Table Bay Harbour 0-4-0WT

Table Bay Harbour 0-4-0WT

300px Table Bay Harbour's broad gauge 0-4-0WT construction locomotive of 1879

Type and origin Power type Steam Designer Fletcher, Jennings & Co. Builder Fletcher, Jennings & Co. Serial number 169 Build date 1879

Specifications Configuration 0-4-0WT (Four-coupled) Driver axle 2nd coupled axle Gauge 7 ft 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm) Brunel Fuel type Coal Boiler:  • Firebox type Round-top Safety valve Salter Cylinders Two Valve gear Stephenson Couplers Buffers and chain

Career Operators Table Bay Harbour Board Number in class 1 Delivered 1879 First run 1879 Withdrawn 1904

The Table Bay Harbour 0-4-0WT of 1879 was a South African steam locomotive from the pre-Union era in the Cape of Good Hope.

Altogether seven Brunel gauge locomotives are known to have been employed on the Table Bay Harbour project between 1862 and 1904. The fourth Table Bay harbour construction locomotive was a 7 ft ¹⁄₄ in (2,140 mm) Brunel gauge 0-4-0 well-tank engine, which entered excavation and breakwater construction service in 1879.

Table Bay Harbour

Work to improve the facilities at Table Bay Harbour in Cape Town was started in 1860, using convict labour, and consisted of the excavation of two basins and the construction of breakwater piers.

Harbour construction railway

The construction locomotives at Table Bay Harbour were small 7 ft ¹⁄₄ in (2,140 mm) Brunel gauge engines, which were used to haul trains of heavy iron tip-trucks, to convey rock from the Alfred Basin excavation site to the breakwater, which was being built simultaneously. The broad Brunel gauge track was selected to make it easier to drop rock from the trucks between the rails, which were run out to sea on a timber framework, a method of construction which was perfected by Sir John Coode. The trucks were equipped with interlocking running boards along the length of the train.

As work progressed, the requirement arose for more locomotives. Altogether seven Brunel gauge locomotives are known to have been employed on the Table Bay Harbour project, but information about all of them are sketchy at best.

Locomotives before 1879

Three locomotives were placed in service before 1879, one in 1862 and another at some stage between 1863 and 1870. The third locomotive was a 0-4-0 side-tank engine, which was obtained from Fletcher, Jennings and Company in 1874.

The 0-4-0WT locomotive of 1879

In 1879, the fourth locomotive to enter service on the construction site at Table Bay Harbour, the 0-4-0 well-tank engine which is the subject of this page, was also obtained from Fletcher, Jennings, and not from Black, Hawthorn and Company as mentioned in D.F. Holland’s work. It was similar to the third locomotive, but it had a well-tank instead of side-tanks. It also offered the crew some better protection against the elements, with a larger roofed cab and a rather ornate wooden frame front screen with five windows.

Locomotives after 1879

Three Brunel gauge 0-4-0ST locomotives were placed in service on the Table Bay Harbour project in 1881 and 1893, built by Black, Hawthorn and Company. Two were built in 1881, with works numbers 642 and 646. The last one was delivered in 1893, with works number 1079. These three locomotives bore Table Bay numbers 4, 5 and 8.

Termination

Work on the project continued into the 20th century, since even further harbour expansion soon became necessary, brought about by developments in the interior, such as the discovery of diamonds, then of gold, and then the outbreak of the Second Boer War. A dry dock was added in 1881 and work on a new breakwater and the Victoria Basin began in 1900.

The Brunel gauge harbour construction railway remained in operation until 1904 when, after forty-two years of operation, the broad gauge was lifted and replaced by a mechanical tramway, which ran on 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge.