Narrow gauge ALCOs in South Africa

Although some narrow gauge fans consider any gauge greater than 3 foot gauge as "not really narrow gauge', the 3 foot six inch gauge railroads in South Africa have a lot of narrow gauge characteristics. Admittedly, they also approximate some standard gauge features. In 1926 ALCO built a number of 4-8-2s for cape gauge that have a bit of "bigger than narrow gauge" look. In the 1973 time frame South African Railways were still operating 26 engines of the 15CA class in the Pretoria area. Of these, 22 were built by ALCO, while 4 were of Baldwin manufacture. Since most South African engines only carried brass number plates on the cab sides, the engine numbers in the attached photos are not readable, so it is possible that a Baldwin engine might have sneaked into these photos.

A 15CA with a local passenger train at Rayton, near Pretoria



A 15CA in open veldt country near Pretoria in 1974



The 60 inch drivers of the ALCOs allowed a good turn of speed. These engines were known for their sharp exhaust, particularly when working hard to hoist a heavy train up the grade, as in this photo



Two15CAs meeting in 1974




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2019 05:19PM by Olaf Rasmussen.