page_title: South African locomotive numbering and classification
section_title: Narrow gauge steam locomotives
hierarchical_section_title: South African locomotive numbering and classification / Narrow gauge steam locomotives
caption_attribution_description: English: SAR Class NG15 147 (2-8-2) number plate Builder's Number: Henschel 29588 Location: Avontuur, Western Cape
context_page_description: The Union of South Africa was established on 31 May 1910 in terms of the South Africa Act, which unified the former Cape Colony, Natal Colony and the two colonised former republics, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. One of the clauses in the Act required that the three Colonial Government railways, the Cape Government Railways, the Natal Government Railways and the Central South African Railways, also be united under one single administration to control and administer the railways, ports and harbours of the Union. While the South African Railways came into existence in 1910, the actual classification and renumbering of all the rolling stock of the three constituent railways required careful planning and was only implemented with effect from 1 January 1912.
context_section_description: Narrow 2 ft (610 mm) and 600 mm (1 ft 11 ⁵⁄₈ in) gauges locomotives were included in the SAR's 1912 numbering scheme and were allocated engine numbers with an "NG" prefix in order to distinguish them from Cape gauge locomotives which shared the same locomotive number, but a system of grouping narrow gauge locomotives into classes was only adopted somewhere between 1928 and 1930. These classifications were also prefixed with "NG", for example "Class NG1" or "Class NG15" for tank or tender locomotives, or "Class NG G16" for Garratts.
  The inscriptions on the number plates were not always in a consistent format. On Garratts, for example, the class could be found indicated as "Class NG G16", "Class NG/G16", "Class NGG16" or even simply as "Class NGG". Also, the engine number on the number plate was sometimes prefixed with the "NG", sometimes not.
caption: Number plate on Class NG15 147
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