NGR Dübs A
| NGR Dübs A SAR class A |
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|---|---|
 SAR Class A Belpaire No. 196, ex NGR No. 133, in Masons Mill, Pietermaritzburg, December 10, 2010
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| Numbering: | see text |
| Number: | 102 |
| Manufacturer: | Dübs and Company |
| Year of construction (s): | 1888-1899, 1915 |
| Retirement: | until 1962 |
| Type : | 2'D1 'n2t |
| Gauge : | 1067 mm ( cape track ) |
| Length over coupling: | 9,919 (10,198) mm |
| Service mass: | 47.9 (51.0) t |
| Wheel set mass : | 8.59 (9.55) t |
| Driving wheel diameter: | 991 mm |
| Cylinder diameter: | 432 mm |
| Piston stroke: | 533 mm |
| Boiler overpressure: | 110.2 N / cm² |
| Grate area: | 1.46 (2.18) m² |
The vehicles of the type Dübs A of the Natal Government Railways (NGR) were tank locomotives with the wheel arrangement 2'D1 '.
The British manufacturer Dübs and Company supplied 100 locomotives between 1888 and 1899 . The design came from William Milne, the chief engineer of the railway. The machines were given the numbers 49–148 and were named after the manufacturer (the NGR did not have a real class system).
These were the first locomotives worldwide with the 2'D1 'wheel arrangement, i.e. with a leading bogie , four coupled axles and a trailing axle . It was not until 1906, 18 years later, that the first tender locomotives with this wheel arrangement were built, notably also for the NGR (type Hendrie B ).
The locomotives had internal plate frames, inclined cylinders and Stephenson controls . Initially a boiler with a round standing boiler ceiling was installed, but after the success of the Hendrie B locomotives with Belpaire boilers, five machines were also fitted with a Belpaire boiler in 1905, and further examples were rebuilt, both by the NGR and by the NGR later by the SAR. (The deviating technical data resulting from the conversion are given in brackets in the adjacent table)
In the first few years the locomotives were used on the main line of the NGR between Durban and Pietermaritzburg . They were later relocated to the Dundee - Hlobane and Harrismith - Ladysmith routes as well as the North Coast Line departing from Durban .
After the takeover by the South Africa Railways (SAR), the locomotives were numbered 97 to 196 and were considered Class A designated. During a war-related shortage of locomotives in 1915, two more locomotives were assembled from spare parts. They were given the numbers 332 and 333.
In 1926, 21 of these were converted to locomotives with a tender, creating Class 17 .
The last class A locomotives were taken out of service in 1962. At least three copies, No. 130, 134 and 149, have been preserved as monument or museum locomotives.
literature
- Leith Paxton, David Bourne: Locomotives of the South African Railways. A Concise Guide. C. Strui (Pty) Ltd., Cape Town 1985, ISBN 0-86977-211-2 .