South African Class S1 0-8-0
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The South African Railways Class S1 0-8-0 of 1947 was a steam locomotive. In 1947, the South African Railways placed twelve Class S1 shunting steam locomotives with a 0-8-0 eight-coupled wheel arrangement in service, built in the Salt River workshops in Cape Town. A further 25, built in Scotland, were placed in service in 1954.Espitalier, T.J.; Day, W.A.J. (1947). ''The Locomotive in South Africa - A Brief History of Railway Development. Chapter VII - South African Railways (Continued).'' South African Railways and Harbours Magazine, May 1947. pp. 402-404.Espitalier, T.J. (1947). ''Locomotives Designed and Built in South Africa - The S1, in service this month, is not the first locally-built engine.'' South African Railways and Harbours Magazine, October 1947. pp. 841-843. The Class S1 was the fifth locomotive type to be designed and built in South Africa, after the Natal Government Railways 4-6-2TT ''Havelock'' of 1888, the Class 2C of 1910, the Class 20 of 1935 and the Class ES of 1936.


Manufacturers

A huge increase in traffic before and during the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
years led to the available dedicated shunting locomotives of the South African Railways (SAR) being very much over-taxed, to the extent that they had to be supplemented by mainline locomotives. By 1943, the options were to either relegate Class 14 and other mainline engines to shunting duties or to augment the number of existing Class S shunting locomotives. The requirement for a shunting locomotive type more powerful than the Class S was identified, but since the war was still in progress, it was not viable to obtain locomotives from the usual overseas suppliers. Dr. M.M. Loubser, Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the SAR from 1939 to 1949, therefore prepared designs for a larger version of the Class S locomotive which could be built in the SAR's own workshops. The result was the Class S1 0-8-0 shunting locomotive, of which the first of twelve was delivered from the Salt River shops in Cape Town in October 1947. Twelve locomotives were built, numbered in the range from 374 to 385. The first locomotive to be released from the Salt River shops in 1947 was no. 375, which was formally handed over to the Operating Department by the senior member of the Railway Board, Mr F.T. Bates. In honour of the occasion and in view of the approaching inauguration of the Voortrekker Monument in 1949, it was named ''Voortrekker''.Soul of A Railway, System 5, Part 1: Bloemfontein. Captions 22, 23.
(Accessed on 1 March 2017)
A further 25 Class S1 locomotives were subsequently ordered from 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 ...
(NBL) in Glasgow. They were built in 1953 and delivered in 1953 and 1954, numbered in the range from 3801 to 3825.North British Locomotive Company works list, compiled by Austrian locomotive historian Bernhard Schmeiser


Local production

Even though it was not wholly a South African product with its imported main bar frames, tyres, superheater elements and some proprietary fittings, the Class S1 was the fifth recorded instance of locomotives designed and constructed in South African workshops after the Natal Government Railways' engine ''Havelock'' of 1888, the Class 2C of 1910, the Class 20 of 1935 and the Class ES of 1936. The Class S1 was, however, the first steam locomotive to be home-built in quantity.Espitalier, T.J.; Day, W.A.J. (1944). ''The Locomotive in South Africa - A Brief History of Railway Development. Chapter III - Natal Government Railways''. (Continued). South African Railways and Harbours Magazine, June 1944. pp. 421-422.Espitalier, T.J.; Day, W.A.J. (1944). ''The Locomotive in South Africa - A Brief History of Railway Development. Chapter III - Natal Government Railways'' (Continued). South African Railways and Harbours Magazine, August 1944. p. 599.Espitalier, T.J.; Day, W.A.J. (1946). ''The Locomotive in South Africa - A Brief History of Railway Development. Chapter VII - South African Railways (Continued).'' South African Railways and Harbours Magazine, April 1946. p. 296.Espitalier, T.J.; Day, W.A.J. (1946). ''The Locomotive in South Africa - A Brief History of Railway Development. Chapter VII - South African Railways (Continued).'' South African Railways and Harbours Magazine, August 1946. pp. 630-631.


Characteristics

At the time, the Class S1 was the world's most powerful shunting locomotive on Cape gauge and equivalent track, and all the latest developments were incorporated in its design. Since shunting locomotives are designed to operate at slow speeds in tightly curved shunting yards, there was no need for the leading or trailing wheels which are necessary to improve high speed stability on mainline locomotives. Their absence also simplified design and reduced repair costs. In addition, it is desirable to have as large a proportion of the engine weight as possible carried on the coupled wheels to obtain the maximum adhesion. The locomotives had bar frames,
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 Belgium, Belgian railway mechanical engineering, engineer Egide Walschaerts in 1844. The gear is sometimes name ...
to actuate their diameter piston valves, and were superheated. While their cylinders, driving wheel diameter, frame and many other features were similar to that of the earlier Class S shunting locomotives, their boilers were much larger, being a shortened version of Loubser's specially designed boiler which was used on the Class 12AR. The main difference from the Class 12AR boiler was in their barrel lengths. Each barrel consisted of three courses for the Class 12AR and two courses for the Class S1, the hind courses being identical. In addition, the Class 12AR had a deeper firebox. These Class S1 boilers could also be fitted to the original Class S engines, but no such reboilerings are known to have taken place. The Class S1 boiler was provided with SAR standard boiler fittings, such as a multi-valve steam regulator fitted in the smokebox, a duplex top-feed valve for the delivery of feedwater from the injectors, a soot blower and external exhaust pipe to the smokebox, and a steam turret for the distribution of steam to the various steam-operated mechanisms. The valves for the latter were mounted on the steam turret and were fitted with spindles which extended into the cab from where they were operated by means of handwheels. The locomotive was built with a Watson cab with a slanted front to allow easy access to the firebox cladding which covered the flexible firebox stays and stay caps. The cab was wide and was fitted with hinged adjustable glass windscreens for the lookout and a rigid extended footplate instead of the older fall plate. The cab footsteps were attached to the rigid platform. The engine was tended by a new Type JT1 tender, built with an underframe and bogies identical to those of the Type JT tender. As on the Type GT tender of the Class S, the top sides of the Type JT1 tender's coal bunker were set inwards to afford the crew the maximum rearward field of vision. The front of the engine and the back of the tender were fitted with modified and strengthened draft gear. The intermediate drawgear between engine and tender was similar in design to that of the Class 15F. The engine and tender were both fitted with vacuum brakes.


Service

The Class S1 was noted for its efficient and economical working. They were the SAR's largest and finest shunting locomotives with an enormous shifting and accelerating ability and could cope with block loads of up to . They were initially placed in service in the yards in Cape Town, but they ended up being used mainly in marshalling yards on the Western Transvaal System and also on the Cape Northern System, employed at
Braamfontein Braamfontein (English: ''blackberry spring'', or more prosaicly ''blackberry springs''; also known as Braam) is a central suburb of Johannesburg, in South Africa, seat of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and some of South Africa's major c ...
, Millsite in Krugersdorp, Bloemfontein and
Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia * Kimberley (Western Australia) ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley * Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania * Kimberley, Tasmania a small town * County of Kimberley, a ...
. Bloemfontein had one of the SAR's more important marshalling yards where goods trains from the north were sorted into consists bound for
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,
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 ...
, Mossel Bay,
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and a host of Cape country towns. In its heyday, Bloemfontein's retarder yard had 40 tracks, 24 for southbound traffic and 16 for northbound. There were two humps with two primary and five secondary retarders, the latter split into three for southbound and two for northbound traffic. The hump leads were served around the clock by Class S1 engines no. 374 and 375. By the 1970s they were distributed between Beaconsfield, Bloemfontein, Germiston, Kaserne, Springs and
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 ...
. By 1982 they were all stationed at Germiston and its sub-depot at Kaserne, after which they began to be withdrawn from service. The withdrawal was probably expedited by the closure of the Koedoespoort works in
Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...
to steam repairs, since it was impractical to let them do long-distance running to the next nearest steam locomotive works at Bloemfontein. None of them were sold into industrial service.


Works numbers

The builders, works numbers, years built and SAR locomotive numbers of the Class S1 are listed in the table.


Preservation

Of the Class S1. Only one survived into preservation. By 2018 Sandstone Heritage Trust - 2017016 Locomotive status - January 2017.
(Accessed on 13 December 2019)


Illustration

File:SAR Class S1 380 - Kaserne 190383.jpg, SAR-built no. 380 with enough water at Kaserne, 19 March 1983 File:SAR Class S1 380 Kaserne - 190383.jpg, No. 380 with shunting crew aboard, Kaserne, 19 March 1983 File:381 Germiston 230479.jpg, SAR-built no. 381 at Germiston Loco, 23 April 1979 File:Class S1 3819 (0-8-0).jpg, NBL-built no. 3819 at Germiston Loco, 26 June 1963


References

{{Steam locomotive tenders 2180 2180 0-8-0 locomotives D h2 locomotives SAR locomotives NBL locomotives Cape gauge railway locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1947 1947 in South Africa