The South African Railways Dock Shunter 0-4-0ST of 1903 was a steam locomotive from the pre- Union era in the

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. Two locomotives named ''Thebus'' and ''Stormberg'', which were originally built for the Irrigation Department of the Public Works Department of the Cape of Good Hope in 1903, were acquired by the South African Railways in 1916 for use as harbour shunting engines. In railway service they were named instead of being classified and numbered.

Origin

During the First World War, when the South African Railways (SAR) experienced an acute shortage of locomotive power, it acquired a number of locomotives from private concerns and other government departments. The Public Works Department (PWD) of the Cape Province had two locomotives, used by the Irrigation Department as dam construction engines, which it could spare. These two were donated to the SAR by the Department of Water Affairs in 1916. Numbered l and 2 by Water Affairs, they were locomotives which had been built by Hudswell, Clarke and Company Limited in 1903.Hardy, Clive. ''Hudswell Clarke & Company Ltd Locomotive Works List'', (1st ed.).Soul of A Railway, System 7, Western Transvaal, based in Johannesburg, Part 7. Germiston Steam and Diesel Running Sheds (2nd section) by Les Pivnic. Caption 1.
(Accessed on 7 April 2017)

Names

The locomotives were not classified or numbered by the SAR and were named instead. The first was named ''Thebus'' after the town Teebus on the line between Stormberg and Rosmead on the Cape Midland System, while the second was named ''Stormberg'' after the town of that name on the Cape Eastern System mainline from

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Service

The engine ''Thebus'' spent most of its SAR service life as dock shunter at the

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Sou ...

Harbour. The engine ''Stormberg'' spent most of its SAR service life as a dock shunter in East London Harbour until it was eventually semi-retired and used to test the steam-heating equipment on passenger coaches. During the Second World War, it was transferred to Cape Town for use as a construction locomotive during the expansion works at Table Bay Harbour. From there it went to Mosselbaai to once again serve as harbour shunting engine until it was transferred to Germiston in Transvaal, where it was retired and placed in storage for a number of years. By then, the engine ''Stormberg'' was sporting a balloon-type spark arrester on its chimney and a headlight mounted on a shelf attached to the front of the smokebox.

Preservation

In 1964, the engine ''Stormberg'' was refurbished at Germiston before being taken back to East London, where it was plinthed at East London station. It finally ended up as an exhibit in the Outeniqua Transport Museum in George. At some stage between being in storage at Germiston and becoming a museum exhibit, the spark arrester, headlight and headlight mount were removed. The engine ''Thebus'' was presumably scrapped.

Illustration

File:SAR Harbour (0-4-0ST) Thebus.jpg, The engine ''Thebus'' in service, c. 1920 File:SAR Harbour (0-4-0ST) Stormberg.jpg, The engine ''Stormberg'' testing steam-heating equipment, c. 1920

References

{{Locomotives of South Africa

1020 Year 1020 ( MXX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events * Summer – Emperor Henry II conducts his third Italian military campaign. He makes plans to invade the south, ...

0-4-0ST locomotives B locomotives Hudswell Clarke locomotives Cape gauge railway locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1903 1903 in South Africa