South African type XF1 tender

Tenders were usually numbered for the engines they were delivered with. The ten Type XF1 tenders were built as spare tenders, suitable for use with a wide variety of serving engines, and were therefore not numbered for specific engines but in the tender number range from N37 to N46. The "N" number prefixes usually indicated non-revenue earning vehicles.^[1][2]

Since many tender types are interchangeable between different locomotive classes and types, a tender classification system was adopted by the SAR. The first letter of the tender type indicates the classes of engines to which it can be coupled. The "X_" tenders could be used with the following locomotive classes:^[2]

• Cape Government Railways Mountain, SAR Class 4.
• SAR Class 4A.
• SAR Class 5.
• Cape Government Railways 6th Class of 1897, SAR Class 6B.
• Oranje-Vrijstaat Gouwerment-Spoorwegen 6th Class L3, SAR Class 6E.
• Cape Government Railways 6th Class of 1901 (Neilson, Reid), SAR Class 6H.
• Cape Government Railways 6th Class of 1902, SAR Class 6J.
• Cape Government Railways 8th Class of 1902, SAR Class 8.
• Imperial Military Railways 8th Class, SAR Class 8A.
• Central South African Railways Class 8-L2, SAR Class 8B.
• Central South African Railways Class 8-L3, SAR Class 8C.
• Cape Government Railways 8th Class 4-8-0 of 1903, SAR Class 8D.
• Cape Government Railways 8th Class Experimental, SAR Class 8E.
• Cape Government Railways 8th Class 4-8-0 of 1904, SAR Class 8F.
• Cape Government Railways 8th Class 2-8-0 of 1903, SAR Class 8Y.
• Cape Government Railways 8th Class 2-8-0 of 1904, SAR Class 8Z.
• Central South African Railways Class 9, SAR Class 9.
• Central South African Railways Class 10, SAR Class 10.
• Central South African Railways Class 10-2 Saturated, SAR Class 10A.
• Central South African Railways Class 10-2 Superheated. SAR Class 10B.
• Central South African Railways Class 10-C, SAR Class 10C.
• Central South African Railways Class 11, SAR Class 11.
• Cape Government Railways 9th Class of 1903, SAR Class Experimental 4.
• Cape Government Railways 9th Class of 1906, SAR Class Experimental 5.
• Cape Government Railways 10th Class, SAR Class Experimental 6.
• SAR Class ME.
• Central South African Railways Mallet Superheated, SAR Class MF.

The second letter indicates the tender's water capacity. The "_F" tenders had a capacity of 3,000 imperial gallons (13,600 litres; 3,600 US gallons).^[2]

A number, when added after the letter code, indicates differences between similar tender types, such as function, wheelbase or coal bunker capacity.^[2]