Cape Government Railways Kitson-Meyer

In 1903, Kitson presented their variant of the Meyer locomotive in South Africa in which the running gears were further apart and both had the cylinders at the rear. Thus, as with the Garratt, a large firebox could be placed in between. This design, named “Kitson-Meyer”, was offered for testing to the GCR, the Beira and Mashonaland Railway and the CSAR.

The coal bunker with a capacity of seven long tons was on these machines on the main frame behind the cab and the exhaust steam from the rear cylinders was channeled through this into an auxiliary chimney. On the four-axle tender were another six long tons of coal and 3,000 gallons of water.

The CGR received one locomotive, the B&MR two and the CSAR one. With a total of six driving axles, they could pull about one third more than locomotives with four driving axles. However, it quickly turned out to be a disadvantage that the exhaust steam from the rear cylinders did not escape through the smokebox. Thus, the boiler steamed poorly.

The CGR later increased the tender's water capacity to 4,000 gallons at the expense of coal capacity, but of course this did not improve boiler performance. Although they were to become the KM class at the SAR, the CGR and B&MR locomotives were retired in 1912. Only the CSAR loco was able to remain in service for a few more years after modifying the cylinders and reducing the boiler problem.