Type X-20 water tender no. 4128, 31 December 2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The South African type X-20 water tender was a Garratt steam locomotive tender.
Type X-20 water tenders first entered service in 1956, as auxiliary water tenders to the second batch of Class GMA 4-8-2+2-8-4 Double Mountain type Garratt steam locomotives which entered service on the South African Railways in that year. [1] [2]
The South African Railways Class GMA 4-8-2+2-8-4 of 1954 was an articulated steam locomotive.
The Type X-20 water tenders were built by the South African Railways (SAR) in its Pietermaritzburg shops between 1956 and 1958. [1] [3] [4]
Pietermaritzburg is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. Its Zulu name umGungundlovu is the name used for the district municipality. Pietermaritzburg is popularly called Maritzburg in English and Zulu alike, and often informally abbreviated to PMB. It is a regionally important industrial hub, producing aluminium, timber and dairy products, as well as the main economic hub of Umgungundlovu District Municipality. The public sector is a major employer in the city due to the local, district and provincial governments being located here. It is home to many schools and tertiary education institutions, including a campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. It had a population of 228,549 in 1991; the current population is estimated at over 600,000 residents and has one of the largest populations of Indian South Africans in South Africa.
Altogether 95 more Class GMA Garratt articulated steam locomotives with a 4-8-2+2-8-4 Double Mountain type wheel arrangement entered service on the SAR between 1956 and 1958. Like the Classes GM and GO, the Class GMA was a tank-and-tender Garratt which ran with a semi-permanently coupled purpose-built auxiliary water tender to augment its meagre water capacity. [1] [2]
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, a 4-8-2+2-8-4 is a Garratt articulated locomotive consisting of a pair of 4-8-2 engine units back to back, with the boiler and cab suspended between them. The 4-8-2 wheel arrangement has four leading wheels on two axles, usually in a leading bogie, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and two trailing wheels on one axle, usually in a trailing truck. Since the 4-8-2 type is generally known as a Mountain, the corresponding Garratt type is usually known as a Double Mountain.
The South African Railways Class GM 4-8-2+2-8-4 of 1938 was an articulated steam locomotive.
The South African Railways Class GO 4-8-2+2-8-4 of 1954 was an articulated steam locomotive.
The Type X-20 water tender entered service as tenders to these 95 locomotives. [1] [2]
The water tenders had a low flat-topped turret with a hinged hatch and a curved handrail across the tank barrel, similar to that of the Type MX tender. It had a water capacity of 30,900 litres (6,797 imperial gallons; 8,163 US gallons), with a tank barrel of 1,975 millimetres (6 feet 5.8 inches) diameter inside and 10,312 millimetres (33 feet 10 inches) long. It rode on SARCAST bogies (similar to North American Bettendorf trucks) with coil springs. The vehicles were 13,380 millimetres (43 feet 10.8 inches) long over the coupler faces and 12,496 millimetres (41 feet) across the buffer beams. [3] [4] [5]
The South African type MX tender was a steam locomotive tender.
Only the second and third batches of Class GMA locomotives, 95 in total and numbered in the range from 4051 to 4170, were equipped with Type X-20 water tenders upon entering service. 100 of these water tenders were built and were originally numbered for these engines in the number range as shown, while the numbers of the five extra tenders possibly followed on to no. 4175. The tenders were painted black with red buffer beams. When the SAR adopted a computerised goods wagon numbering system, the Type X-20 water tenders were allocated numbers in the range from 30 025 036 to 30 026 024 (short numbers 2503 to 2602). A known example of the renumbering is Type X-20 no. 4128, which was renumbered to 30 025 052 (short number 2505). [3] [4] [6] [7]
After the end of steam operations in the late 1980s, most of the watering facilities which once existed country-wide have either fallen into disuse or been removed. The Ceres-based Ceres Rail Company therefore often operate their preserved Classes 19B and 19D steam locomotives with preserved auxiliary water tenders to extend their water range. [8]
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, a 4-6-2+2-6-4 is a Garratt or Union Garratt articulated locomotive using a pair of 4-6-2 engine units back to back, with the boiler and cab suspended between them. The 4-6-2 wheel arrangement of each engine unit has four leading wheels on two axles, usually in a leading bogie, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and two trailing wheels on one axle, usually in a trailing truck. Since the 4-6-2 type is known as a Pacific, the corresponding Garratt type is usually known as a Double Pacific.
The South African Railways Class GL 4-8-2+2-8-4 of 1929 was an articulated steam locomotive.
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, a 4-8-2+2-8-4 is a Garratt articulated locomotive consisting of a pair of 4-8-2 engine units back to back, with the boiler and cab suspended between them. The 4-8-2 wheel arrangement has four leading wheels on two axles, usually in a leading bogie, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and two trailing wheels on one axle, usually in a trailing truck. Since the 4-8-2 type is generally known as a Mountain, the corresponding Garratt type is usually known as a Double Mountain.
The South African Railways Class 25NC 4-8-4 of 1953 was a steam locomotive.
The South African Railways Class 21 2-10-4 of 1937 was a steam locomotive.
The South African Railways Class 19D 4-8-2 of 1937 was a steam locomotive.
The South African Railways Class 19B 4-8-2 of 1930 was a steam locomotive.
The Union of South Africa was established on 31 May 1910 in terms of the South Africa Act, which unified the former Cape Colony, Natal Colony and the two colonised former republics, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. One of the clauses in the Act required that the three Colonial Government railways, the Cape Government Railways, the Natal Government Railways and the Central South African Railways, also be united under one single administration to control and administer the railways, ports and harbours of the Union. While the South African Railways (SAR) came into existence in 1910, the actual classification and renumbering of all the rolling stock of the three constituent railways required careful planning and was only implemented with effect from 1 January 1912.
The South African Railways Class NG G11 2-6-0+0-6-2 of 1919 was a narrow gauge steam locomotive.
The South African Railways Class 8 4-8-0 of 1902 was a steam locomotive from the pre-Union era in the Cape of Good Hope.
The South African Railways Class FC 2-6-2+2-6-2 of 1925 was an articulated steam locomotive.
The South African Railways Class GE 2-8-2+2-8-2 of 1925 was an articulated steam locomotive.
The South African Railways Class GEA 4-8-2+2-8-4 of 1946 was an articulated steam locomotive.
The South African Railways Class GM 4-8-2+2-8-4 of 1938 was an articulated steam locomotive.
The South African Railways Class GMA 4-8-2+2-8-4 of 1954 was an articulated steam locomotive.
The South African Railways Class GO 4-8-2+2-8-4 of 1954 was an articulated steam locomotive.
The South African type X-17 water tender was a Garratt steam locomotive tender.
The South African type MY tender was a steam locomotive tender.
The South African type EW1 tender was a steam locomotive tender.
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