On 18 July 1889 five 14 Tonner 0-4-0T tank steam locomotives were placed in service by the Nederlandsche-Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorwegmaatschappij (NZASM) in the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek. These first locomotives to enter service on the NZASM, numbered in the range from 1 to 5, were built by the Maschinenfabrik Esslingen in Germany. Erected at Elandsfontein (now Germiston), they were put to work between there and Boksburg. Their small coal and water carrying capacity limited their radius of operation but even so, by the time No. 1 was retired in December 1903, it had covered 113,309 miles.
A Wikipedia article on this locomotive has still to be written. |