Grovenor Sidings, Railway Modelling Pages by Keith Norgrove
Home Page, Class 37, Warship, Layout, DMUsTurntable,  Garratts

African Garratts

This page hosts some pictures of the big engines I spent some enjoyable years working amongst in Zambia, one day I hope to model one or two! The Garratts bought by Rhodesia Railways were divided between Zambia Railways and the National Railways of Zimbabwe.

East African Railways 59 Class, Rhodesia Railways 20th Class, Rhodesia Railways 15th Class, Rhodesia Rlys 16A Class, South African Garratts, and one in India.

Click on the small pictures for a bigger view.

East African Railways 59 Class

Starting at the top we have the East African Railways 59 class 4-8-2+2-8-4, an oil fired powerhouse weighing in at 251t with a tractive effort of 83,350lbs.

G5910-1s.jpg (9378 bytes) Loco 5910 "Mount Hanang" arriving in Nairobi with a freight from Mombasa in 1970 G5910-2s.jpg (8792 bytes)

Rhodesia Railways 20th Class

Next in line are the big garratts of Rhodesia Railways/Zambia Railways the 20th and 20A classes of  4-8-2+2-8-4 pulling some 69333lbs from 225tons, measuring 95ft over couplers and fitted with an automatic stoker.

First in 1969 we see 725 in Kabwe yard.
Here's the front engine -- and the rear engine --
and the Cab area. 10ft 6inches wide over the cab on 3ft 6inches gauge Next have a look at 737  leaving Kitwe for Ndola in 1970
737 just getting on the move -- and approaching the 11th street level crossing. G737-6th.jpg (9746 bytes)
G702-1s.jpg (5989 bytes) Now in 1971loco 702 arriving in Choma here 711 takes on coal at the Choma coal siding G711-1s.jpg (11016 bytes)
G721-2s.jpg (9950 bytes) 721 in Choma yard while 722 and 712 wait for Southbound departures at Choma G722-1s.jpg (9155 bytes)
G738-1s.jpg (9103 bytes) 732 and 738 cross at Kaniki siding between Ndola and Kitwe in 1970 G732-1s.jpg (10934 bytes)
G733-1s.jpg (9400 bytes) Two views of 733 at Choma in 1971 G733-3s.jpg (8916 bytes)
G744-1s.jpg (15795 bytes) Northbound train arriving at Choma with 744 waiting. Two views of 758 on shunting duty at Kabwe yard in 1969. G758-2s.jpg (9000 bytes)
G758-3s.jpg (11826 bytes)
Moving to 1985 some fallen giants on the Livingstone scrap line, first 722 gently fading away, this was its 17th year on the scrap line, so far as I know its still there, certainly was in 1995. These two rear ends clearly show the only difference between the 20 and 20A classes, the size of the bogie wheels.
This one, parked without its driving wheels allows study of the bar frames. Livingstone Museum occupies the former Sawmills Railway sheds, here their 20A   waited attention in 1985.

Rhodesia Railways 15th Class

The 15th class Garratt was Rhodesia Railways mixed traffic mainstay, its large 4ft 9inch wheels giving it a good turn of speed on passenger duty.

401, Livingstone Museums 15A midway through its paint job in 1985. Whilst classmate 417 lives and breathes just over the river in Victoria Falls.
G401-1s.jpg (8616 bytes) In 1969 401 was still active  on shunting duty in Kabwe In 1971 a journey to Johannesburg found 407 at Victoria Falls  

G407-2s.jpg (15889 bytes)

G407-3s.jpg (10059 bytes) 407 taking water after arriving from Bulawayo
G407-1s.jpg (8388 bytes) And shunting out towards the Falls Bridge. The next day a 15th lifts the mail out of Bulawayo towards Botswana G15mail-2s.jpg (9830 bytes)
G15mail-3s.jpg (13753 bytes) These two pictures on the return journey show the 15 getting fired up and then making a crossing at a passing loop in train order territory in Botswana. Still in 1971. Whilst this one shows 366 waiting in the loop while we steam past on a similar crossing heading for Capetown in 1972 G366-1s.jpg (20927 bytes)
G15mail-5s.jpg (8750 bytes)

Rhodesia Rlys 16A Class

The 16A class 2-8-2+2-8-2 was a slightly smaller freight engine commonly used on the Copperbelt branch lines. A 2-8-2+2-8-2 the 16A weighs 169tons for a tractive effort of 58183lbs.

Here we see engine 623 at Mabote siding heading for Ndola in 1970. The next morning we find the same loco, with its proud fireman, preparing to leave Ndola with a freight back to Kitwe.
623 at Ndola
    And here is 623 at Kabwe after shopping in 1969 G623-1s.jpg (9137 bytes)

South African Garratts

GMAM-2s.jpg (10818 bytes) Heading for Johannesburg in 1971 the train had GMAM haulage from Mafeking to Krugersdorp GMAM-5s.jpg (10514 bytes)
GMAM-6s.jpg (11256 bytes) and the GMAM complete with auxiliary water tender came off at Krugersdorp to be rplaced by a 5E1 Electric. GMAM-8s.jpg (10537 bytes)
G-SAR-1s.jpg (23221 bytes) On the 1972 trip to Capetown we passed this older SAR Garratt as we approached the Cape.  

and one in India

A Bengal-Nagpur 2-8-0+0-8-2 Garratt rests in the Delhi Railway Museum, visited in 1980. Mus-7Gs.jpg (10103 bytes)

     And for the finale, Zambia Railways still has this 12th class 4-8-2 on active tourist duty, seen here in August 1998.

If you got this far and want to see more Garratts you will find them here.
Image7.jpg (17852 bytes) 

Return to homepage.

Copyright Keith Norgrove.
Last revised: January 8th, 2011