In 1902 the Imperial Military Railways placed forty Cape 8th Class 4-8-0 Mastodon steam locomotives in service, built by two manufacturers (twenty by Neilson, Reid and Company and twenty by Sharp, Stewart and Company). In that same year, when the Central South African Railways was established, they were designated Class 8-L1. In 1912, when they were assimilated into the South African Railways, they were renumbered in the range from 1092 to 1131 and reclassified to Class 8A. In the 1930s two of these locomotives were equipped with superheated boilers, 20 inches (508 millimetres) bore cylinders and inside admission piston valves and were reclassified to Class 8AW.
See also the Wikipedia article on the South African Class 8A 4-8-0. |