Talk:South African Class GMA 4-8-2+2-8-4

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Class GMAM leased to Zimbabwe[edit]

Contents of an email received from Peter Bagshawe on 22 September 2014, included here for reference: From: Peter Bagshawe
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2014 11:46 PM
To: Kritzinger, André H
Subject: RE: SPAM: [sar-L] 1954: SAR Class GMA 4-8-2+2-8-4
Class GMAM and Zimbabwe:
The dates this class was used in Zimbabwe was between August 1979 and September 1981. 26 different locos were involved, but not all at the same time.
They apparently also worked beyond TJ to Victoria Falls. They were fitted with armour plating around the cab (this obscured the number plates, the numbers normally being stencilled on the cabside). They were similar in size with similar coal capacity to the RR 20th Class, but had a voracious appetite for coal, and frequently ran low on fuel , resulting in trains being dumped. To try and solve this problem RR extended the height of the coal bunker by a foot to increase the capacity. It should also be noted that in Rhodesia these locos normally worked chimney first with the additional water tank at the rear. Six locos were loaned by RR to the CFM (Beira) for a short while.
Sources for the above are Pattison (pp. 159-162), Durrant (pp. 198-199) and Hamer (pp. 65-67). (For fuller details see refs 15-17 of your 19D page).
Picture attached which shows the rear bunker extension.
Regards
Peter
-- André Kritzinger (talk) 22:08, 27 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]