| Weight | 133t – 8cwt |
| Driving Wheels | 5ft 0ins |
| Boiler Pressure | 190psi Superheated |
| Cylinders | Outside – 22in x 26in |
| Tractive Effort | 29,890lbf |
| Valve Gear | Walschaert |
Details above are for class 16C as built.
The class 16C locomotives were built by the North British Locomotive Company (NBL) in Glasgow for the South African Railways (SAR). Ten locomotives (812-821) were delivered in 1919 and a further twenty (822-841) in 1922.
They were identical to the predecessor classes 16 and 16B in most respects, except that D A Hendrie who was the Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the SAR had added a combustion chamber to the boiler. The presence of the combustion chamber was visible externally as an extension of the Belpaire firebox hump.
The engines were equipped with Lambert sanding gear, which was a wet system whereby a mixture of water and sand was delivered to the rails. Under ideal conditions with fine-grained sand, results were fairly good, but maintenance problems and cost led to reversion to gravity sanding on later engines.
The boilers were fitted with the Robinson type superheater, the first time this type was used on a Hendrie engine. The Robinson header was constructed with compartments, alternately for saturated and superheated steam. There were eight inlet and outlet ends of superheater elements expanded into the bottom wall of each compartment, with the exception of those compartments at each end, into which only three element ends were expanded. Three cover plates were bolted to the front of the header to allow access to the respective compartments, for expanding the element tubes in position or forcing them out when necessary.
During 1936 the coupled wheel diameter was enlarged to 63 inches and the boiler operating pressure raised to 200 psi.
During the 1930s, many serving locomotives were reboilered with a standard boiler type designed by A.G. Watson as part of his standardisation policy. Such Watson Standard reboilered locomotives were reclassified by adding an R suffix to their classification.
Eventually all thirty class 16C locomotives were reboilered with Watson Standard no. 2B boilers and reclassified to class 16CR. Several alterations to the engine frames were necessary to accommodate the new boiler. The frame had to be altered to suit the new wider Watson cab with its slanted front to allow access to the lagging which covered the flexible stays and stay caps on the firebox sides.
Their original Belpaire boilers were fitted with Ramsbottom safety valves, while the Watson Standard boiler was fitted with Pop safety valves. Early conversions were equipped with copper and later conversions with steel fireboxes. After reboilering, the main difference between the class 16B and class 16C, Hendrie’s combustion chamber behind the class 16C’s boiler, disappeared and class 16B locomotives which were reboilered with Watson Standard boilers were also reclassified to class 16CR.
In the 1930s several Braamfontein-based class 16C locomotives were fitted with larger capacity Type MT tenders for working mainline passenger trains to Kimberley and Bloemfontein.
The class 16C proved to be excellent locomotives which were popular with the locomotive crews, being free-steaming, fast, reliable, with quick acceleration and a reserve of power greater than that of either the class 16 or class 16B. On one occasion in 1922, one of them working between Bloemfontein and Kroonstad hauled a train of eighteen mainline saloons, a load which would have been considered good for the much more modern locomotive.
The class 16C locomotives were employed on express passenger service working out of Pretoria and Johannesburg and hauling all the important passenger trains of the time, such as the Natal mail train on the section between Johannesburg and Volksrust and the Cape mail train on the section between Johannesburg and Klerksdorp. By the 1930s they hauled the Cape train right through to Kimberley.
When they were replaced by newer locomotives they were relegated to less glamorous passenger duties until, by the 1940s, they were in suburban and transfer service. During the 1950s some were relocated to Durban to assist on the South Coast line. When this line was electrified in 1967, they were again relocated, this time to Port Elizabeth where they worked suburban trains to Uitenhage.
Others remained on the Witwatersrand, working the suburban to Springs and Nigel, double-heading with class 15ARs on Pietersburg-bound trains out of Pretoria, as well as shunting and local pick-up duties. Some of their last passenger duties were on the Breyten line during 1967 and 1968.
They were sure-footed enough to take to shunting work as readily as to the fast passenger service for which they were originally designed, to the extent that some of their last duties at the Springs shed was to take over duties from shunting locomotives. They were withdrawn from service between 1975 and 1976, with some being sold to start a second career in industrial service.
Two locomotives were sold to Dunn’s Locomotive Works to be employed at Delmas Colliery. They were at one time seconded to Durban Navigation Collieries (Durnacol) in Natal. One locomotive went to Klipfontein Organic Products and later to the St Helena Gold Mine, and five went directly to the St Helena Gold Mine.
Preservation
North British Locomotive Company Works No 21712 – SAR 816
North British Locomotive Company Works No 21717 – SAR 821
North British Locomotive Company Works No 22734 – SAR 840
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