Between 1918 and 1922 the South African Railways placed seventy-three Class 14C steam locomotives with a 4-8-2 Mountain wheel arrangement in service, built by Montreal Locomotive Works and numbered in the ranges 1761 to 1780, 1881 to 1900, 1991 to 2010 and 2026 to 2038. Through reboilerings and rebalancings during its service life this single class eventually ended up as six different locomotive classes. During the 1930s six were reboilered with Watson Standard no 2 boilers and reclassified to Class 14CR. Over time most of the Class 14C family of locomotives were "rebalanced" to either reduce or increase the axle load and adhesion weight. The lighter axle load branch line version was reclassified to Class 14CB and when they were subsequently reboilered, to Class 14CRB. The heavier axle load mainline version was reclassified to Class 14CM and when they were reboilered, to Class 14CRM.
See also the Wikipedia article on the South African Class 14C 4-8-2. |