BR class F4
| BR class F4 SAR class NG 6 |
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|---|---|
 BR class F4
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| Numbering: | 10-45 |
| Number: | 36 |
| Manufacturer: | Falcon , Drummond |
| Year of construction (s): | 1896-1898 |
| Type : | 2'B n2 |
| Gauge : | 610 mm |
| Fixed wheelbase: | 1,676 mm |
| Total wheelbase: | 4,267 mm |
| Service mass: | 13.2 t |
| Service mass with tender: | 20.8 t |
| Wheel set mass : | 4.57 t |
| Driving wheel diameter: | 914 mm |
| Impeller diameter front: | 610 mm |
| Cylinder diameter: | 229 mm |
| Piston stroke: | 381 mm |
| Boiler overpressure: | 96.5 N / cm² |
| Grate area: | 0.49 m² |
| Radiant heating surface: | 2.79 m² |
| Tubular heating surface: | 22.85 m² |
| Train brake: | originally no, later suction air brake |
The class F4 vehicles of the Beira Railway (BR) were steam locomotives with a tender with a 2'B wheel arrangement. With 36 units built between 1896 and 1898, they were among the most numerous 610 mm narrow-gauge locomotives in southern Africa. Like their predecessor class F2 , they are referred to as Lawleys , after AL Lawley, one of the builders of the railway.
history
The locomotives were enlarged versions of the F2 class , six of which had been procured in 1895. There was no class F3 at the Beira Railway; F2 and F4 were names of the manufacturer Falcon Engine and Car Works ; According to a catalog from 1904, there were a total of eleven 2'B types of different sizes, designated F1 to F11, although it is unclear whether all variants were actually built.
The drive wheel diameter was increased from 813 to 914 mm compared to the F2 class, the boiler and the diameter of the cylinders were also enlarged, and the towing weight increased from 160 to 180 tons. Externally, one could distinguish the F4 from the F2 by a longer smoke chamber with an integrated spark arrester, different safety valves and by the step at the transition from the cab floor to the circulation. The latter ensured that, despite the larger wheels, the cab floor was at the same height as that of the F2 class and the tender .
The total of 36 locomotives were delivered in four groups between 1896 and 1898 and were given the track numbers 10 to 45. The six locomotives of the first delivery still had the two-axle tender of class F2; later deliveries were equipped with a three-axle tender.
The last delivery of ten machines came from the Glasgow Engineering Company (Drummond) and was for the first time equipped with a suction air brake. At the same time, the necessary parts for retrofitting the other locomotives and passenger cars were procured, but the continuous brake was no longer used, because the narrow-gauge vehicles were decommissioned as early as 1900 when the conversion of the route to Cape Gauge was completed.
Re-use
The still very young locomotives were stored in Bamboo Creek (today Vila Machado ). Six copies (No. 30, 40-44) went to the Ayshire Railway , which opened in 1902 from Salisbury , but which was also converted to Cape gauge by 1913, so that these locomotives were also sold to industrial companies.
In 1915 the South African Railways (SAR) bought a total of 13 class F2 and F4 machines due to a war-related shortage of locomotives and finally put nine of them into service as class NG 6 , while the remaining four served as spare parts donors. Because the parts of different locomotives were combined with each other, the identity of the individual locomotives can no longer be precisely traced today. While the three F2 machines were equipped with F4 boilers, the six F4 machines kept their appearance. They were given the train numbers NG 96 to 98 and NG 101 to 103 (the numbers NG 99 and 100 had been assigned to two of the locomotives that were no longer in service, probably BR No. 10 and 13).
Even during the war, the need for these comparatively inefficient locomotives died out and they were turned off again. In the 1920s and 1930s they were still used sporadically on various routes, including as construction locomotives. They were later sold to industrial companies and sugar cane plantations. No. NG 103 (the former BR No. 14) was the last SAR model and was scrapped in 1935.
Whereabouts
In 1961 a locomotive for the railway museum in Bulawayo was assembled from two locomotives, SAR NG 104 (an F2, probably ex-BR No. 5) and BR No. 19 , which is incorrectly exhibited as No. 27. The unneeded parts of both locomotives were put together to form a second locomotive, which has been in a children's playground ever since.
The former SAR No. NG 97 (BR No. 15) was used on a sugar cane plantation in the Northern Transvaal until 1957 and then came to a museum in Johannesburg . It was removed from the museum at the end of 2007, restored to working condition by the Sandstone Heritage Trust and commissioned in June 2008. Both operational Lawleys are now on the Sandstone Estates - the second is F2 No. 7, which was restored in 2002.
In the 1990s three more specimens are said to have existed in Mozambique; However, no information is available about their condition and whereabouts.
literature
- Antony Baxter: The Two Foot Gauge Enigma - Beira Railway 1890-1900. Plateway Press, ISBN 1-871980-34-8
- Leith Paxton, David Bourne: Locomotives of the South African Railways. C. Strui (Pty) Ltd. ISBN 0-86977-211-2
Individual evidence
- ↑ Brush Bulletin: Steam and Electric Locomotives No. 5, 1904 (Brush took over Falcon-Werke in 1889)
- ↑ The two Lawleys in Bulawayo
- ↑ Sandstone Heritage Trust ( page no longer available , search in web archives ).
Web links
- Lawley page of the Sandstone Estates (English)