South African class ME
South Africa 1912 1 produced
The class ME No. 1618 was a single 2-6-6-2 Mallet built by North British in 1912. It was an experiment to get a powerful locomotive for branch lines with light rails. It received a superheater and had a relatively low boiler pressure, but was the SAR's only Mallet with simple expansion. It was actually successful in service and with an axle load of 9 tons 18 cwt, it could be used virtually anywhere. But 1618 remained the only one and later Mallets were compounds again. In its last years, it was used on the Eastern Transvaal Lowveld and was scrapped in 1937.
Technical data
General
- Built
- 1912
- Manufacturers
- North British
- Wheel arrangement
- 2-6-6-2 (Mallet Mogul)
- Gauge
- 1,067 mm (Cape gauge)
Dimensions and weights
- Length
- 20.30 m
- Wheelbase
- 11.66 m
- Total wheelbase
- 17.82 m
- Service mass
- 73.3 t
- Adhesion mass
- 60.4 t
- Total mass
- 111.5 t
- Rigid wheelbase
- 2.59 m
- Axle load
- 10.1 t
- Water capacity
- 13,639 l
- Fuel capacity
- 6.1 t (coal)
Boiler
- Grate area
- 2.973 m²
- Firebox surface
- 10.684 m²
- Tube heating surface
- 124.49 m²
- Evaporative heating surface
- 135.174 m²
- Superheater surface
- 32.144 m²
- Total heating surface
- 167.3 m²
Power plant
- Driver diameter
- 1,073 mm
- Boiler pressure
- 11.7 bar
- Expansion type
- simple expansion
- Cylinders
- four, 381 x 584 mm
Power
- Power source
- steam
- Estimated power
- 783 kW (1,065 PS)
- Starting effort
- 157.5 kN
Calculated values
- Factor of adhesion
- 1 : 3.76
- Optimal speed
- 31 km/h
- Power-to-weight ratio
- 10.7 kW/t
- Heating Surface Equivalent
- 252.9 m²
- Cylinder volume/HSE
- 1 : 1,053.52
- Adhesive weight/Total
- 1 : 1.21
- Tractive force/Heating surface
- 1 : 19.65
- Grate area/Heating surface
- 1 : 56.28
- Firebox/Tube surface
- 1 : 11.65
- Total/Superheater
- 1 : 4.21
