South African Class MJ 2-6-6-0
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SAR Class MJ no. 1651, c. 1914 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The South African Railways Class MJ 2-6-6-0 of 1914 was a class of articulated steam locomotives.
Between 1914 and 1921, the South African Railways placed eighteen Class MJ Mallet articulated compound steam locomotives with a 2-6-6-0 wheel arrangement in branch line service.[1][2][3][4]
The Class MJ 2-6-6-0 Mallet articulated compound steam locomotive was designed by D.A. Hendrie, Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the South African Railways (SAR) from 1910 to 1922, to meet the need for engines with a higher tractive effort to cope with heavy traffic on branch lines.[1][2][4]

Ten of these branch line locomotives were ordered from Maffei of Munich but, as a result of the outbreak of the First World War, only two could be delivered from Germany in 1914, numbered 1651 and 1652.[1][2][4]
The order for the remaining eight was then transferred to the North British Locomotive Company (NBL) in Scotland, who delivered them in 1917 and 1918, numbered in the range from 1653 to 1660. The entry for the Mallets in the NBL works register shows them as ordered on 20 April 1915 and delivered from February to March 2016. Those dates are probably ex works dates rather than actual delivery dates.[1][2][4][5][6]
After cessation of hostilities in 1918, Maffei approached the SAR and requested that the balance of the original order, which had been built in 1914 but could not be delivered because of the war, also be accepted. These eight locomotives were delivered in 1921, numbered in the range from 1674 to 1681.[1][2][4][7]
Characteristics
The locomotives had Walschaerts valve gear and were superheated, using the Schmidt type superheater. Unlike most of the other SAR Mallet classes, which had round-topped fireboxes, the Class MJ had Belpaire fireboxes. The four cylinders were arranged outside the 4 inches (102 millimetres) thick bar frames.[1][2][4]
The locomotives were delivered with Type MP1 tenders with a coal capacity of 10 long tons (10.2 tonnes) and a water capacity of 4,250 imperial gallons (19,300 litres). The same tender was used by altogether fifteen other SAR locomotive Classes.[2][3]
Reboilering
During 1939, while W.A.J. Day was the CME of the SAR, the Classes MJ and MJ1 were modified slightly to be reboilered with the same standard boiler, once again with Belpaire fireboxes.[2]