The South African Railways Class 7A 4-8-0 of 1896 was a steam locomotive from the pre-Union era in the Cape of Good Hope.

Between 1896 and 1901, the Cape Government Railways placed a second batch of altogether 46 7th Class steam locomotives with a 4-8-0 Mastodon wheel arrangement in service on its Midland and Eastern Systems. In 1912, when all but two of them were assimilated into the South African Railways, they were renumbered and designated .Classification of S.A.R. Engines with Renumbering Lists, issued by the Chief Mechanical Engineer's Office, Pretoria, January 1912, pp. 8, 12, 15, 38–39 (Reprinted in April 1987 by SATS Museum, R.3125-6/9/11-1000)

In 1897 and 1898, during Kitchener's military campaign in Sudan, eight Cape 7th Class locomotives were built to the same design for the Soudan Military Railway.

Manufacturers The original Cape 7th Class locomotive had been designed in 1892 by H.M. Beatty, at the time the Cape Government Railways (Western System) Locomotive Superintendent.Espitalier, T.J.; Day, W.A.J. (1944). The Locomotive in South Africa – A Brief History of Railway Development. Chapter II – The Cape Government Railways (Continued). South African Railways and Harbours Magazine, January 1944. pp. 9–10.

Following on the 38 7th Class locomotives which were placed in service by the Cape Government Railways (CGR) between 1892 and 1893, a second batch of 46 slightly improved locomotives were acquired between 1896 and 1901. Outwardly, all these locomotives appeared almost identical to the first batch of 7th Class locomotives, but they had increased heating capacity as well as some other modifications. They were the first to be equipped with type ZC tenders, which rode on two two-axle bogies and had a capacity of of coal and of water.South African Railways & Harbours/Suid Afrikaanse Spoorweë en Hawens (15 August 1941). Locomotive Diagram Book/Lokomotiefdiagramboek, 3'6" Gauge/Spoorwydte. SAR/SAS Mechanical Department/Werktuigkundige Dept. Drawing Office/Tekenkantoor, Pretoria. p. 41.South African Railways & Harbours/Suid Afrikaanse Spoorweë en Hawens (15 August 1941). Locomotive Diagram Book/Lokomotiefdiagramboek, 2'0" & 3'6" Gauge/Spoorwydte, Steam Locomotives/Stoomlokomotiewe. SAR/SAS Mechanical Department/Werktuigkundige Dept. Drawing Office/Tekenkantoor, Pretoria. pp. 6a-7a, 41–42.

1896 In 1896, orders were placed for 28 locomotives, distributed between three manufacturers. Sharp, Stewart and Company built eight for the Midland System, numbered in the range from 385 to 392. Dübs and Company built eight for the Eastern System, numbered in the range from 718 to 723, 740 and 741. Neilson and Company built six for the Midland System, numbered in the range from 393 to 398, and another six for the Eastern System, numbered in the range from 724 to 729.Neilson, Reid works list, compiled by Austrian locomotive historian Bernhard Schmeiser

1897

In 1897, a further four 7th Class locomotives were ordered by the CGR from Neilson, for use on the new Vryburg to Bulawayo line of the fledgling Bechuanaland Railway Company (BR). The line was still under construction and was operated by the CGR on behalf of the BR at the time. These 7th Class locomotives, numbered in the range from BR4 to BR7, were eventually returned to the CGR and renumbered in the range from 347 to 350 for the Midland System.

In 1897 and 1898, Neilson also built eight Cape 7th Class locomotives for the Soudan Military Railway, where they were known as the Dongola Class.

1898 In 1898, another ten 7th Class locomotives were taken into service by the CGR, as well as another three by the Imvani-Indwe Railway which operated a branch line from Sterkstroom to the Indwe Collieries in the Eastern Cape. Sharp Stewart built one 7th Class for the Imvani-Indwe, which was named E.J. Byrne by the colliery. It was eventually taken onto the CGR roster and became the Eastern System's no. 742. Dübs built two for the Imvani-Indwe, which were named Bradfield and Gardner Williams. They were also eventually taken onto the CGR roster and became the Eastern System's numbers 743 and 744 respectively. At the same time, Dübs built ten for the CGR, which were numbered in the range from 730 to 739 on the Eastern System.

1901 One more 7th Class locomotive was delivered by Dübs in 1901 and became the Eastern System's no. 758.

Class 7 sub-classes When the Union of South Africa was established on 31 May 1910, the three Colonial government railways (CGR, Natal Government Railways and Central South African Railways) were united under a single administration to control and administer the railways, ports and harbours of the Union. Although the South African Railways and Harbours came into existence in 1910, the actual classification and renumbering of all the rolling stock of the three constituent railways were only implemented with effect from 1 January 1912.The South African Railways – Historical Survey. Editor George Hart, Publisher Bill Hart, Sponsored by Dorbyl Ltd., Published c. 1978, p. 25.

When all but two of these 46 locomotives were assimilated into the South African Railways (SAR) in 1912, they were renumbered in the range from 988 to 1031 and designated Class 7A. The two exceptions had been sold to Pauling and Company in 1909.

The rest of the CGR's 7th Class locomotives, together with 7th Class locomotives from the Central South African Railways (CSAR), the Pretoria-Pietersburg Railway (PPR), the Rhodesia Railways (RR), the Natal Government Railways (NGR) and, in 1925, the New Cape Central Railways (NCCR), were grouped into six different sub-classes by the SAR and designated Classes 7 and 7B to 7F.

Modification During the 1930s and later, many of the Class 7 series locomotives were equipped with superheated boilers and piston valves. On the Class 7B and Class 7C, this conversion was sometimes indicated with an "S" suffix to the class number on the locomotive's number plates, but on the rest of the Class 7 family this distinction was rarely applied. The superheated versions could be visually identified by the position of the chimney on the smokebox, the chimney having been displaced forward to provide space behind it in the smokebox for the superheater header.

In the early 1960s, Class 7A no. 1021 was reportedly equipped with a superheater and reclassified to the sole Class 7AS. The number plate was altered by weld-writing a crude "S" after the "7A". This locomotive spent its last working days on the SAR doing steam heating tests on mainline passenger coaches at the Braamfontein North passenger yard in Johannesburg, before being sold to the Zambesi Saw Mills (ZSM) in 1971. The ZSM engineer's records, however, show it as not superheated and having saturated boiler no. 7865.

Renumbering During their long service lives, some of the Class 7A locomotives underwent more than one renumbering. Five saw service with the Imperial Military Railways (IMR) during the Second Boer War and were temporarily renumbered accordingly, three were unnumbered, but named, while in Imvani-Indwe colliery service and all but two were eventually renumbered onto the SAR roster in 1912. Table 1 lists these renumberings as well as their builders and works numbers.

When the four BR locomotives, numbers BR 4 to BR 7, were eventually returned to CGR service and renumbered in the range from 347 to 350 for the Midland System, it resulted in number duplication which confused historians in later years. These four engine numbers had been used previously on four of the 1892 and 1893 batch of 7th Class locomotives, also built by Neilson, which had since been renumbered in the range from 712 to 715 when they were transferred from the Midland to the Eastern System. +Table 1 – Class 7A builders, works numbers and renumberingBuilderWorksNo.YearCGRNo.IMR or BRNo.Imvani-Indweor SoldSARNo.Neilson5160 1897 347 BR 41015 Neilson5161 1897 348 BR 5Pauling & Co.Neilson5162 1897 349 BR 61016 Neilson5163 1897 350 BR 71017 Sharp Stewart 4145 1896 385 988 Sharp Stewart 4146 1896 386 C525989 Sharp Stewart 4147 1896 387 990 Sharp Stewart 4148 1896 388 991 Sharp Stewart 4149 1896 389 992 Sharp Stewart 4150 1896 390 993 Sharp Stewart 4151 1896 391 994 Sharp Stewart 4152 1896 392 995 Neilson4920 1896 393 996 Neilson4921 1896 394 997 Neilson4922 1896 395 998 Neilson4923 1896 396 C522999 Neilson4924 1896 397 1000 Neilson4925 1896 398 Pauling & Co.Dübs3355 1896 718 1001 Dübs3356 1896 719 1002 Dübs3357 1896 720 1003 Dübs3358 1896 721 1004 Dübs3359 1896 722 1005 Dübs3360 1896 723 C5271006 Neilson4926 1896 724 1007 Neilson4927 1896 725 1008 Neilson4928 1896 726 1009 Neilson4929 1896 727 C5261010 Neilson4930 1896 728 1011 Neilson4931 1896 729 1012 Dübs3643 1898 730 C5231018 Dübs3644 1898 731 1019 Dübs3645 1898 732 1020 Dübs3646 1898 733 1021 Dübs3647 1898 734 1022 Dübs3648 1898 735 1023 Dübs3649 1898 736 1024 Dübs3650 1898 737 1025 Dübs3651 1898 738 1026 Dübs3652 1898 739 1027 Dübs3361 1896 740 1013 Dübs3362 1896 741 1014 Sharp Stewart 4363 1898 742 EJ Byrne1028 Dübs3641 1898 743 Bradfield1029 Dübs3642 1898 744 Gardner Williams1030 Dübs3976 1901 758 1031

Service

South Africa The 7th Class series became the main goods locomotive class for the last twenty years of the existence of the CGR. In SAR service, the Class 7 series worked on every system in the country. Of this second batch of the Class, not all began their service lives on the CGR, and not all remained with the CGR until the SAR came into existence. In summary: Four originally began their service lives on the BR, between Vryburg in the Cape Colony and Bulawayo in Southern Rhodesia, and were eventually returned to the CGR and renumbered 347 to 350 for the Cape Midland. Four from the 1896 and one from the 1898 batches saw service with the IMR during the Second Boer War from 1899 to 1902, having been allocated to the IMR for the duration of the war. Two locomotives, numbers 348 and 398, were sold to Pauling and Company in 1909, for use during the construction of the Rhodesia Katanga Junction Railway (RKJR) in Northern Rhodesia. The RKJR purchased them from Paulings in 1910, after which they went to the Mashonaland Railway Company in 1928, and eventually to the RR in 1936. They retained their CGR engine numbers for their entire working lives, until they were scrapped by the RR in 1938. The Imvani-Indwe Railway's three 7th Class engines were taken onto the CGR roster and numbered 742 to 744 for service on the Eastern System, before the 1912 amalgamation into the SAR.

South West Africa

In 1915, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, the German South West Africa colony was occupied by the Union Defence Forces. Since a large part of the territory's railway infrastructure and rolling stock was destroyed or damaged by retreating German forces, an urgent need arose for locomotives for use on the Cape gauge lines in that territory. In 1917, numbers 1000 to 1002, 1005, 1006, 1017, 1019 and 1021 to 1024 were transferred to the Defence Department for service in South West Africa.Espitalier, T.J.; Day, W.A.J. (1947). The Locomotive in South Africa – A Brief History of Railway Development. Chapter VII – South African Railways (Continued). South African Railways and Harbours Magazine, December 1947. p. 1033.

These eleven locomotives remained in South West Africa after the war. They proved to be so successful in that territory, that more were gradually transferred there in later years. By the time the Class 24 locomotives arrived in SWA in 1949, 53 locomotives of the Class 7 family were still in use there.

Most remained there, and were only transferred back to South Africa when the Class 32-000 diesel-electric locomotives replaced them in 1961. In South Africa, they remained in branchline service until they were finally withdrawn in 1972.

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