page_title: South African Class 25 4-8-4
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: South African Class 25 4-8-4 / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: L.C. Grubb, South African Railways Chief Mechanical Engineer (1949-1954)
context_page_description: The South African Railways Class 25 4-8-4 of 1953 was a condensing steam locomotive.
  Between 1953 and 1955, the South African Railways placed ninety Class 25 condensing steam locomotives with a 4-8-4 Northern type wheel arrangement in service. The Class 25NC which was placed in service at the same time was a non-condensing version of the Class 25 condenser.
context_section_description: Owing to the difficulties experienced to obtain adequate supplies of suitable water in arid regions like the Great Karoo between Touws River and Kimberley and from De Aar into South West Africa (SWA), the South African Railways (SAR) began to give serious consideration to the possibility of introducing condensing locomotives as far back as the late 1930s. At one time it was considered to convert Class 12A 4-8-2 locomotives to condensing engines, but the idea was not put into practice.
  Condensing locomotives were a rarity, but no novelty to South Africa, since the first condensing steam locomotives had already entered service in the Cape of Good Hope in the late nineteenth century. Between 1886 and 1888, three well-tank condensing locomotives with a 0-4-0 wheel arrangement were placed in service by the Cape Copper Mining Company on its Namaqualand Railway, a 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge line between Port Nolloth and O'okiep.
  On the SAR, it was only after World War II, that extensive condensing tests were carried out with the modified Class 20 locomotive. The approximately 90% water and 10% coal savings which were achieved during the tests with the Class 20 in the Eastern Transvaal and the Karoo in 1950 and 1951 led to the decision to proceed with the design of a new condensing locomotive.
  The result, the Class 25 4-8-4 Northern type condensing loco­motive, can be considered as the ultimate in SAR non-articulated steam loco­motive design. It was designed under the direction of L.C. Grubb, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the SAR from 1949 to 1954.
caption: L.C. Grubb
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