page_title: 2-8-2+2-8-2
section_title: South Africa
hierarchical_section_title: 2-8-2+2-8-2 / Usage / South Africa
caption_attribution_description: English: SAR Class HF 1386 (2-8-2+2-8-2) Location: Durban Loco
context_page_description: Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, a 2-8-2+2-8-2 is an articulated locomotive using a pair of 2-8-2 power units back to back, with the boiler and cab suspended between them. The 2-8-2 wheel arrangement has a single pair of leading wheels in a leading truck, followed by four coupled pairs of driving wheels and a pair of trailing wheels in a trailing truck. Since the 2-8-2 type was known as Mikado, the corresponding Garratt and Modified Fairlie types were usually known as Double Mikado.
context_section_description: Between 1925 and 1931, the SAR placed eighteen 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) Cape gauge Class GE Garratts in service, all built by BP between 1924 and 1930. The first six entered service in 1925 and proved so successful that a second order for ten was placed in 1926. Another two locomotives entered service in 1931. All of them had Belpaire fireboxes, plate frames, Walschaerts valve gear and were superheated. The locomotive was an enlargement of the Class GD 2-6-2+2-6-2 Double Prairie and was designed as a heavy goods locomotive for use on light 60 pounds per yard (30 kilograms per metre) rail. They were the first eight-coupled Garratts to be built for the SAR and, on a tractive effort basis at the time of their introduction, they were the most powerful locomotives operating on light track in Africa and the Southern Hemisphere.
  In 1927, the SAR placed ten Class HF Modified Fairlie Double Mikados in service, followed by an eleventh one in 1928. The locomotive was designed by the SAR under the direction of Colonel F.R. Collins DSO, SAR Chief Mechanical Engineer from 1922 to 1929, and was built by Henschel & Son in 1926 and 1927, hence the designation of Class HF for "Henschel Fairlie". Designed for mainline work, it was the Modified Fairlie equivalent of the Class GE Garratt which was similar in both size and mechanical respects. It had Walschaerts valve gear, a bar frame and was superheated, with a round-topped firebox.
  The Class HF proved to be a powerful locomotive, but it was less successful than its Garratt equivalent. The pivot bearings were subject to quite rapid wear since they carried a considerable additional load compared to those on the Garratt, as a result of the water and coal bunkers which were mounted on the main frame instead of on the engine units. This resulted in increased maintenance and, as a consequence, increased operating cost. No more locomotives of the Modified Fairlie design were acquired by the SAR.
caption: SAR Class HF no. 1386, c. 1950
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