewart and Company (Atlas Works), Neilson, Reid and Company (Hyde Park Wor ...

in 1913. When the fifteen locomotives were delivered and placed in service in May 1914, they were designated Class MC1 and numbered in the range from 1634 to 1648.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, May 1945. p. 349.North British Locomotive Company works list, compiled by Austrian locomotive historian Bernhard Schmeiser

Characteristics

The Class MC1 were duplicates of the Class MC in most respects, to the extent that the majority of spare parts for the two classes were interchangeable. Improvements consisted mainly of larger diameter high-pressure and low-pressure cylinders and a redesigned boiler which included a superheater instead of the saturated steam boiler of the Class MC. The high-pressure cylinders of the hind engine unit were equipped with

piston valves Piston valves are one form of valve used to control the flow of steam within a steam engine or locomotive. They control the admission of steam into the cylinders and its subsequent exhausting, enabling a locomotive to move under its own power ...

while the low-pressure cylinders of the front engine unit were equipped with slide valves. An externally obvious difference was the main steam pipes from the dome to the high-pressure cylinders, which was no longer arranged vertically down directly to the cylinders along the outside of the boiler, but internally via the superheater in the smokebox and from there along the underside of the running boards back to the cylinders. The result was a much better performing locomotive with an increased tractive effort brought about by the larger cylinders. The locomotives were delivered with Type MP1 tenders with a coal capacity of and a water capacity of . The same tender was used by altogether sixteen locomotive classes, but those of the Class MC1 were fitted with a radial type of drawgear.

Modifications

When the coupled wheel tyres had to be renewed, the diameter of the wheels was increased from to . This reduced the tractive effort from at 50% of boiler pressure to . Unlike all other locomotive types where the SAR reported tractive effort at 75% of boiler pressure, it followed an ultra-conservative practice of reporting that of all Mallet locomotives at 50%.Soul of A Railway, System 7, Western Transvaal, based in Johannesburg, Part 21: Witbank Line by Les Pivnic, Eugene Armer, Peter Stow and Peter Micenko. Caption 3.
(Accessed on 4 May 2017)

Service

The Class MC1 was placed in service on the coal line from

Witbank Witbank (), officially Emalahleni, is a city situated on the Highveld of Mpumalanga, South Africa, within the Emalahleni Local Municipality. The name Witbank is Afrikaans for "white ridge", and is named after a white sandstone outcrop where wago ...

Germiston Germiston, also known as kwaDukathole, is a small city in the East Rand region of Gauteng, South Africa, administratively forming part of the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality since the latter's establishment in 2000. It functions as ...

. In later years, some also saw service on the Natal mainline and the Cape Midland System. A number of them were transferred to the Cape Western System where they served as banking engines up the Hex River Railpass between

De Doorns De Doorns is situated in the Breede Valley Local Municipality, Cape Winelands District Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Location It lies in the Hex River Valley on the N1 National Route, 32 km north-east of Worcest ...

and Touws River.Soul of A Railway - System 1 – Part 3: Wellington to Touws River – Caption 26
(Accessed on 27 November 2016) The locomotives were all finally withdrawn from service and scrapped during 1937.

Illustration

The main picture shows driver Kok with his locomotive, c. 1930, while the following serve to illustrate both sides of the locomotive as well as the lined livery which was in use on the SAR when the locomotives were introduced. File:SAR Class MC1 1635 (2-6-6-0).jpg, No. 1635 in service as banking engine at De Doorns, c. 1930 File:Class MC1 no. 1642.jpg, Works picture of Class MC1 no. 1642, c. 1914

References

{{Steam locomotive tenders

2230 In contemporary history, the third millennium of the anno Domini or Common Era in the Gregorian calendar is the current millennium spanning the years 2001 to 3000 ( 21st to 30th centuries). Ongoing futures studies seek to understand what is l ...

2-6-6-0 locomotives (1C)C locomotives NBL locomotives Cape gauge railway locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1914 1914 in South Africa Scrapped locomotives