Natal Railway 4-4-0T Perseverance

Natal Railway 4-4-0T Perseverance
NGR 4-4-0T Perseverance

Perseverance c. 1876

Type and origin Power type Steam Designer Kitson and Company Builder Kitson and Company Serial number 2037 Build date 1875 Total produced 4

Specifications Configuration 4-4-0T (American) Driver axle 1st coupled axle Gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) broad Leading dia 33 in (838 mm) Coupled dia 51 in (1,295 mm) Wheelbase 18 ft 4 in (5,588 mm) Axle load  • 1st coupled Adhesive weight Loco weight Fuel type Coal Fuel capacity 12 long hundredweight (0.61 t) Water cap Boiler:  • Pitch  • Diameter  • Tube plates 9 ft 9 in (2,972 mm)  • Small tubes 110:  • Firebox type Round-top Boiler pressure 140 psi (965 kPa) Safety valve Salter Firegrate area 9.87 sq ft (0.917 m2) Heating surface 555 sq ft (51.6 m2)  • Tubes 505 sq ft (46.9 m2)  • Firebox 50 sq ft (4.6 m2) Cylinders Two Cylinder size 14 in (356 mm) bore 20 in (508 mm) stroke Valve gear Stephenson Couplers Buffers and chain

Performance figures Tractive effort 9,146 lbf (40.68 kN) @ 75%

Career Operators Natal Railway Company Natal Government Railways Number in class 1 Official name Perseverance Delivered 1876 First run 1876 Withdrawn 1887

The Natal Railway 4-4-0T Perseverance of 1876 was a South African steam locomotive from the pre-Union era in the Natal Colony.

In January 1876, the Natal Railway Company obtained its third and last locomotive, a broad gauge side-tank engine with a 4-4-0 American type wheel arrangement, built by Kitson and Company and named Perseverance. During the previous year, the Natal Government Railways had been established and, on 1 January 1877, all the assets of the Natal Railway Company were taken over by the Government of the Colony of Natal and became part of the new Government Railways.

Manufacturer

The third and last locomotive to be placed in service by the Natal Railway Company was a broad gauge 4-4-0 American type side-tank engine. It was built by Kitson and Company in 1875, with works number 2037. The locomotive arrived in Durban on 10 January 1876, on board the ship Parthenia. It was offloaded with some difficulty on the following day, during which the engine came down with "a crash onto the bulwark, smashing some of the timbers".

At a meeting of the board of directors on 2 February 1876, it was resolved to name the locomotive Perseverance. It was possibly named after the horse-drawn bus which worked between Pietermaritzburg and Durban during the early 1860s.

Characteristics

The locomotive's cylinders were mounted outside the frame and were lubricated by gravitation from two tallow cups, attached to the smokebox sides immediately above the steam chests. The feedwater pumps, attached to the back of the spectacle plate, were operated from the piston crossheads. The locomotive used wooden brake blocks which were driver-operated by a hand brake in the cab.

Service

Natal Railway Company

By 25 January 1867, the original 2 miles (3.2 kilometres) line between Market Square in Durban and Point station at Durban harbour had only been extended a further 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometres) to Umgeni, from where stone, quarried from the Umgeni River, was transported to the harbour. No further railway development was undertaken by the Natal Railway Company.

Despite its name, the engine Perseverance did not have a long service life. In the year before it was delivered, the Natal Government Railways had been established. All the assets of the Natal Railway Company, including the locomotive fleet of three, were purchased for the sum of £40,000 by the Natal Colonial Government. The railway continued to operate under the Natal Railway name until 1 January 1877, when it became part of the Natal Government Railways.

Natal Government Railways

Since the Natal Government had decided to adopt the 3 feet 6 inches Cape gauge, in conformance with the government railways in the Cape of Good Hope, and to extend the lines inland to Pietermaritzburg, up the north coast to Verulam and down the south coast to Isipingo, the existing tracks were regauged and the railway service life of two of the three locomotives came to an end.

The engine Natal of 1860 was sold to a farmer, while the engine Perseverance was converted for use as a stationary engine and employed to drive the sawmill machinery in the Durban railway workshops, until it was scrapped in 1887. It is surmised that the second locomotive, the saddle-tank engine Durban of 1865, was regauged to Cape gauge and retained in service, but such a modification has not been confirmed.

Sister locomotives

Preserved Trinidad Government Railway engine

Three locomotives, identical to the engine Perseverance, were also built for the Trinidad Government Railway on the island Trinidad in 1875, with Kitson works numbers 2022 to 2024. Trinidad's engines no. 1 and 13 were two of these locomotives and photographs exist of them.

Later models of these locomotives which were acquired by the island railway, Trinidad's no. 16 and 17, differed mainly in respect of their larger side-tanks. The engine Perseverance, like the first three Trinidad engines, had smaller tanks with a water capacity of . The later model Trinidad engines had tanks which extended further towards the front of the locomotive, with cutouts at the bottom of the front ends to allow access to parts of the motion above the running boards and with a water capacity of .

While the engine Perseverance was scrapped only eleven years after entering service, one of the later model Trinidad locomotives was preserved, plinthed on Harris Promenade in San Fernando.